The Earth is quasi spherical in shape and not flat.

Thank You... ++++++"as my waiter serves me your butt on a silver platter"++++++++ It Is A Very Indecent Statement.... 1]During lunar eclipses, the projected shadow of the earth on the moon is always round. If the earth were flat, then this projection will not always be circular (it could degenerate to a line!). But this is never observed, regardless of the time of the lunar eclipse. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote about this. 2]When ships put out to see, they sink below the horizon gradually. First the hull goes down, then the masts, like so: o -+- | . / \ . . . . . / . here you can still see the mast . |\ / but the hull is below the horizon \ \/ This suggests that the Earth's surface curves away and downward from wherever you stand. It's hard to observe this effect on land, because mountains and trees and so forth get in the way when something moves away from you before it dips below the horizon. 3] If you climb higher, you can see further. On top of a mountain or lighthouse, or in an airplane, you can see things that are invisible -- below the horizon -- when you are on the ground. For example, if you watch the Sun set, and at the very moment when the Sun is just below the horizon you climb quickly up a hundred feet, you will see the Sun again. It is hard to explain why you can see further when you climb higher unless the Earth's surface curves downward away from you wherever you stand. 4]The Earth casts a shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse. The shadow is round. 5] When the Sun is directly overhead in any place, it is NOT directly overhead at the same time in any place a few hundred miles away: Sun's rays are parallel because the Sun is very far away. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | V V V V V V V V V V V V V V V this stick || casts no || shadow || this stick || casts a shadow . . . . // . . //. . . //... //.... . EARTH .... ... If you were to put a stick in the ground sticking straight up at noon in New York City, then telephone a friend in Chicago to ask him to also put a stick in the ground sticking straight up, he would see a shadow, and you would not. This is hard to explain unless ``straight up' (away from the Earth's surface) points in different directions when you are at different places on the Earth's surface. That is, the Earth is not flat. 6]If you travel North, you can see stars at night which you never saw before. Since there are so many stars, you only need to travel a hundred miles or so. The new stars are stars that were hidden below the horizon before you walked North. How could this be true if the Earth were flat? 7]There are tides in the oceans, which you can see at the shore, that repeat every 24 hours or so. If the Earth were flat, then there would be no tides, because the tides depend on their being a substantial distance between the near and far sides of the Earth, from the point of view of the Moon. This is kind of complicated, however. 8]Observation of the Earth from outside the planet shows it to be round, nearly spherical. 9]By the way, if you look at the stars, the sun, and the moon, you do not see any of them to be non-round. Since you observe them at different times and from different angles, it seems plausible to say that they are round. Why should the Earth be an exception? {http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov...}