What is the most amazing/awesome fact about the Earth?

I'll give an actual tidbit this time.

When viewing our solar system from a distance, Earth would be the brightest planet, even though it is far from the largest. This is because the sunlight better reflects off of the water on Earth.

Mover wrote:

When viewing our solar system from a distance, Earth would be the brightest planet, even though it is far from the largest. This is because the sunlight better reflects off of the water on Earth.

I don't think so:

"The average overall albedo of Earth, its planetary albedo, is 30 to 35%, because of the covering by clouds, but varies widely locally across the surface, depending on the geological and environmental features."

By contrast:

"Venus has the highest albedo of any planet in our solar system. Venus is so bright partly because it reflects over 70 percent of sunlight striking it. It owes its reflective ability to the fact that it’s blanketed with clouds. Sunlight bouncing from these clouds is what makes Venus so bright.

. . .

"The clouds in the atmosphere of Venus contain droplets of sulfuric acid – one of the eye-stinging ingredients in our urban smog – as well as acidic crystals suspended in a mixture of gases. Light bounces easily off the smooth surfaces of these spheres and crystals. That’s one reason the clouds of Venus are so good at reflecting light."

Venus is virtually the same size as Earth; is closer to the Sun (hence receives more sunlight per unit area); and has roughly twice the albedo of Earth.

All else being equal, then, an observer from outside our system would find Venus brighter than Earth. Whether Venus would also be brighter than all of the gas giants, I simply don't know; but in any case Earth is certainly not the brightest of our system's planets.

The Earth has creatures like the American Golden Plover. This small bird flies over 25,000 miles from its breeding habitat in Norther Canada and Alaska to its winter home in Southern South America. 2,400 miles of the journey are flown straight, without rest over open water.

Mover wrote:

I'll give an actual tidbit this time.

When viewing our solar system from a distance, Earth would be the brightest planet, even though it is far from the largest. This is because the sunlight better reflects off of the water on Earth.

This ^ would be totally cool if it were true. Unfortunately it is false. It is a fallacy built upon another fallacy built upon yet another fallacy.

(1) Sunlight does NOT reflect well off of the water of the earth. It reflects much better off the clouds, deserts and ice caps. The oceans reflect sunlight worse than the earth as a whole

source:

(2) The earth as a whole does NOT reflect sunlight particularly well.

The planets' albedo (fraction of light that is reflected off the surface) is as follows:

Mercury: 0.106

Venus: 0.65

Earth: 0.367

Mars: 0.25

Jupiter: 0.52

Saturn: 0.47

Uranus: 0.51

Neptune: 0.41

So, earth is below average among the planets in reflecting sunlight.

(3) Finally, the overall brightness (amount of sunlight reflected) can be calculated as follows:

The amount of sunlight that hits each planet is proportional to the square of its diameter and inversely proportional to the square of its distance from the sun. Using the amount of light that hits earth as the unit, the planets get hit by the following amounts of sunlight:

Mercury: 0.88

Venus: 1.84

Earth: 1.00

Mars: 0.12

Jupiter: 4.63

Saturn: 1.0

Uranus: 0.04

Neptune: 0.017

Multiplying these values by the planets' albedo yields the following relative brightnesses of the planets as viewed from a distance:

Mercury: 0.09

Venus: 1.20

Earth: 0.37

Mars: 0.03

Jupiter: 2.4

Saturn: 0.47

Uranus: 0.02

Neptune: 0.007

So, the earth is the 4th brightest planet with Jupiter being 6 times as bright as poor little earth.

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Woulda been cool though.

Precious Roy wrote:

The Earth has creatures like the American Golden Plover. This small bird flies over 25,000 miles from its breeding habitat in Norther Canada and Alaska to its winter home in Southern South America. 2,400 miles of the journey are flown straight, without rest over open water.

Cool fact. But not entirely true. The circumference of the planet earth is just a bit less than 25,000 miles. So, unless that plover takes a really circuitous route it is not flying over 25,000 miles to get from Northern Canada to Southern South America.

"Humans poop 14 trillion times day."

Meaning each human averages over 2,300 poops per day?

The Earth rotates about its axis at approximately 1000 miles per hour. To get an appreciation for this, go to your local high school track and run a lap around it as fast as you can. If you happen to set the world record in doing so, you are still about 978 miles per hour slower than the Earth.

Malamute wrote:

The Earth rotates about its axis at approximately 1000 miles per hour. To get an appreciation for this, go to your local high school track and run a lap around it as fast as you can. If you happen to set the world record in doing so, you are still about 978 miles per hour slower than the Earth.

Which pretty much answers all those treadmill questions if one stops and thinks about it.

If you were to drop a bowling ball and a golf ball out of an airplane flying at altitude, the golf ball would increase in total mass by the time it landed, and the bowling ball would decrease in mass. By the time the two hit ground, the bowling ball would be as small as the golf was originially, and the golf ball will be as large as the bowling ball originally was.

georgeo wrote:

If you were to drop a bowling ball and a golf ball out of an airplane flying at altitude, ...

As opposed to an airplane flying at no altitude?

Anyway, your so-called fact is obviously BS. Maybe you have mass confused with acceleration or something.

another banned poster wrote:

georgeo wrote:

If you were to drop a bowling ball and a golf ball out of an airplane flying at altitude, ...

As opposed to an airplane flying at no altitude?

Anyway, your so-called fact is obviously BS. Maybe you have mass confused with acceleration or something.

No, mass. It increases in its overall mass

another banned poster wrote:

georgeo wrote:

If you were to drop a bowling ball and a golf ball out of an airplane flying at altitude, ...

As opposed to an airplane flying at no altitude?

Also, this was seriously dumb on your part. You've never heard of a plane flying "at altitude"?

georgeo wrote:

If you were to drop a bowling ball and a golf ball out of an airplane flying at altitude, the golf ball would increase in total mass by the time it landed, and the bowling ball would decrease in mass. By the time the two hit ground, the bowling ball would be as small as the golf [ball] was [originally], and the golf ball will be as large as the bowling ball originally was.

I'm a longtime member of this site. My name is registered. I hereby aver, with the BrosJo and other mods as my witnesses, that I will pay you $10,000 (ten thousand American dollars) if you can present credible evidence of a demonstration of this "fact."

I would think that the $10,000 would more than offset your expenses in hiring a plane to fly "at altitude"; in purchasing a bowling ball and a golf ball (even a few of each, just in case they're not found upon landing); and in gaining permission to use a suitable drop zone.

Please bump this thread when you're ready to claim your reward.

HUMANS CRAP 14 BILLION TIMES A DAY!!!

OMG!!!! WE ARE CRAP MACHINES!!

Toxic Avenger wrote:

Aghast wrote:

It takes over a 100,000 years for light to get from the core of the sun to the earth's surface.

That isn't about the earth, nimrod.

It's not about Earth, and isn't even right. It takes millions of years.

t94bell wrote:

Toxic Avenger wrote:

That isn't about the earth, nimrod.

It's not about Earth, and isn't even right. It takes millions of years.

So..."millions" is not "over a 100,000"?

How's that again?

Nope Nope wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

The Earth has creatures like the American Golden Plover. This small bird flies over 25,000 miles from its breeding habitat in Norther Canada and Alaska to its winter home in Southern South America. 2,400 miles of the journey are flown straight, without rest over open water.

Cool fact. But not entirely true. The circumference of the planet earth is just a bit less than 25,000 miles. So, unless that plover takes a really circuitous route it is not flying over 25,000 miles to get from Northern Canada to Southern South America.

I think he meant 2,500, just a typo man.

Everything on Earth was made several billion years ago in the cores of stars. The planet wouldn't be here (at least in the form that it is today) if it weren't for the fact that supernovae back in the day created the heavy elements and spread them around the galaxy. Earth and everything on it=star stuff

Once you get married you will never have sex again unless it's to reproduce.