Our Round Earth : What It's Like (1971)

[Music] what is the earth like in a city it seems like the Earth is covered with [Music] concrete in a suburb much of the Earth seems to be covered with [Music] grass in the woods the Earth seems to be covered with [Music] trees along an ocean well you can see that our view of the earth depends a lot on where we are [Music] the Earth is so big we see only a small part of it from any one place on the ground let's see if we can get a better view of what the Earth is like [Music] from way up high The Horizon the line where the Earth and Sky meet looks straight it almost seems as though the Earth is flat yet we know it isn't because we've seen what the earth looks like from even farther away the Horizon looks slightly curved now from out in space we see the Earth as a giant ball something like a globe on a globe it's easy to see large masses of land and water from a spaceship we also see large masses of land and water which do you suppose there's more of water or land on a globe we can tell more easily because there are no clouds to block our view much of the Earth is hidden by clouds clouds are part of the Earth's atmosphere atmosphere that's what we call the mass of air that surrounds the Earth it gives off a blue glow in the sunlight from the earth we see it as Blue Sky is the atmosphere important would you want to live on a planet without an atmosphere clouds we know are part of the atmosphere clouds are made up of millions upon millions of tiny droplets of water when these droplets get big and heavy they fall as rain rain provides water needed by plants plants also need gases from the atmosphere do people need gases from the atmosphere what about animals do animals breathe gases from the atmosphere what else does the atmosphere have to do with things on the [Music] earth the atmosphere acts upon other parts of the Earth on the land and on the water movements in the air cause movements in the water much of the Earth surface is covered by large bodies of water the [Music] oceans you can probably think of all kinds of animals that live in the ocean if you've ever swam in ocean water you know that it's salty you can feel it in your eyes ocean water is called salt water do you know what this kind of water is called water in a pond or lake is fresh water this is fresh water [Music] too so is [Music] this water is not always liquid when it gets very cold it freezes forming ice or [Music] snow peaks of tall mountains are usually capped with ice and snow even ocean water freezes forming pack ice but most ocean water stays liquid even in parts of the Earth where the weather is cold throughout the year While most of the Earth is covered by water the part we're more familiar with is dry land there are more people living on some parts of the land than on other others many people live and work on this land fewer people live on this land not many people live on this land and almost no one lives here looking across the surface of the Earth we get a good idea of what it's like on the outside what about inside the earth below the surface what does the Earth look like where the surface has been cut away miners dig into the Earth for materials such as coal and iron but mostly what they find is rock rock that seems to go down as far as they can dig a volcano can give us a clue as to what it's like even deeper inside the earth a volcano is formed from lava lava is rock rock that has become so hot it flows like a liquid The Rock comes from deep inside the Earth this gives us an idea of what the inside of the earth might be like scientists believe that if we could cut the Earth open to look we would find that it's made up of layers something like this the outer layer of the Earth made of the solid rock we have seen is just a few miles thick it's called the Earth's crust below the crust is another layer which is much thicker called the Mattel the Mattel is believed to be made of heavier rock below the mattle is the Earth's core scientist s think that much of the core may be made up of molten rock rock so hot that it has melted something like the lava we saw but no one has ever seen the inside of the earth and scientists do not all agree on exactly what the inside of the earth is like they need more information to help them decide there is much yet to learn much yet to find out about what the Earth is like like below its surface there is much yet to find out about the large part that's [Music] underwater many parts of the oceans have yet to be explored the same goes for the Earth's atmosphere men are still exploring and studying the round earth learning more about what it's like [Applause] [Music]