What is Sea Level?

Published on YouTube Nov 25, 2013: FREE FACT: An oblate […]

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Climate State

Date Posted:

November 27, 2013

Published on YouTube Nov 25, 2013: FREE FACT: An oblate spheroid is a special case of an ellipsoid where two of the semi-principal axes are the same size.

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Climate State covers the broad spectrum of climate change, and the solutions, since around 2011 with the focus on the sciences. Views expressed on this site or on social media are not necessarily the views by Climate State – we endorse data, facts, empirical evidence.

107 Comments

  1. sandis550 November 25, 2013 at 7:13 pm - Reply

    THANK YOU FOR A NON 10 SECOND VIDEO!!!!

  2. Henry Reich November 25, 2013 at 7:20 pm - Reply

    When we say Mt. Everest is 8850m tall, how do we know what sea level would
    be beneath the mountain? NEW VIDEO!

  3. dewinthemorning November 25, 2013 at 7:27 pm - Reply

    Wow! I never would have thought how much work has gone into this seemingly
    intuitively simple concept – sea level!

    Scientists of all kinds – the uncelebrated heroes of our civilization, just
    doing their work.

  4. Marv3Lthe1 November 25, 2013 at 7:28 pm - Reply

    This is amazing and how these videos should be. Imagine a 10 second video
    which only says “Seal level is measured by scientists calculating gravity
    if the mountain is not there. this calculation is programmed into GPS
    satellites”

  5. zone07 November 25, 2013 at 7:42 pm - Reply

    The only thing that stuck was that Gravity was stronger or weaker at
    different points on the earth. Quick tell me where gravity is weakest so
    that I can take my wife there have her step on a scale and tell her, “See
    honey, you’re not fat!!!”

  6. Paul Baker November 25, 2013 at 8:16 pm - Reply

    I don’t think I’ve ever put that much thought into sea level before. My
    mind is kind of blown by this.

  7. Dr. BEES November 25, 2013 at 10:15 pm - Reply

    What if there was an identical version of mount Everest, but made of
    osmium. Since it would have more of a pull on the water wouldn’t that make
    its sea-level higher, and therefor shorter even though its identical.

  8. Jonathan Stewart November 25, 2013 at 10:56 pm - Reply

    I remember my father, a physicist, explaining this to me as a kid. He used
    the geodetic model in his job, writing targeting programs for
    intercontinental ballistic missiles.

  9. TheScholesie09 November 26, 2013 at 12:31 am - Reply

    Where do you take it’s base from? Sea level as defined by without gravity?
    Sea level with gravity? The sea floor ( which is so variable it is useless
    to measure against ) or the centre of the earth? (Which has more to do with
    the region then the mountain itself)

  10. TheScholesie09 November 26, 2013 at 12:31 am - Reply

    Well it’s about more of the physics behind sea level, than facts about the
    planet

  11. Bill Lozano November 26, 2013 at 12:33 am - Reply

    Sea level is not the same everyplace?

  12. thejuniorinho November 26, 2013 at 2:11 am - Reply

    Isn’t this more minuteearth content? Either way really cool video!

  13. thejuniorinho November 26, 2013 at 2:11 am - Reply

    Isn’t this more minuteearth content? Either way really cool video!

  14. Xptechmike nosehairextractorguy November 26, 2013 at 3:13 am - Reply

    Pesky continents moving around on the earth’s surface? Everything was
    pretty awesome, up to that little error. Continents don’t move around. The
    water does. Land masses spread apart as the earth is growing bigger and
    bigger. But that’s another story. Otherwise, GREAT JOB! This is the best
    explanation of the controversial sea level issue, on earth. Literally. This
    makes history.

  15. RedKB November 26, 2013 at 6:04 am - Reply

    There is so much I don’t know that I wish I did. Thanks for making it one
    thing less.

  16. TrainzXtreme November 26, 2013 at 12:24 pm - Reply

    Longer video=great! Thanks!

  17. Jake Long November 26, 2013 at 12:52 pm - Reply

    Awesome video. Just one question: shouldn’t this be on the MinuteEarth
    channel?

  18. themplar November 26, 2013 at 1:41 pm - Reply

    my mind is blown…..

  19. La Biología te hará libre (LBTHL) November 26, 2013 at 4:29 pm - Reply

    Great video! Would you tell me how do you make your animations?

  20. Ann Le {Anneorshine} November 26, 2013 at 6:44 pm - Reply

    Whoa….very thought provoking. Didn’t realize how much of an elipsoid the
    earth was.

  21. Matheus Eichelberger November 27, 2013 at 12:15 am - Reply

    Aren’t human beings such awesomely curious creatures?

  22. Robert Ibeh November 27, 2013 at 12:58 am - Reply

    Waaay over my head.

  23. Adam Singer November 27, 2013 at 3:20 am - Reply

    Great visual explanation of Sea Level (in case you didn’t already know).

  24. Danny Sullivan November 27, 2013 at 3:44 am - Reply

    Great visual explanation of Sea Level (in case you didn’t already know).

  25. Ilya Grigorik November 27, 2013 at 6:42 am - Reply

    I don’t think I’ve ever put that much thought into sea level before. My
    mind is kind of blown by this.

  26. DanseMARKabre November 27, 2013 at 11:48 am - Reply

    I did not understand your free fact. -_-

  27. Earth Touch November 28, 2013 at 5:57 am - Reply

    Just when you thought it was simple …

  28. tiesthijsthejs November 28, 2013 at 11:11 am - Reply

    Funny how all these new media creations promote the old media they are
    supported by. Is there anyone under 20 still reading? You know, paper (or
    in this case: vocals) containing information that requires attention spans
    way over a minute, without providing visual input.
    (I’m old(er), so I’m allowed to be a slow fart!)

  29. Klaus Balzano November 29, 2013 at 5:21 am - Reply
  30. Lasse Kärkkäinen November 30, 2013 at 5:12 am - Reply

    Defining what the sea level is might not be as simple as you think. This
    three-minute video is most educational. Skip a few kitten pics today and
    learn some geodesy instead.

  31. SpazldNinjaDude December 7, 2013 at 9:29 pm - Reply

    Never knew that. Very awsem!

  32. AwkwardHandshaking December 14, 2013 at 2:25 am - Reply

    I did not realize that it was so complicated, i never thought it would take
    a bunch if brilliant people to figure it out

  33. Thestankfish AKA Doge December 16, 2013 at 5:24 pm - Reply

    Shouldn’t this be on MinuteEarth?

  34. Eric Peterson December 18, 2013 at 5:17 pm - Reply

    Everytime I watch these videos, I end up with more questions than answers.
    Which is *exactly* why I love these videos!!

  35. Julian Sammy December 18, 2013 at 5:54 pm - Reply

    This is the most informative MinutePhysics I have seen. 100m differences in
    sea level due to gravitic variations? I think I said ‘Wow!” and “That’s
    wild!” half a dozen times while watching.

  36. Yeti Snoopy December 18, 2013 at 8:08 pm - Reply

    Okay, love the info, but dude talk a little slower! For some of us english
    is a second language and it’s hard to keep up with all this new information
    thrown at us! We gotta understand too mate :P

  37. Leelee E December 18, 2013 at 11:08 pm - Reply

    I seriously love this channel. If I teach physical science again I will use
    the videos as part of my class. This particular one will be used in my
    Earth science class next year.

  38. Icarus Pyrrhos December 19, 2013 at 3:54 am - Reply

    i can read chinese do you mind putting the free fact in english please

  39. bestsnowboarderuknow December 20, 2013 at 1:40 am - Reply

    *nice*

  40. Stephanie Liu December 22, 2013 at 7:02 am - Reply

    There are so many things I wasn’t aware of in this seemingly straight
    forward concept.

  41. Nicolas Sauvage December 26, 2013 at 2:34 pm - Reply

    Ok, this is really not as obvious as I thought! I guess 99% would answer
    incorrectly on how this is calculated even if they had one hour to think
    about it.

  42. xtension xward January 1, 2014 at 4:28 am - Reply

    this is genius stuff give me some more sea level shit !

  43. Gary Moore January 10, 2014 at 12:35 am - Reply

    Aren’t ya glad you don’t have to do this kind of math to figure out what
    pattern altitude you should use :)

  44. Mike Totman January 10, 2014 at 1:50 am - Reply

    Not as simple as I thought.

  45. Demetris Genov January 12, 2014 at 12:58 am - Reply

    So… what is sea level?

  46. Philmore James January 12, 2014 at 5:39 am - Reply

    I like this but that’s to fast

  47. SelfishNeuron January 12, 2014 at 9:47 pm - Reply

    wow!

  48. purgruv January 13, 2014 at 12:42 am - Reply

    Sea level, how does it work?

  49. Ankur Kini January 13, 2014 at 4:02 am - Reply

    do you first speak and then fast forward that a lill bit?

  50. Chad Sideris January 14, 2014 at 8:25 am - Reply

    I feel like your voice changed, and it is hard for me to get used to. I am
    not sure why this is just now on my subs.

  51. Myrrh Larsen January 14, 2014 at 8:44 pm - Reply

    Sometimes, a simple-seeming thing is really, really not.

  52. Great Big Bore January 16, 2014 at 7:17 am - Reply

    Fascinating and astonishing. Thanks so much!

  53. CGTHOGBIABNTYSF January 22, 2014 at 7:17 pm - Reply

    This kinda blows my mind.

  54. Adam Fox January 22, 2014 at 7:26 pm - Reply

    This was a lot more complicated then I thought it would be 0.o

  55. Leonardo Cardenas January 22, 2014 at 10:58 pm - Reply

    Chimborazo rules!!!

  56. Liam Hazzard January 22, 2014 at 11:35 pm - Reply

    binary

  57. Benjamin Boland January 23, 2014 at 2:46 am - Reply

    Thumbs up if you’re studying geodesy currently!

  58. T. Clawzer January 23, 2014 at 5:10 am - Reply

    O__O huh

  59. Kickasso January 23, 2014 at 1:40 pm - Reply

    So if the earth keeps spinning, will it become flat?

  60. Russell Subedi January 23, 2014 at 7:20 pm - Reply

    The 100 1s and 0s in hexadecimal: 930AAD5B2B6DA9D9622F3DCF2
    I think it’s pretty much random

  61. VJ Goofy January 23, 2014 at 7:52 pm - Reply

    Chimborazo rocks!!!

  62. Cuasimodo2372 January 24, 2014 at 2:21 am - Reply

    What if you were at the bottom of Everest, that would be below sea level?

  63. duncandrake January 27, 2014 at 11:48 am - Reply

    It’s a nice topic to discuss over dinner with your friends to show them how
    smart you are.
    Or at school, to have your head dipped in the toilet by the jocks -.-

  64. Greg Scott January 28, 2014 at 12:06 am - Reply

    Seems to me to make more sense to measure height above sea level against a
    uniform theoretical oblate spheroid of the seas rather than a theoretical
    sea level accounting for gravity, at least for mountains. Why, for
    example, would we have any interest in the height of Everest from a
    theoretical gravity-influenced sea? The idea would be to have measurements
    of two places that are more unambiguously comparable rather than to have to
    correct for the effects of gravity on water that is not there.

  65. Drake Simon January 31, 2014 at 3:16 pm - Reply

    I cant tell wether or not the ones and zeros mean anything because i dont
    know how many bits run on it or if its talking about certain gravitational
    forces on points of the earth

  66. James Conlon January 31, 2014 at 8:12 pm - Reply

    mind. blown.

  67. Jimmy E February 1, 2014 at 11:10 am - Reply

    Science is a lot more interesting now that I’ve been out of high school for
    a few years and no longer study it as a subject.

  68. Alitoh February 2, 2014 at 6:13 pm - Reply

    The only thing that nags me a little bit is the fact that he says ‘Earth is
    so non-spherical’. Sure, it is not a perfect sphere, but it is not by such
    a small margin considering the fucking ridiculous magnitude of it that it
    seems silly to later present Earth as an insanely irregular object.

  69. Rashid S. February 2, 2014 at 8:54 pm - Reply

    Excellent!

  70. Blane Daze February 3, 2014 at 6:06 am - Reply

    In around 0:35 and 0:40, you said due to Earth is spinning, the equator
    side is thrown out and polar sides are squashed in. I thought that Earth
    may one day become totally flat due to the effect… Until I realized that
    it would turn into debris before that even occured…

  71. satonthewall February 4, 2014 at 4:47 am - Reply

    Calculating the height of the ocean from the gravitational model gives us
    our estimate for the sea level. Then, will global warming (with the melting
    glaciers) cause the sea level to rise enough such that it needs to be
    adjusted?

  72. Ivan Krolo February 6, 2014 at 7:48 pm - Reply

    This video does a good job of explaining sea level and how complicated it
    can actually be.

  73. Kenneth Skertchly February 8, 2014 at 6:40 pm - Reply
  74. slacky00 February 10, 2014 at 6:33 pm - Reply

    I’m from Sri Lanka and I did not know that. Now I feel light-headed.

  75. nfb7777 February 11, 2014 at 10:56 pm - Reply

    It’s nice to know people a lot smarter than me are doing extremely
    complicated things to make my life more convenient, even if it’s just the
    sea level.

  76. DerpingTroller February 15, 2014 at 10:46 am - Reply

    I use this to fall asleep.

  77. Peter Carlson February 16, 2014 at 4:21 am - Reply

    One of the best of his videos

  78. Tridecalogism February 16, 2014 at 4:49 am - Reply

    Charlie Epps would know if it was random or not.

  79. NoxuzBlog February 16, 2014 at 4:52 am - Reply

    MY HEAD!!! IT HURTSS

  80. Jimmy E February 17, 2014 at 12:27 pm - Reply

    Hey wait a minute….if a kilogram or pound is defined as a weight which
    goes hand-in-hand with gravity, and gravity changes over different areas of
    the Earth, wouldn’t that mean that the kilogram can vary slightly? I know
    that the ‘official kilogram model’ is kept in Paris somewhere, but it would
    change slightly when copies of this are distributed around the world. The
    change would be barely discernable for the normal person, but there would
    be some difference.

  81. cilvrado February 17, 2014 at 9:21 pm - Reply

    After seeing this, it’s almost a wonder that the GPS works so well.

  82. Peter Pan February 19, 2014 at 10:41 pm - Reply

    science bitch!!

  83. First 1 February 21, 2014 at 12:28 am - Reply

    Unless � «VÊÛjvX�Ïs2 isn’t gibberish, it is random.

  84. Andre Engelbrecht February 22, 2014 at 2:52 pm - Reply
  85. Terdle February 27, 2014 at 2:02 pm - Reply

    So mass creates gravity?

  86. Josh S. March 1, 2014 at 7:41 pm - Reply

    Wow. Go geodesists. That’s impressive

  87. Daniel Ely Rankin March 12, 2014 at 2:03 am - Reply

    sooo good. #physics #sealevel

  88. Nicolas Mallory March 13, 2014 at 12:37 am - Reply

    I knew the question “What is sea level?” was more complicated than first
    assumed, but I didn’t even consider some of these.

  89. GoldenKnight816 March 16, 2014 at 7:42 am - Reply

    2:42 in the morning. Cant… Stop… Watching… MINUTEPHYSICS!!!!!! D:

  90. Looping Ropals March 20, 2014 at 1:33 am - Reply

    329 people hate ovals

  91. Ulises M. Alvarez March 20, 2014 at 5:49 am - Reply

    What is sea level and how is determined.
    Video: +MinutePhysics

  92. Alex Martin March 24, 2014 at 5:00 pm - Reply

    Shouldn’t this by a MinuteEarth video? Maybe? Well… There is some
    physics…

  93. s0medudeonline March 27, 2014 at 2:32 am - Reply

    Wow, I’m so glad I watched this. I had no idea it was this complicated

  94. Vlado Handziski March 28, 2014 at 8:47 am - Reply

    I don’t think I’ve ever put that much thought into sea level before. My
    mind is kind of blown by this.

  95. Anthrage March 31, 2014 at 1:37 pm - Reply

    Given that it seems mantle density’s effects on sea level can be so
    extreme, a possible counter to catastrophic sea level changes due to the
    effects of climate change could be to reduce the density in affected
    locations enough to lower see level by a corresponding amount. Obviously
    something requiring engineering beyond our current
    abilities…perhaps…but definitely allowed by the laws of physics. Very
    interesting indeed!

  96. John Thimakis April 11, 2014 at 1:26 am - Reply

    Wow! That was amazing. I really learned something new. :) Thanks.

  97. Cam Irish April 11, 2014 at 4:54 pm - Reply

    no they weren’t random because they are binary code so it made something,
    right?

  98. Alwin Priven April 11, 2014 at 7:12 pm - Reply

    but the dead sea is a sea but it is -417 sea level, explanation please?

  99. Ben Dol April 13, 2014 at 7:39 am - Reply

    The author of that book needs to understand what information is.

  100. RipleySawzen April 15, 2014 at 5:18 am - Reply

    Those 1’s and 0’s look pretty random to me, then again, my brain is trained
    to spot random. Although mathematics may reveal that it is not random at
    all, as you sometimes need advanced software to detect true randomness.

  101. S.M. grimbldoo April 28, 2014 at 12:10 am - Reply

    Centrifugal? Really? I would understand if just a stranger made that
    mistake, but physics channel?

  102. Danny Alvarado April 28, 2014 at 10:29 am - Reply

    Dang its pretty cool that Denver got its name “the Mile High city” for
    being exactly a mile higher than sea level.

  103. legna20v April 29, 2014 at 4:16 am - Reply

    has anyone found out what is the 0s and 1s are?

  104. vanityvideo April 29, 2014 at 9:15 am - Reply

    This guy needs to shut his loud mouth, how would you even know there is a
    difference in km of the radius of the earth, did you go and measure it, no,
    so its based on faith. Secondly lets say its true, that is not enough km to
    even notice anything, and to even think to draw it anything but a sphere
    when representing the earth is stupid

  105. Rj reed April 30, 2014 at 5:14 am - Reply

    I still don’t get it.

  106. Richard Hollis April 30, 2014 at 2:54 pm - Reply

    Clicked on this thinking the answer was obvious.

    Mind blown!

  107. Sentie Rosh May 2, 2014 at 10:35 pm - Reply

    For everyone who may be arguing about if the Earth is actually being thrown
    out by inertial forces instead of Centrifugal. The answer is: No.

    In physics, inertia is a property of matter in which an object retains its
    state of rest or its velocity along a linear path assuming it is not acted
    upon by an external counter-force.

    Centrifugal force is the outward force on a body of mass that is rotating
    on its axis.

    Parts of the Earth are indeed being effected by inertial effects, but that
    does not affect the Earth as a whole, because the Earth spins at different
    rates of velocity everywhere.

    All parts of the Earth are indeed affected by Centrifugal forces, and even
    you. In fact, get out of your chair right now, hold your arms up as if you
    were flexing, and start spinning. Seriously, try it. Oh my god, you should
    have seen yourself, because you looked so stupid. Wow, that was mean. I am
    sorry. Anyway, did you feel how it got harder and harder to keep your arms
    inward as you spun faster and faster? That is because of Centrifugal force:
    You are the rotating body of mass and your arms are more outward than any
    other part of your body (at least I hope so) from the center, so they will
    move outward a bit more than they are now, or at least try.

See also  Naomi Oreskes: Answering Climate Change Skeptics

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