Can you describe the shape of the earth? When a man travels in a space-ship high above the earth, and looks down on it, he sees a big, smooth, shiny ball. The earth is not really a ball because it is a little flat at the north and south. It is not really smooth because there are mountains and valleys but it looks a smooth ball to the man in the space-ship cause he is so far away. It looks shiny cause the sun shine on it. The earth is turning round like a rolling ball. It turns one in 24 hours. This gives us day & night. When it is midday on one side of the earth it is midnight on the other side. The earth is also moving around the sun. The earth takes roughly a year to go around the sun. It taks 365 days in a year. Every fourth year has 366 days. We call this a leap year.