The Earth's shape appears spherical to the naked eye, but is actually best modeled as an oblate spheroid - flattened at the top and bulging at the sides. There are three main proofs that the Earth has this shape. First, precise measurements of the angle to Polaris from different latitudes do not match what would be expected based on the geometry of a perfect sphere. Second, photographs from space clearly show the Earth flattened at the top and wider around the equator. Third, according to the law of gravitation, objects should weigh the same anywhere on a perfect sphere but are actually slightly heavier at the poles, indicating the poles are closer to the center of mass.