Consider the following statements, all of which are actually true, and select the one that best explains why the moment of inertia of the Earth is actually smaller than the moment of inertia you calculated. a. The Earth is an oblate spheroid rather than aperfect sphere. For an oblate spheroid, the distance from thecenter to the equator is a little larger than the distance from thecenter to the poles. This is a similar shape to a beach
ballresting on the ground, being pushed on from above.

b. The Earth does not have uniform density. As theplanet formed, the densest materials sank to the center of theEarth. This created a dense iron core. Meanwhile, the lighterelements floated to the surface. The crust of the Earth
isconsiderably less dense than the core.

c. While the Earth currently has a period of 24hours, it is in fact slowing down. Once it was rotating muchfaster, giving days that were closer to 20 hours than 24 hours. Inthe future, it is expected that days will become longer.