I am sure there is a scientific explanation to it but I really don’t know the answer.

[Chemistry_Guy]

If the earth were to be shrunk to the size of a billiard ball, it would be more spherical than that billiard ball and nearly as smooth (depending on how you define average smoothness). Also, at that scale the oceans would be so shallow that you would not even perceive the billiard ball earth as being wet.

[lkb0714]

Originally Posted by GoCardinals

And I would genuinely like to know.

The earth is round as in a 3D spherical shape.
But the water doesn’t bend - is it the gravity that keeps the water on the earth’s surface in a bent shape?

You can bend water with a glass rod and a wool scarf but I guess that isnt what you mean.

Water is held to the surface of the earth by gravity.

[rstevens62]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

If you mean the surface of the water in the oceans conforming to the more or less spherical shape of the globe, then yes. Gravity causes that.

And in a pre-emptive strike on flat earthers, if the earth were flat instead, lighthouses would have worked at ground level, and on a clear day people in Florida could have seen the Alps in europe.

I wonder why this hasnt debunked the flat earth myth completely? Im not sure how they could even try to explain that!!

[jacqueg]

Originally Posted by rstevens62

I wonder why this hasnt debunked the flat earth myth completely? Im not sure how they could even try to explain that!!

Since this is an ancient observation, going back several thousand years at least (yes, Columbus already knew the earth was spherical, just as Ferdinand and Isabella probably did), the only explanation was and is sheer ignorance and/or denial.