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It doesn't... always! First of all, water will only remain flat when it is completely undisturbed. In a lake or the ocean, the wind creates waves on the surface. In a river, the water is flowing downhill, and the surface of the water is certainly not flat.

However, generally we think of water as being flat. That's not really true either. The oceans are certainly not flat -- they are curved! The oceans are on the surface of the Earth, which is a very big sphere. So while the ocean looks flat to us, it is simply because we don't have enough perspective to see that they are curved... but they are! Think about a globe and you can easily see that the oceans are very curved.

However, all this aside, if you have a glass of water, and let it sit undisturbed, the water level is flat. This is because the pull of gravity is equal across the face of the water. The water molecules are free to move throughout the liquid, and the gravity affects each water molecule equally, pulling them all down the same. That is why the water level stays flat in a glass.

The reason the oceans are curved is in fact the same reason. The pull of gravity can be approximated as coming from the center of the Earth. So if you are on one side of the Earth, the pull of gravity is in exactly the opposite direction as if you were on the other side (some people like to think of Australians as being upside down, which is of course ridiculous, but that's that same idea). Because gravity is pulling the water molecules equally towards the center of the Earth, the surface of the water is the surface of a sphere, which is of course, curved.

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17y ago
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6mo ago

Water appears straight or level due to the force of gravity pulling it towards the Earth's center. Gravity acts uniformly in all directions, causing water to settle into a flat, level surface regardless of the shape of its container. This effect is known as equilibrium.

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12y ago

This is because the pull of gravity is equal across the face of the water. The water molecules are free to move throughout the liquid, and the gravity affects each water molecule equally, pulling them all down to the same level.

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11y ago

Some liquids are heavier than each other so they sink to the bottom, some liquids are lighter so they float to the top.

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Q: Why does water always stay straight or level?
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