Funny how much you hate it when I use your own tactics against you.
Using Neal Degrass Tyson as your source? Gross.
You sure did ignore a bunch of other points...
How am I a shill?
- The Moon Now that humanity knows quite positively that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful god, the phenomena that accompany it (from its monthly cycles to lunar eclipses) are well-explained. It was quite a mystery to the ancient Greeks, though, and in their quest for knowledge, they came up with a few insightful observations that helped humanity figure out the shape of our planet.
Aristotle (who made quite a lot of observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noticed that during lunar eclipses (when the Earth’s orbit places it directly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow in the process), the shadow on the Moon’s surface is round. This shadow is the planet’s, and it’s a great clue about the spherical shape of the Earth.
Lunar eclipse
A sequential view of the lunar eclipse that occurred on April 15, 2014. You can see Earth’s shadow crossing the face of the Moon, and the shadow’s shape is curved because Earth is spherical. Since the earth is rotating (see the “Foucault Pendulum” experiment for a definite proof, if you are doubtful), the consistent oval-shadow it produces in each and every lunar eclipse proves that the earth is not only round but spherical—absolutely, utterly, beyond a shadow of a doubt not flat.
- Ships and the horizon If you’ve been next to a port lately, or just strolled down a beach and stared off vacantly into the horizon, you might have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: Approaching ships do not just “appear” out of the horizon (like they should have if the world was flat), but rather seem to emerge from beneath the sea.
But—you say—ships do not submerge and rise up again as they approach our view (except in Pirates of the Caribbean, but we are hereby assuming that was a fictitious movie series). The reason ships appear as if they “emerge from the waves” is because the world is not flat: It’s round.
What you would see if you watched an ant crawling toward you over a curved surface. Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange, into your field of view. If you look at the orange “head on”, you will see the ant’s body slowly rising up from the “horizon” because of the curvature of the orange. If you would do that experiment with the ant approaching along a long road rather than a round object, the effect would change: The ant would slowly “materialize” into view (depending on how sharp your vision is).
- Varying star constellations This observation was originally made by Aristotle (384-322 BCE), who declared the Earth was round judging from the different constellations one sees while moving away from the equator.
Stargazing on a round Earth After returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted, “There are stars seen in Egypt and…Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions.” This phenomenon can only be explained if humans were viewing the stars from a round surface, Aristotle continued, claiming that the sphere of the Earth is “of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent.” (De caelo, 298a2-10)
The farther you go from the equator, the farther the “known” constellations go towards the horizon, to be replaced by different stars. This would not have happened if the world was flat:
Stargazing on a flat Earth 4. Shadows and sticks If you stick a stick in the (sticky) ground, it will produce a shadow. The shadow moves as time passes (which is the principle for ancient Shadow Clocks). If the world had been flat, then two sticks in different locations would produce the same shadow:
Imagine the Sun’s rays (represented by yellow lines) hitting two sticks (white lines) some distance apart. If the Earth were flat, the resulting shadows would be the same length, no matter how far apart you place the sticks. But they don’t. This is because the Earth is round, and not flat:
Because the Earth is round, sticks placed at distant locations will throw shadows of different lengths. Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth quite accurately. To see this demonstrated, refer to my experiment video about Eratosthenes and the circumference of the Earth.
- Seeing farther from higher Standing on a flat plateau, you look ahead toward the horizon. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and stare through them, as far as your eyes (with the help of the binocular lenses) can see.
Next, climb up the closest tree—the higher the better, just be careful not to drop those binoculars and break their lenses. Then look again, strain your eyes, and stare through the binoculars out to the horizon.
The higher up you climb, the farther you will see. Usually, we tend to relate this to Earthly obstacles—like the fact we have houses or other trees obstructing our vision on the ground, and climbing upwards we have a clear view—but that’s not the true reason. Even if you stood on a completely clear plateau with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you would see much farther from the greater height than you would on the ground.
This phenomenon is caused by the curvature of the Earth as well, and would not happen if the Earth was flat?
Point of view on a flat Earth
How far can you see from a height? On a flat Earth, elevation doesn’t make a difference.
Point of view on a round Earth
How far can you see from a height? On a round Earth, elevation makes a big difference. 6. Ride a plane If you’ve ever taken a trip out of the country, specifically long-distance trips, you could notice two interesting facts about planes and the Earth:
Planes can travel in a relatively straight line for a very long time and not fall off any edges. They can also circle the Earth without stopping. If you look out the window on a trans-Atlantic flight, you can, most of the times, see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. The best view of the curvature used to be on the Concorde, but that plane’s long gone. I can’t wait to see the pictures from the new plane by Virgin Galactic—the horizon should look absolutely curved, as it actually is from a distance. 7. Look at other planets The Earth is different from other planets, that much is true. After all, we have life, and we haven’t found any other planets with life (yet). However, there are certain characteristics all planets have, and it will be quite logical to assume that if all planets behave a certain way, or show certain characteristics—specifically if those planets are in different places or were created under different circumstances—our planet is the same.
In other words: If so many planets that were created in different locations and under different circumstances show the same property, it’s likely that our own planet has the same property as well. All of our observations show that other planets are spherical (and since we know how they’re created, it’s also obvious why they take this shape). Unless we have a very good reason to think otherwise (which we don’t), our planet is very likely the same.
In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed the moons of Jupiter rotating around it. He described them as small planets orbiting a larger planet—a description (and observation) that was very difficult for the church to accept, as it challenged a geocentric model where everything was supposed to revolve around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets (Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus was observed too) are all spherical, and all orbit the sun.
A flat planet (ours or any other planet) would be such an incredible observation that it would pretty much go against everything we know about how planets form and behave. It would not only change everything we know about planet formation, but also about star formation (our sun would have to behave quite differently to accommodate the flat-earth theory) and what we know of speeds and movements in space (like planets’ orbits and the effects of gravity). In short, we don’t just suspect that our planet is spherical. We know it.
- The existence of time zones The time in New York, at the moment these words are written, is 12:00pm. The sun is in the middle of the sky (though it’s hard to see with the current cloud coverage). In Beijing, it’s 12:00am, midnight, and the sun is nowhere to be found. In Adelaide, Australia, it is 1:30am. More than 13 hours ahead. There, the sunset is long gone—so much so, that the sun will soon rise up again at the beginning of a new day.
Time zones
We have time zones because when the Sun is illuminating one side of the spherical Earth, the other side is dark. This can only be explained if the world is round, and rotating around its own axis. At a certain point when the sun is shining on one part of the Earth, the opposite side is dark, and vice versa. That allows for time differences and time zones, specifically ones that are larger than 12 hours.
Another point concerning timezones, the sun, and Earth: If the sun was a “spotlight” (very directionally located so that light only shines on a specific location) and the world was flat, we would see the sun even if it didn’t shine on top of us (as you can see in the drawing below). Similarly, you can see the light coming out of a spotlight on a stage in the theater, even though you—the crowd—are sitting in the dark. The only way to create two distinctly separate time zones, where there is complete darkness in one while there’s light in the other, is if the world is spherical.
The “sun as spotlight” theory
The visibility of a spotlight in a darkened theater should debunk the “sun as spotlight” theory. 9. The pull of gravity Here’s an interesting fact about mass: It attracts things to it. The force of attraction (gravity) between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. Simply said, gravity will pull toward the center of mass of the objects. To find the center of mass, you have to examine the object.
A sphere’s center of mass
On a sphere’s surface, gravity will pull you toward the sphere’s center of mass: straight down. Consider a sphere. Since a sphere has a consistent shape, no matter where on it you stand, you have exactly the same amount of sphere under you. (Imagine an ant walking around on a crystal ball. From the insect’s point of view, the only indication of movement would be the fact the ant is moving its feet—the shape of the surface would not change at all.) A sphere’s center of mass is in the center of the sphere, which means gravity will pull anything on the surface of the sphere straight down toward the center of the sphere. This will occur no matter where on the surface the object is located.
Consider a flat plane. The center of mass of a flat plane is in its center, so the force of gravity will pull anything on the surface toward the middle of the plane. That means that if you stand on the edge of the plane, gravity will be pulling you sideways toward the plane’s middle, not straight down like you usually experience when you stand on Earth.
A plane’s center of mass is in its middle—which means that gravity should pull objects toward the center of the plane. I am quite positive that, even for Australians, an apple falls downwards, not sideways. But if you have your doubts, I urge you to try dropping something—just make sure it’s nothing that can break or hurt you.
- Images from space In the past 60 years of space exploration, we’ve launched satellites, probes, and people into space. Some of them got back, some of them still float through the solar system (and almost beyond it), and many transmit amazing images to our receivers on Earth. In all of these photos, the Earth is (wait for it) spherical. The curvature of the Earth is also visible in the many, many, many, many photos snapped by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
You started with the ad hominem attacks, buddy. Remember calling me a kike?
Ok, gravity doesn't exist.... That's one way to avoid answering with facts. This was all I asked for to give your theory a chance and you couldn't.
Flat Earthers all have a major ego issues. They have a desperation to pretend that they are gatekeepers to some massive conspiracy that only they know about.
This all comes down to incel faggots that extremely introverted and never picked up a science book or go outside.
You have to ignore way way way more evidence that the earth is round than you have to provide for it being flat, in order to believe it's flat. This in itself, makes flat earth theory so ridiculous.
How can I provide a counter point when you didnt even make any points to start with? Do you really think that everyone in logistics, aerospace, weather, military, science, etc. Is in on the conspiracy?
You guys never have an explanation how a celestial body the size of earth keeps from collapsing into a ball from its own mass and gravity. Explain this and I might be more open to retard earth theory.
call me whatever you want, it will never be as insulting as being called a flat Earther.
Just stop it. You are only pissing more and more people off each time you spam this flat tard bullshit.
And I bet you believe the earth is flat..
You got to admit that they hold way more positions of power than their population percentage should account for.
Flat earth is the retard of conspiracy theories.
Did you ever look up the flat earth rocket scientist?...
Why did you quit responding to gaunt? They had some good points that you ignored.
Mr 6 grade math skills, what did I present only "0" of? You didn't finish that thought.
I don't have to insult you, you already think the earth is flat.
My beliefs come from facts. That's why 99% of the population believes earth to be round. That's why there isn't a single flat Earthers over 100 IQ
Gravity.... Explain it in flat Earth speak, please.
My argument is that people who believe in flat Earth, have difficulty with comprehension of 3 dimensional space.
Sounds like you are at least triple digit IQ. I've invested some time into the flat Earth thought experiment in the past. It just never "clicked" enough for me to abandon my preconceptions of the shape of earth. There are many more holes to explain in flat theory than in the sphere theory. The amount of people that the flat conspiracy world require, breaks the theory for me. How many pilots, military, ship operators, etc. would it require to be in on this global conspiracy, yet no one has leaked? That such a massive and coordinated conspiracy could exist, is silly to me
Please read this comment in full before you respond.
I feel like we are in an argument loop. Let me try to explain my position in full detail for you and maybe we can reach a mutual understanding of each other.
I have been curious about the paranormal and open minded to conspiracy theory since a young age. The space industry has always intrigued me but I saw a documentary about moon landing conspiracy in the 90's that kinda blew my mind. I didn't reflect much on this again till the 2000s. I had gotten access to high speed internet for the first time and decided to jump down a paranormal video rabbit hole. I when hardcore into this after I saw a few videos about UFOs and 9/11/01. I had no interest in anything else for months. I was so obsessed that I was making DVDs of these topics in bulk and giving them to other people to spread the world. This was before Facebook and social networking was new. I was as passionately convinced of my beliefs as you are about yours. I felt a compulsion to wake up people to the "real" world. After a year or two, I became a little numb to it and pretty much gave up my evangelizing. I have always considered conspiracy theory my main hobby. I don't watch many television programs or network news. I try to get my info from as close to the source as I can and as many perspectives as possible. I have a drive to know the real truth and my perspective is always changing. I am sceptical to all of my beliefs.
Flat Earth... There is something about this theory. That is, there are a lot of arguments that make it look feasible. That is the most frustrating part about this theory for people like me. It's easy to make a point or 2 that will make the average person scratch their head. The thing is, like with every theory, you have to weigh the arguments from both sides and see for yourself which argument is more valid. When it comes down to it, ball earth has way more going for it. Have you tried reaching against your argument?
Happy thanks giving, btw
If the sun is always over part of a flat Earth, how does night work?
I've seen a lot of this Eric dubay. He is like the messiah of flat Earthers. Too bad he lacks even a basic understanding of physics.
Self projector.