THE
FLAT EARTH HYPOTHESIS: SEEING IS BELIEVING!
Thanks to a Facebook friend, I am going to take this
opportunity to make what I think are some very important points about seeing, believing,
and the scientific paradigm of the mainstream establishment. People all too
often don’t question the prevailing scientific paradigm, because, after all, it
brought us television, computers, smart phones, etc., etc., …and mainstream
scientists have spent virtually their entire adult lives studying science, so
surely, they must know what they’re doing, right? Wrong! They are just as
fallible as anyone, and because of academic specialization, they tend to have
tunnel vision and are often not very open minded.
This Facebook friend deserves credit for bringing up the
flat-earth hypothesis is spite of the ridicule he’s sure to get from people who
think they know the Earth is round. He deserves even more credit for having an
inquiring mind, and not just accepting what the scientific establishment says,
but wanting to see the truth for himself. It is very easy to just laugh at him and
say, surely no one in this day and age really believes that the Earth is
flat! That’s been disproved ages ago!
The Earth is just one of the planets orbiting the Sun. Hasn’t he seen Star
Trek, or Star Wars? Of course Star Trek,
Star Wars, and other science fiction movies that show the Earth like a ball
suspended in space, were not actually shot from outer space, those images are
just special effects. And NASA could certainly produce such films and pass them
off as real if they actually have not gone to the Moon, or sent an unmanned
probe to Mars.
There may or may not be a massive conspiracy and
cover-up going on; maybe we’ll get to that later, but first, let’s consider my FB friend’s position: He has taken the position that seeing is believing and has
stated that the Earth looks flat from 100,000 feet up. Furthermore, he contends
that the fact that no curvature can be seen in the horizon from that altitude
proves that the Earth is actually flat because, he believes that if the surface
of the Earth were curved as scientists say it is, you would be able see that
curvature from 100,000 feet. But, is that true? The Flat-Earth people apparently
believe it is, and it sounds right. But, if we’re going to reason this out, we
can’t just accept it as true because it sounds right, we need to think of it as
a hypothesis and actually prove it either true or false.
Seeing is Believing
The
belief that, if the surface of the Earth is curved, then we should be able to
see that curvature from 100,000 feet up is based on the idea that light always travels
in a straight line, at a constant speed. It turns out that this is not always
true. It is usually true in everyday circumstances, like looking across the
room or down the street, but looking at the horizon which is a great distance
from you, from 100,000 feet (18.9 miles) up, is different. There are several
physical phenomena that cause light to slow down and follow a curved path and
significantly affect what we see when looking at the horizon from 100,000 feet
up. These phenomena are either too minor to be noticed over short distances, or
non-existent in our normal environment. The most relevant one in this case is refraction.
Refraction
is what makes a straight straw in a glass of water look bent. It happens
because light moves more slowly in a dense medium. In our case, the atmosphere
of the Earth is like the water in the glass, except the atmosphere is most
dense at the surface of the Earth and thins out to nothing at about 327,360
feet. So, light coming to the eye of an observer at 100,000 feet from the
horizon is curved as it passes through the atmosphere, making the horizon look
even farther away than it really is. This makes the horizon look flat until you
get high enough that, looking straight down, the Earth will look round
regardless of which model is correct.
Why
is this so? Imagine you are standing on a huge ball, a few miles in diameter.
Depending on the actual size of the ball relative to your height, if you are
tall enough, you will be able to see the curve of the ball. Now, suppose you
are instead, standing at the center of a flat, circular disc shape, like the
Flat-Earth model shown on the various Flat Earth Societies’ websites, with it horizontal
diameter the same as the diameter of the ball. Because the surface of the disc is
flat, you will have to be taller to see the curve of the edge of the disc than
you had to be to see the curvature of the ball, but if you are tall enough, or you
stand on something to gain enough altitude, you will see the curved edge, just
like you did on the ball.
The
fact that at a certain height above the surface, the Earth will look round regardless of which model is correct, means
that to use this approach to prove which model is actually correct we will have
to calculate the heights at which we can see the curved edge for both models
and then go to those heights to see which one is real. But, different from
standing on the ball or disc, to accurately determine those heights above the
surface of the Earth, we will also have to calculate the proper adjustment for
the curvature effect from the light passing through the Earth’s atmosphere for
each observation, since the density of the atmosphere varies with height. As I mentioned
above, the atmosphere thins out to nothing at about 327,360 feet. This has been
determined two ways: both mathematically by calculating the effect of gravity
on the gasses of the atmosphere, and by direct sampling with measuring devices
called sondes, attached to balloons. Calculating the respective heights for
observing the edge of the disc or the curvature of the sphere, and flying high
enough to check them out would be a fun experiment and would give us an
absolute proof positive answer. But before we try to get funds to do it, there
are other less labor-intensive ways to approach the problem of determining which
model is correct.
Perhaps
the easiest one is the sunrise experiment I proposed in an earlier FB post. It
doesn’t require funding or high-flying observations, just cooperation from a
couple of friends or acquaintances. Just have someone in New York City and
someone in Denver call you on the same day at dawn at their respective
locations. If the Earth’s surface is flat, the calls will be virtually
simultaneous because there are no mountains high enough between Denver and New
York to block the line of sight. If the Earth surface is curved, the call from
Denver will come in after the call from New York, because the sun will be
hidden behind the curvature of the Earth until it reaches the height necessary
for it to be seen in Denver. If the Earth is nearly spherical, the calls will
be about 2 hours apart.
If
you try this, you will find that the time between the calls will actually be
about 2 hours, give or take a few minutes depending on exactly where your
friends are located in the Denver and New York areas. I can say this with
confidence because I have been in both Denver and New York City a number of
times, and I have friends in both areas. It is always necessary to allow that same
amount of time difference if you are in one area and want to connect by
telephone or skype at a specific time with someone in the other area. If the
Earth were flat, the sun would be seen to rise at the same time in Denver and
New York, but would reach the zenith (straight overhead) about 2 hours apart in
in the two locations, Denver 2 hours behind New York. So the diurnal time
difference would vary during the day, making synchronizing watches for a given
time to schedule a phone call between the two locations very difficult. Obviously
this is not the case. Conclusion: the surface of the Earth is effectively the
surface of a sphere.
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