Help with flat earth facts and English language.

[Mickster]

They probably haven't thought that far ahead yet?

 

[DerStrom8]

one thing has always puzzled me about the flat earth theory in this internet age.... how do they explain live camera feeds being night in some countries, and daylight in others?

The sun is a spotlight that only points at one part of the earth at a time.

 

[OBW0549]

If the Earth is flat, and we're perched on its top surface, what's on the bottom side? And if it's flat, how thick is it? And why do we have time zones?

 

[alec_t]

Even a flat Earth has two faces. Or do flat-earthers believe all the countries are on just one face?

 

[nsaspook]

Flat Earth.

 

[tcmtech]

The sun is a spotlight that only points at one part of the earth at a time.

I have pondered on how that works in order to have the sun come up and go down over the horizons as it does given that even if you move a spot light towards or away from you the geometric shape of the lighted end still does not match the shape of a progressing sunrise or sunset no matter how you look at it and that says nothing about how light propagates through our atmosphere or reflects off of anything.

Even at 5000 miles away on a flat plain anything that passes under the spotlight sun will reflect enough light in some direction that it could be seen from anywhere else that is dark. We can see the reflected light from a satellite, that has a surface or solar array smaller than the footprint of a average house with the naked eye from thousands of miles away, so why can't we see light reflected off of any large aircraft flying under the spotlight sun at similar or even far shorter distances?

We have hundreds of them in the air at any time so no matter where anyone stand on the ground at least one of them will have a surface that is in a position to reflect sunlight to any other point yet we never see that no matter where we stand or how long we look. If we can see a satellite, thats thousands of mile away move across the sky from horizon to horizon, why can't anyone see all the large aircraft in the lighted part of the flat earth reflecting light too?

Hmmmm.......

 

[tcmtech]

Another issue I have found with the flat earth theory is that on a flat plain world every mountain peak has to have a line of site to all other mountain peaks plus line of site to all points lower, and due to the elevational gain the area illuminated by the spotlight sun has to be visible from the mountain peaks and any high altitude aircraft above them as well.

By that reasoning, if you were standing on any mountain peak of the Himalayan mountain chain all other mountain peaks regardless of what continent they are on are lower than those have to be technically visible from them along with the illuminated parts of the earth plain when viewed at night.

Yet we know they are not and it isn't nor are all of the world's aircraft flying above those mountain peak altitudes because the horizon on all sides obstructs the line of site between all of them.

If all the worlds high altitude aircraft and satellites flying under the spotlight sun can not be seen from any mountain peak due to horizontal obstruction the earth can not be flat. The optics literally don't add up for it to be true.

 

[ronsimpson]

Another issue I have found with the flat earth theory is that on a flat plain world every mountain peak has to have a line of site to all other mountain peaks plus line of site to all points lower,

Gravity pulls photons down. So light going out from a mountain top will not reach another mountain 10,000 miles away because the light falls to earth. You can not see from mountain to mountain top because ....

 

[DerStrom8]

Gravity pulls photons down. So light going out from a mountain top will not reach another mountain 10,000 miles away because the light falls to earth. You can not see from mountain to mountain top because ....

They must not believe in the rate of gravity or speed of light either then. Suppose the photon begins even 1 meter off the ground (a one meter tall "mountain"). Travelling at 3*10^8 m/s (the speed of light), the photon would not hit the ground until it had traveled over 1.35*10^8 meters. That's around 3.4 times the circumference of the earth at the equator, or according to the Flat-Earther's beliefs, the maximum possible width of the flat earth (assuming all of the continents are on one side - picture a world map laid out flat). And that's only a 1 meter tall "mountain". Everest is about 8850 meters tall.

(Somebody please check my math)

 

[ronsimpson]

If you believe in Physics you don't believe in "flat earth". You can't use physics on flat people. It is like having a cosmology argument with a cat.

I had a dog that liked to eat birds. She killed many birds. The dog lives in a 2D world. (North South East West) The birds live in a 3D world. I spent many hours trying to explain a third dimension to dog. Not worth my time. Now cats understand 3D. They will never understand round earth. Speed of light is just beyond them. Using light to explain round is two steps out for some people and most cats.

 

[DerStrom8]

If you believe in Physics you don't believe in "flat earth". You can't use physics on flat people. It is like having a cosmology argument with a cat.

I had a dog that liked to eat birds. She killed many birds. The dog lives in a 2D world. (North South East West) The birds live in a 3D world. I spent many hours trying to explain a third dimension to dog. Not worth my time. Now cats understand 3D. They will never understand round earth. Speed of light is just beyond them. Using light to explain round is two steps out for some people and most cats.

The only difference is that the acceleration due to gravity and the speed of light can both be measured practically here on earth by any dimwit without having to take a rocket into space to see for yourself. But this, of course, is common sense which we have already established Flat-Earthers don't have.

 

[tcmtech]

The more likely reason for the flat earth beliefs plus others despite overwhelming contradictory evidence to everything they claim and believe.

The harder you challenge them with stuff they can not deny the deeper they dig in to and hold onto the illogical.

Also, be aware that crazy tends to flock together for collaborative and moral support. Power in numbers principle.

 

[Pommie]

As I stated earlier, there are no people that believe the earth is flat. The're just trolls who like to argue to see how much someone can dumbdown science to try to explain why it's not flat.

This thread is a very good example.

Mike.
Edit, when people disagree with me without giving a reason it suggests to me that I may have touched a nerve.

 

[ronsimpson]

there are no people that believe the earth is flat.

Too many people think the sun goes around the earth.

 

[Pommie]

Too many people think the sun goes around the earth.

According to Einstein it does. Relatively speaking.

Mike.

 

[MikeMl]

Out on the Bonneville Salt Flats (near Wendover, UT), why do I see only the top half of a porta-potty that is less than 250 m distant? (Been there for Speed Week).

Flying West across Northern Nevada toward Medford, OR at about 4000 m msl, why do I first see just the very tip of snow-covered Mt Shasta from Nevada, and I see progressively more of the mountain the closer I get to the west coast? (You can make the same observation driving north on I5 from CA to OR.)

 

[tcmtech]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSxryGwsUQ4

 

[ronsimpson]

Too many people think the sun goes around the earth.

According to Einstein it does. Relatively speaking. Mike.

It seems simple to see the Universe having a center where I am standing.

Look at the starts. Some have a "retrograde" that some very smart people found complicated math to describe.

Then other smart people found that if the sun is the center then the retrograde math is very simple.
Then it turns out that, if the black hole(s) in the center of the Galaxy is/are the center then other math turns simple.

There are millions of clusters of Galaxies. (where is the center?)

Though: If the math is complicated, then you are not at the center. What you see is distorted by your point of view.
----edited----
I was just informed "you are not the center of the Universe. Get off the computer and do something productive".

 

[Pommie]

It's all in the eye of the beholder. OR are you saying I can be booked for doing millions of miles per hour whilst stopped at a red light?

The sun is definitely not the centre. We don't know where the centre is and so it is perfectly reasonable to call earth the centre.

Mike.

 

[DerStrom8]

It's all in the eye of the beholder. OR are you saying I can be booked for doing millions of miles per hour whilst stopped at a red light?

The sun is definitely not the centre. We don't know where the centre is and so it is perfectly reasonable to call earth the centre.

Mike.

Or, if the universe truly is infinite, then any arbitrary point within it could be considered the center.