science Is the earth spherical or flat?

[Grepper 3,192]

Some people still believe the earth is flat. I know it's total bullshit, but what is your opinion on the matter, and what do you think of people who still believe this?

[Spartan 433]

The modern world knows its a sphere. Plus, if the earth was flat, how do ships and planes that go around the world for whatever reason, not fall off the edge?

[Scrubbed user 3,416]

I think those who think the Earth is flat are very, very dumb. Besides, if the Earth was flat, then how could you see further if you're higher up, than on the ground?

[GeekySonic 1,150]

I was not at all aware that this was still a debate. I remember just this last school year learning about a Greek librarian who calculated the diameter of the earth... or something. I don't remember exactly.

 

My point is, I was under the impression that we collectively discovered that the earth was spherical hundreds of years ago.

[Brock Obama 298]

This topic, in my opinion, merits no real discussion. The idea that the earth is flat, was debunked and discarded a long time starting from the ancient Greeks. I believe it was Socrates who first introduced the idea. The Romans widely thought this as common knowledge and already knew this and accepted it. 

 

If you live in America, you've probably heard the story about how people in the middle ages thought the earth was flat and blah blah blah. This is false, nobody thought that. Again, this had been common knowledge since the ancients. The flat earth theory is simply just another iteration of a conspiracy theory. Its based off of pseudoscience, and like I said earlier, should not really merit any real discussion.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Brock Obama

[Blackshirt Brony 415]

The Earth's gravitational pull is somewhat centered. If the Earth were "flat," with the arctic regions in the middle, then a person standing in New Zealand would be pulled not "down," but sideways toward the middle of the disc. At the moment, I do not see people being dragged northwards through the air.

 

 

The modern world knows its a sphere. Plus, if the earth was flat, how do ships and planes that go around the world for whatever reason, not fall off the edge?

 

The argument is generally that this is part of the "conspiracy." Charts and GPS will show ships and aircraft to be traveling along straight lines, while they are instead (allegedly) moving within a strategically placed set of circular paths. If a plane were flying in a circle, it would not go off the edge.

 

There will be an excuse for everything, in the case of the "flat earth." But it's still an interesting idea, in a very primitive sort of way.

[El Duderino 879]

Do some people really still think the earth is flat? Wow. 

But, you would be surprised how ignorant people can be. Hey, a lot of people actually believe articles written by "The Onion"

[Anneal 2,197]

Guys, you're all incorrect.

 

The Earth is flat if you were hypothetically going at the speed of light because of space contraction. 

 

And it's not spherical, either. It's pretty close to it even without considering relativity, but at it turns out, it's horizontally wider by 43 kilometers. Which means it's an oblate spheroid. 

Edited July 10, 2016 by Sealand

[Babyyoshi309 1,829]

Believe me, it get way worse... Let me start with the better "evidence" (more of just trying to debunk reasons why their theory would not work). The conspiracy theorists think that:

 

The earth is actually a circle with the north poll in the center and the south poll around the edges. The reason why you don't fall of the edge when you are on a plane or ship is because you are actually going in circle around the earth. The reason why there are no flight over the south poll is because if you did go there, you would find the edge of the earth. So the government is trying to cover it up however possible (for some reason). (Here is where it gets kind of stupid a lot more stupid). So, how do you explain gravity? Well that is simple, gravity actually does not exist (yes, that was not a mistake  ). The cause of objects falling is actually the earth moving up. The earth is quickly rising causing objects to appear to fall. As for the moon landing, well that was obviously fake.

 

 

That is actually the theory! There is a lot more to it, but it is still just as stupid as you would expect. These people obviously just wanted to make another theory in order to call the government liars. I do not get why anyone actually believes it (though you got admire the people who made it, it must determination to make a theory that complex, even if it was one of the stupidest theories ever   )

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Edit: Also, this will probably be my last post for the next 2 weeks. I will be in Italy and probably won't be able to do anything on forums.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Babyyoshi309

[Malinter 3,064]

 

The argument is generally that this is part of the "conspiracy." Charts and GPS will show ships and aircraft to be traveling along straight lines, while they are instead (allegedly) moving within a strategically placed set of circular paths. If a plane were flying in a circle, it would not go off the edge.

 

There will be an excuse for everything, in the case of the "flat earth." But it's still an interesting idea, in a very primitive sort of way.

 

Theres also the illusion where if you walk in a big enough circle. From your perspective the world looks flat. An example of this can be seen if you've ever played Halo. You can literally see the rest of the world curving up and around inside the ring but when you walk through each area it looks flat.

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

Wait people still actually believe the earth is flat? Wasn't that debate closed a good hundred years ago?

 

I mean for proof, all you gotta do is look at photos of the earth from NASA.

[weesh 690]

i know the Egyptians calculated the a radius for the earth by measuring the shadows from two obelisks of a known distance apart.apparently they got pretty close.

[Celli 4,338]

I don't know why any sane person would still believe the Earth is flat, but ok 

[Vulcan 3,254]

I believe that the earth is kinda spherical. I don't think it's flat,additionally I find the reasoning given by the Flat earth theorists extremely entertaining. They had to create multiple conspiracies just to balance out the errors. Here is a list of some beliefs taken from Gawker. 

 

Some stuff according to the theory:

 

> There is a large "Ice wall" surrounding the  earth's edges that may or may not go on forever. 

 

> NASA and The Government has protected this secret for monetary gain.

 

> Gravity doesn't exist.

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,545]

Well obliviously the Earth is flat. Just look at this picture!

 

 

Viewing face on, the earth is a circle. However, I don't see another side, do you? Ha! That is because the planet has no other side and is a flat disk! Boom! Checkmate roundies!

 

Twilight would be so ashamed of this post. XD

[Corgis 574]

Keep in mind some people are crazy enough to think that the moon landings were faked and stuff around those lines.  Some people are just plain ignorant and nothing can be done to convince them of otherwise.

[gamecubeguy214 2,512]

I know about that Flat Earth Society, and I respect them. Though, I do believe that the Earth is spherical because I know how gravity works and I'm an average person.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

For me, it's a simple matter of elegance. The sun in the middle, Earth goes around it, the Moon goes around Earth, stars so far away they form a backdrop to local events (like a background in a play related to the action in the foreground) You need 2 orbits to visualize this, and many observable phenomena, such as sunrises, sunsets, the way the constellations move during a single evening and eclipses are all elegantly explained.

 

A flat earth requires a small sun and not much smaller moon, travelling in extremely convoluted paths so as to create the illusion that sunrises, eclipses and all the rest can happen, not even including the stars. I mean, maybe you could say God made it that way, but if so, it seems She took the longest and most illogical path to create what She could far simply have created as a helocentric solar system to begin with.

 

Zetetic philosophy is wack, yo.

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

The Earth's gravitational pull is somewhat centered. If the Earth were "flat," with the arctic regions in the middle, then a person standing in New Zealand would be pulled not "down," but sideways toward the middle of the disc.

What if the disc is thicker near the edges? It's flat on top but volcano shaped underneath.

[heavens-champion 1,905]

I'm pretty sure it's spherical. If it were flat, ships would fall off the edge and float into space.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

What if the disc is thicker near the edges? It's flat on top but volcano shaped underneath.

You're still thinking in terms of gravity, which would (over the required distances) cause the volcano-shaped underside to collapse into a spherical shape.

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

You're still thinking in terms of gravity, which would (over the required distances) cause the volcano-shaped underside to collapse into a spherical shape.

What if it is held rigid? I will attempt the math when I get a chance. There are some symmetries to the problem but it's still ugly

[cmarston1 5,959]

I can't believe that there are still people who honestly believe that the Earth is flat in this day and age.

[Celtore 2,770]

Theyre wrong. Plain and simple. If the world were flat, you would be able to navigate the oceans using dead simple grade 6 math. Because the world is curved however, there's a bit more complexity. For instance, getting the distance between two points on a map should be as easy as laying a ruler on it. Well it's not. Because the earth is curved, you need to pull out the haversine formula to accommodate for figuring out distances because a straight line on a map is not a straight line across the surface of the earth.

 

Another popular hypothesis of theirs is that the earth is a disk with Antarctica surrounding the outside. Easily disproven: go north of the equator 30 degrees and south 30 degrees and fly or sail around the world. It will take the same amount of time to complete. Basic geometry.

 

I don't get why they care to be honest. So what if the earth is spherical? It's not some conspiracy, what would anyone gain from lying about it? Plus it's hardly news, people thousands of years ago already figured this crap out. Aristotle himself figured this out! Oh, you can doubt the NASA photo if you're that level of crazy, but the fact that the earth is a sphere is pretty darn established with a lot of evidence.

Edited July 10, 2016 by Celtore

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

NASA pictures can't be trusted. They are from a government organization so they are automatically suspect.