The Earth is flat

“This website is dedicated to unravelling the true mysteries of the universe and demonstrating that the earth is flat and that Round Earth doctrine is little more than an elaborate hoax.” – These are lines from The Flat Earth Wiki page. In one of my previous articles where I pointed out some glaring scientific illiteracies that are prevalent in our society today, I pointed out the flat earth theory as well. Although I had said that it is unbelievable and not worth delving into, I would like to explore it today. The reason I changed my mind is that I felt we are misunderstanding the intention of the flat earthers. I went through several of their claims and beliefs based on their personal evidence, and I have decided to explore this territory for the benefit of free thinking. The Flat Earth Society essentially says that the Earth is actually flat and that the “Round Earth doctrine” is an elaborate hoax. Let’s take their claims into consideration and talk about them.

The Flat Earth Science

Probably the most general physics claim they make is that the Earth is flat, and the Moon and the Sun are spheres that revolve above the Earth – North to South – over the year. The Sun moves faster illuminating different parts of the Earth at different times, and the Moon is slower, rising and setting 50 minutes after the Sun each day. They also say that the planets are also spheres, known to the ancient people as stars, that move across above the Earth with apparent relationship to the Sun. And finally, the stars are luminous objects that move in a layer above the Sun, Moon and the planets at a slower rate than the Sun, which results in the Sun moving through different constellations throughout the year. They also explain that they consider everything a sphere except the Earth because the Earth acts as a plane of existence on which everything else exists, just like a basketball in a basketball court or pebbles on a stream bed. I am not making anything up here, these are the real claims from their website.

They make these theories on the basis of several experiments they have performed personally. For example, they state the water convexity experiments as evidence. In one such experiment, they have placed six flags in a same canal of water one after the other, with each flag a mile from each other and each of them 5 feet above the ground. A flag was placed at the end with its bottom in line with the top of the other flags. And a telescope was used to measure the line of sight. They report that the bottom of the bigger flag was in line with the top of the first flag, and hence the Earth is flat because if it wasn’t then the Earth’s curvature would have made the last flag drop down a little at least. The following picture will make it clear.

It is in fact, not very difficult to counter this and similar claims. In addition to the Earth being much bigger than observational curvature from sea level, the answer to why you are able to see the coastline without it sinking below the horizon, as it should for round earth, is refraction. Refraction is bending of light basically. So due to the atmosphere of the Earth, the light that reaches our eye is bent and we see objects which are even slightly below the horizon. And if we consider the Earth to be flat, we would not see anything go below the horizon because there’s apparently no curvature. But the sun does set. According to flat earthers, the sun is like a spotlight and is smaller than the earth and so, when it moves farther away, we don’t see it. But even if the sun was small and moved like a spotlight, it would still be visible because if it has to provide the amount of heat and energy that it already does, it will be extremely bright and wouldn’t just disappear in the sky. The flat earthers say that the sun disappears because of refraction which makes the light curve up instead of down on a flat earth. If that were the case, the air would be denser at higher altitudes and less dense at lower altitudes. However, we know that’s not the case because the air density has been measured on top of say, mountains or outside an airplane, and is definitely lower than on the ground.

Another claim they make is that the the flat earth is basically accelerating upwards, which is the reason we are all able to stand, and it is not because of gravity. Firstly, if Earth were to be accelerating upwards, it would have to do it along with the Sun, Moon, other planets as well as stars as per the Flat Earth model. And secondly, this model would pose a number of problems, as the orbits of the Moon, Sun, and the planets, which have been successfully calculated using the gravitational law, would be wrong and also the calculations based on which the International Space Station, the satellites etc. are working for so many years would also lose meaning. But they don’t because the Flat Earth “science” has not been able to predict eclipses or orbits of any planets to be able to counter the already running systems in space around the Earth. The satellites that are around the Earth based on calculations of a spherical Earth are the reasons we are able to communicate and use the internet in the first place.

In fact, there is an interesting “explanation” that is given by the flat earthers regarding eclipses. For the Earth to have a lunar eclipse, the moon would have to be on the other side of the Earth logically. But for the flat Earth model, this is not the case. So according to them, there is a mysterious, shadowy figure that causes lunar eclipses, which is not visible when not in front of the moon because its orbit is very close to that of the sun. And regarding solar eclipses, they say that if the Earth was spherical, then the moon’s shadow should have been larger than the Moon itself, and that if the Earth was moving West to East, then the eclipse should be moving from East to West according to the apparent path of the Sun. But the problem with these arguments is that firstly, Moon’s shadow will remain smaller because the Sun is much much larger and the light from the Sun on the Moon cannot be compared to a flashlight on a penny. The proportions are just not right. Secondly, the direction of the Moon’s shadow must be understood according to the speed of rotation of the Earth and the speed of the Moon. In simple terms, if you pass a car on a highway, it would appear to you as if the car is moving backwards. But in reality, it is just moving slower than you. It is a similar phenomenon with the Earth and the Moon.

Also, an important point to note is that flat earthers don’t have a single model that each of them follows. Some are of the opinion that the North and South poles are on the disk at two opposite points on the top and bottom, surrounded by walls of rock or ice at the edges of the Earth, and others are of the opinion that the North pole is in the center of the disk and the South “pole” is basically ice walls all around the disk Earth. The following image is the major two models of the flat Earth that are prevalent. There may be more but these are the most popular ones. There is also a small minority that says that Earth is an infinite plane and has no edges.

Flat Earthers through history

The history of the Flat Earth theory goes back to the 19th century with an English medical doctor named Samuel Rowbotham, who came up with the theory of flat earth in his book Zetetic Astronomy: Earth not a globe, which he wrote under a pseudonym Parallax. His idea was then carried forward by another Englishman Samuel Shenton, who founded the International Flat Earth society in 1954. This idea and the society was furthered by an American Charles Johnson. Even by 2001, there were only about 3500 or so members. Another American Daniel Shenton took the society ahead on his shoulders and went to the extent of setting up a wiki for the Flat Earth society. However, this idea blew up in 2016, with the advent of YouTube as one of most popular video sharing platform. The situation right now is that there are Flat Earth conventions happening all over the world, which are attended by hundreds of members in every city it happens.

The mindset

The majority of the people are those who genuinely believe that the Earth is flat based on their own experiments. Apart from this crowd, there are people who do not want to rely on facts provided to them unless they do it themselves. Some others have religious reasons to do so. And others do not trust their governments, and hence also believe that the moon landing was fake, space does not exist and NASA only stages hoaxes. I cannot go on about the final category because it is worthless to argue with people sitting with preconceived notions. Regarding the rest of the flat earth believers, we can notice that their evidences are based on what they can or can’t sense. It is clear by their experiments that they are relying on observable data. If they stand on the shore and look at the horizon, they are convinced that the Earth is flat because they see a flat horizon. They see a spirit level not moving while on an airplane and they are convinced that the Earth is flat. There are more than sufficient mathematical evidences that the Earth is a sphere, like how the inverse square law works for a spherical Earth, the gravitational redshift, the visibility of different constellations as we move around the Earth etc. I mention these because the Earth is huge, and as a spherical object becomes bigger and bigger, the surface appears flat for a smaller distance, and hence can give a perception of being on a flat object, but that is not the case. If I place an ant on a hot air balloon in the air, it will appear to the ant as a flat plane because the ant is way too small compared to the size of the balloon. But that doesn’t mean that the balloon is flat.

I feel the problem lies in communication gaps and misunderstanding. As the amount of jargon terms increases, it will be understood less and less by the non-scientific crowd. Overtime, science will be left belonging to scientists, and the general public would deviate from established knowledge. This lack of communication will escalate more and more. This is what is happening with the increasing number of flat earthers. The experiments conducted by scientists are definitely worth, but do not reach the public in a manner that they understand. Hence they want to do their own experiments to find out, but cannot establish the facts due to lack of knowledge and technology. So they rely on their observations to state results as they see it. This problem can be easily solved by reducing this gap and making scientific research more accessible and understandable to the general public, and can only happen if scientists come forward and explain themselves better. This is where scientific writers fill the gap. This is also the reason why my blog also exists partly because unless I spread my scientific knowledge, what is the point of gaining it?

Talking about science awareness, it is important to remember that you either know about something, or you don’t. You cannot pretend to know about something. So if you are not aware of a certain subject, you should understand and learn before talking on that subject. And if you don’t want to go through the trouble of learning, then it is best to keep quiet, because being a fool is not cool. Stay inspired and stay safe!

Do let me know if you would like a video on this subject. I would be happy to explain the article for the benefit of those who have confusions. After all, we’re here to upgrade our knowledge!

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