Flat Earthers accidentally prove Earth is round

[UM-Bot]

Conspiracy theorists have been struggling for years to prove to everyone else that the Earth is flat.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/326093/flat-earthers-accidentally-prove-earth-is-round

[Susanc241]

I want to say something witty about this, but all I can feel is sadness that people still believe the earth is flat. Perhaps these two instances, the gyroscope experiment, and the light experiment, will be the start of of the end of the flat earth believers.

[Piney]

10 minutes ago, Susanc241 said:

I want to say something witty about this, but all I can feel is sadness that people still believe the earth is flat. Perhaps these two instances, the gyroscope experiment, and the light experiment, will be the start of of the end of the flat earth believers.

There is always the idiot. 

[mdbuilder]

Do we have consensus? I suppose we can finally put that question to rest...

[Orphalesion]

2 minutes ago, mdbuilder said:

Do we have consensus? I suppose we can finally put that question to rest...

That question has been put to rest well over 2000 years ago...

[toast]

" ... there`s we dont see you, Enrique, lift up here, lift up your light way above your head"

(crickets)

" ... interesting"

 

Priceless. Epic. 10 stars.

[Rlyeh]

Not the only one.

Bob Knodel measures the Earth's motion with a hi-tech gyroscope but being a flat earther makes up some imaginary particle to explain it.

He basically admits he spent so much money on the flat earth he won't accept evidence for anything else.

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by Rlyeh

[Vorg]

15 degrees per hour times 24 hours in a day = 360 degrees. Yep, she's rotating and round. That's why we call it a globe.

[Dark_Grey]

It's a pretty entertaining doc if you guys haven't seen it. It follows a few select flat earthers and mixes up the footage with actual Scientists talking about this cultural phenomenon. 

It's just a bunch of lonely people looking to belong. The idea of a giant conspiracy that threatens our core beliefs about reality gives these people meaning and a sense of power. Without FE, most of them would be probably be online gamers, I reckon. Same sense of power in an otherwise powerless existence. 

...on to coffee number two. Need more fuel for BS rants 

[eddword]

Conspiracy theorists are never happy with the truth. Just like the anti Trumpers clinging to the Russian collusion
crap. Get over it and move on.

[mdbuilder]

2 hours ago, Orphalesion said:

That question has been put to rest well over 2000 years ago...

You are obviously wrong. The article is datelined March 7, 2019...

[EnderOTD]

It doesn�t get much better than this, go so far as to refute their own findings. ROFL.

[quillius]

whats more ludicrous than believing the Earth is flat..???

 

trying to prove it but accidentally proving the opposite of what you set out to do! priceless

[Brok]

1 hour ago, Dark_Grey said:

online gamers. Same sense of power in an otherwise powerless existence.

Nice stereotyping there.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Brok

[Vorg]

How about all the flat earthers start a go fund me to buy a ticket for when Branson or Bezos get their tourism space flight up and running, then tell us what the earth looks like from space. Prove me wrong.

[Dark_Grey]

2 hours ago, Brok said:

Nice stereotyping there.

Fight me online - level 99 Paladin coming at you

[Derek Willis]

Foucault's Pendulums have been demonstrating the Earth is round for 150 years. The plane of a pendulum's oscillation if fixed in inertial space. At the poles the plane rotates once in a sidereal day relative to the Earth turning below. Anywhere other than at the poles the plane of oscillation precesses and so takes longer than a sidereal day to turn through 360 degrees. The angular speed of the precession is proportional to the sine of the latitude. In other words it slows until it reaches zero at the equator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum

Do "flat earthers" know what an oscillation is? Do they know what inertial space is? Do they know what a sidereal day is? Do they know what precession is? Do they know what a sine is? Do they know what ... I don't think so. They obviously haven't even heard of the equator.

[Robotic Jew]

1 minute ago, Derek Willis said:

Foucault's Pendulums have been demonstrating the Earth is round for 150 years. The plane of a pendulum's oscillation if fixed in inertial space. At the poles the plane rotates once in a sidereal day relative to the Earth turning below. Anywhere other than at the poles the plane of oscillation precesses and so takes longer than a sidereal day to turn through 360 degrees. The angular speed of the precession is proportional to the sine of the latitude. In other words it slows until it reaches zero at the equator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault_pendulum

Do "flat earthers" know what an oscillation is? Do they know what inertial space is? Do they know what a sidereal day is? Do they know what precession is? Do they know what a sine is? Do they know what ... I don't think so. They obviously haven't even heard of the equator.

They don't need to know all of that. They have videos on youtube that say the earth is flat.

[bison]

Evidence of a spherical Earth has been know and believed by many, since antiquity. The consistently curved shadow of the Earth upon the Moon, during a Lunar eclipse. Ships gradually vanishing as they sail away from the observer, hull first, then more and more of the mast, from the bottom up. 

Eratosthenes, over 2000 years ago, quantified the sphericity of the Earth by observing shadows cast by the Sun at two distant locations, noting the difference in the angle of the two shadows.

Multiplying the distance between the two shadow observations by the number of times the angular difference fit into a 360 degree circle, he got a reasonably accurate figure for the size of the Earth.

If interested in more details, please view the linked material, below:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#measurement _of_the_Earth's_circumference

Edited March 7, 2019 by bison

[Derek Willis]

58 minutes ago, bison said:

Evidence of a spherical Earth has been know and believed by many, since antiquity. The consistently curved shadow of the Earth upon the Moon, during a Lunar eclipse. Ships gradually vanishing as they sail away from the observer, hull first, then more and more of the mast, from the bottom up. 

Eratosthenes, over 2000 years ago, quantified the sphericity of the Earth by observing shadows cast by the Sun at two distant locations, noting the difference in the angle of the two shadows.

Multiplying the distance between the two shadow observations by the number of times the angular difference fit into a 360 degree circle, he got a reasonably accurate figure for the size of the Earth.

If interested in more details, please view the linked material, below:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eratosthenes#measurement _of_the_Earth's_circumference

Eratosthenes' experiment was one of the great experiments of history. We all know about Archimedes' "Eureka moment" in the bath, and Newton being hit on the head by an apple. What Eratosthenes did ought to be equally well known. What I find interesting is that, for instance, it is not immediately apparent that the stars and planets don't go round the Earth. Yet, as you point out, it has been apparent since ancient times that the Earth is not flat. But even now there are people who can't see that.  

[Podo]

Amazing that Flat-Earthers have enough money between them that they could even fund a study and a documentary. I figured they were all paranoid, uneducated rednecks hiding from the government's mind-control chemtrails or some crap like that.

[Imaginarynumber1]

A friend and I started a flat earth group on facebook, invited everyone we knew, but told know you that it's satire.

[Emma_Acid]

On 07/03/2019 at 2:02 PM, toast said:

" ... there`s we dont see you, Enrique, lift up here, lift up your light way above your head"

(crickets)

" ... interesting"

 

Priceless. Epic. 10 stars.

Most documentaries about these sorts of subjects usually follow the same format - here's a believer, here's an "expert", oh look both arguments are equally valid, ooooh the controversy. This documentary did it so much better.

It should be shown in film school as an example of how to properly form an effective documentary narrative. The Fleathers were shown in a sympathetic light, the scientists weren't sneery or patronising, and the ending was pure genius. Like saying "nope, this is the answer" without ramming it home.

 

[freetoroam]

I believe Bob Knodel's brain is flat. Open him up and prove me wrong. 

[Golden Duck]

On 08/03/2019 at 8:02 AM, Derek Willis said:

Eratosthenes' experiment was one of the great experiments of history. We all know about Archimedes' "Eureka moment" in the bath, and Newton being hit on the head by an apple. What Eratosthenes did ought to be equally well known. What I find interesting is that, for instance, it is not immediately apparent that the stars and planets don't go round the Earth. Yet, as you point out, it has been apparent since ancient times that the Earth is not flat. But even now there are people who can't see that.  

In The Grand Design Stephen Hawking gives a good explanation.

Quote

[Ptolemy's] model seemed natural because we don't feel the earth under our feet moving (except in earthquakes or moments of passion). Ptolemy's model of the cosmos was adopted by the Catholic Church and held as official doctrine for fourteen hundred years. It was not until 1543 that an alternative model was put forward by Copernicus. So which is real? Although it is not uncommon for people to say Copernicus proved Ptolemy wrong, that is not true. As in the case of the goldfish, one can use either picture as a model of the universe. The real advantage of the Copernican system is that the mathematics is much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest.

http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2017262,00.html

I always liked this example for Occam's Razor - it's not based on some arbitrary probability or version of common sense.