What I am about to convey is going to send you running around your room in a fury, banging your head against the wall, wishing that you had never lived long enough to hear nonsense of such magnitude. So, only read further at your own responsibility.
Apparently, people and scientists are perpetuating a conspiracy that the earth is round when in fact it is flat. So claims an actual (no kidding) group called the The Flat Earth Society. I promise I am not trying to fool you. Such a society does exist and on their website they provide proofs for why they think they are right. There is even a wikipedia article on them. Sigh! Sometimes, I truly am ashamed to call myself human.
- A drawing of the Flat Earth as they THINK it to be
- An actual IMAGE taken by an astronaut.
So they obviously don’t believe in visual evidence provided by the photographs but fortunately for us, anybody with even an elementary knowledge of science can pierce right through their superior philosophies and infallible evidences. Shit, the attempt at justification is worse than OJ’s denial of murder. But just as in OJ’s case, justice will ultimately be served and we will do that right here.
- Infallible evidence # 1 (these, along with their proofs, are available on their website): The ether factor
It is claimed that earth’s location in space is stationary because it does not exist in a vacuum but rather in ether. Why is that? Because “light waves… require a medium for transmission.” Incorrect! Light waves are electromagnetic waves that are carried around in these fundamental excitations of the electromagnetic field called photons. According to the “wave-particle duality” behavior they can behave as a wave or a particle. In a vacuum, the photons behave as particles and travel at the speed of light.
Okay, so I lied. That wasn’t so elementary. I empathize. My brain hurts too. That was a lot of physics for my biology leaning mind. I had to pull out my Physics for Scientists and Engineersby Giancoli (great book, btw) from years ago and spend two hours scratching my head to make any sense of this. (For any of you physicists out there, please help me and the readers out by expanding on this in laymen terms in the comments box and/or directing me to a website. We biologists really don’t like equations.)It does get easier from here though, I promise. - Infallible evidence #2: Maintaining speed
Well, earth can go on moving forever because the outer space is a vacuum. There. Done. Next one, please.
- Infallible evidence #3: An accelerating world
This one is actually a great laugh. Stephen Colbert would love this. Somebody give me his number!
“The Earth accelerating in circular motion would behave no differently than would a car taking a corner: loose objects (humans and animals would act like loose change or a cup of coffee on the dashboard) would slide around, or be thrown off completely. There would be an apparent centrifugal force on everything. During the day, when things would be facing the sun and therefore on the inside of the ‘orbit’, buildings would be crushed and humans beings squashed like grasshoppers in a centrifuge. And at night, when everything would be at the outside, trees and buildings would be ripped from the ground and flung into outer space, and humans wouldn’t stand a chance.”
Just too funny. Give me a second to calm down. 1001, 1002, 1003… Okay, let’s continue.
One. That argument is inherently contradictory. Centrifugal force would tend to pull things in rather than fling them out.
Two. Thank that apple that fell on Newton’s head because now we know that there is gravity!
- Infallible evidence #4: Staying on Top
I just called and asked my twelve year old nephew. He says that everything is attracted to the center of the earth. I am getting teary-eyed. I want to go give him a huge hug.
- Infallible evidence #5: Falling off
So they do know about this mysterious gravitational force. What a relief! But what is this garbage about re-alignment like a magnet in a strong magnetic field? I don’t even get it! This is starting to sound more and more like a bad-but-because-it-is-so-bad-and-that’s-why-it’s-kind-of-amusing science fiction. But tis not for me. I’m pressing the fast forward button.
- Infallible evidence #6: Negotiating long-distance travel
Don’t make me call my nephew again, darn it! It is way past his bed time and if I call and wake him up again his parents are going to have me for breakfast tomorrow.
- Infallible evidence #7: The fluid problem
I wonder if these Flat Earth folks grew up in a coffin with no toys. Perhaps their parents realized that they were too unstable to go outside and play because if they had been allowed to, they would have certainly realized that gravity doesn’t just work on earth’s surface. Ball when thrown up comes back down. Ever danced in the rain? It falls to the ground, rather than “the oceans should all fall “down” into the sky, leaving the planet dry and barren.”
- Infallible evidence #8: Thermodynamic complications
What complications? If you can’t think of any, I certainly can’t think of any.
As expected, all the ‘proofs’ are fallible. Sanity lives to see another day! Obviously, the world is not static, not the fixed center of the Universe. The sun, planets and stars do not all revolve around it (although not necessarily in circular paths), not in a plane level with the not-flat-at-all Earth.
Phew! I am glad we had this little talk. I know it was a little bit awkward, kind of like the first time you asked what that little appendage down there was for. But it’s okay. Now you know, and more importantly, no body was hurt. Just don’t tell anybody that you thought that the earth was flat and it’ll all be okay. Okay? Good!
If the world is so obviously a sphere then why do people still think it's flat? Why don't you people research the Flat Earth Theory for yourselves and you will see it's not crazy or unrealistic. Everyone knew the world was flat for 1000's of years across the world including The Hebrews, The Egyptians, The Chinese, The Muslims, The Native Americans and others.
"Free Thinkers" that challenged the scriptures were fooled by such simple tricks of perception. They say "The moon is round and so is the sun" and then they see Ships "appear" to disappear over the horizon and assume the world is a sphere.
Well friends, If the world is a 25,000 mile circumference sphere then you are standing on top of a ball and the ground should curve downwards 1 mile over a 90 mile distance in all directions. People think the world is so big that you can't see the curvature, but the ground should curve 8 inches in only the first mile, 32 inches in the second mile and 6 feet in the 3rd mile.
We should be able to see this curvature if the world is indeed a sphere. Test the claims for yourself and you will see that the ground does not curve at all. In fact, You can see the FULL Toronto skyline from New York over Lake Ontario with a telescope which is 30+ miles across. There should be at least a 150+ foot tall bulge of water blocking part of the view and it does not. The ground should be curved downwards 600 feet but it does not. The skyline is flat, the horizon is flat and Lake Ontario is amazingly flat.
The reason things appear to disappear on the horizon is because of mirages. The moisture in the air and also heat blocks light rays from reaching you when the objects reach the vanishing point of your vision. The ship's full view can be restored with a simple telescope or binoculars.
PWNED
First, you have their site wrong. Their official site is at TheFlatEarthSociety.org. It doesn't make the official group any less ridiculous though. The site you linked to was clearly trolling people. And it's especially obvious if you take a look at their "disclaimer" at the bottom of the page.
Second, in your response to their "An accelerating world" argument, you refer to the centrifugal force pulling things in rather than flinging them out. This falls into a common misconception about centrifugal force, which is that it is a force. Rather, centrifugal force is a resultant force that accelerates a body in a circular motion. The centrifugal force in this case would be the gravitational force on us from the sun. Although is is true that at night, when we are further away from the sun, the centrifugal force required to keep us in orbit around the sun is less than the force required to keep us in obrit we we are closer to the sun, the gravitational force on us from the sun is also less when we are farther away from the sun.
If that was too convoluted and difficult to understand, tell me. I'll try to explain it more clearly.
Thanks Alice. I really appreciate the correction and the clarification. I have fixed the site address. I knew about the centripetal force but didn't realize that centrifugal force is just the resultant force. That is why I never became a physics major and I'm glad that you did
haha wow that was great. But on that note how would it be possible to take a boat from china past the Americas and africa back to the other side of china if the world was flat? can that be explained to me?
Of course you can't take a boat from China past the Americas. It's just a lie and a conspiracy perpetrated by the world leaders to control our thoughts. Generally, the world leaders can't solve or even come to an agreement on such simple issues as child slavery and mass murder in Sudan but when it comes to spreading lies they are extremely adept at it. That earth is round is a lie, that AIDS is caused by HIV is a lie (http://www.omniscienceblog.com/peter-duesberg-and-aids-denialists), that 9/11 happened is a lie. On that thought, never underestimate the stupidity of humans especially in large groups.
PS I'm glad that you liked the article. Thank you!
I'll never underestimate YOUR stupidity.
Down with the Flat Earth People. Thank you for doing this for the rest of us!