Comes under the "xyz told me it's true" (except for Macarthur)
I'm sorely tempted to go look at the Flat Earth website again (plus I'm curious what the heck the Ice Wall is about ), but if the earth is a disc the moon can still orbit it yes?
Oh I like science. We can do amazing things because of science. I just dislike "theories" being presented as "facts".
From ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ ÁÊÁÄÇÌÉÁ ÊÑÇÔÇÓ
Robert Fulghum's IT WAS ON FIRE WHEN I LAY DOWN ON IT (p.172-177)
So occassionally I ask questions that I probably won't get a useful answer to because just maybe I might. *shrug* if I lose credibility in doing so, 'tis a small price to pay." Are there any questions? ...........
An offer that comes at the end of college lectures and long meetings. Said when an audience is not only overdosed with information, but when there is no time left anyhow. At times like that you sure do have questions. Like, "Can we leave now?" and "What the hell was this meeting for?" and "Where can I get a drink?"
The gesture is supposed to indicate openness on the part of the speaker, I suppose, but if in fact you do ask a question, both the speaker and the audience will give you drop-dead looks. And some fool - some earnest idiot - always asks. And the speaker always answers. By repeating most of what he has already said.
But if there is a little time left and there is a little silence in response to the invitation, I usually ask the most important question of all: "What is the Meaning of Life?"
You never know, somebody may have the answer, and I'd really hate to miss it because I was too socially inhibited to ask. But when I ask, it's usually taken as a kind of absurdist move - people laugh and nod and gather up their stuff and the meeting is dismissed on that ridiculous note.
Once, and only once, I asked that question and got a serious answer. One that is with me still.
I had a look at the flat earth society's web site FAQ. It seems that anything they cannot answer is labeled as part of the conspiracy. This seems a little unpalatable to me. Some of the answers seem well considered and well thought out, but all the talk of international conspiracy sticks in the throat.
Conspiracies are usually a way to hide or pervert thought for gain. But I can see no reason to try and fool the earth's population in this way. What is to be gained? It just doesn't add up ..... ok ..... back to my Von Daniken books
What is Elucidean Geometry please - I'm assuming that this must be different
to normal geometry?
Light doesn't always travel in a straight line. Light waves can be diffracted, so just because you can see in a straight line, doesn't mean that it is a straight line.
From the web site, I love this arguement:
Q: Why do you say there is a conspiracy?"
A: Well it's quite simple really; if the earth is in fact flat, then the governments must be lying when they say it isn't.
And if we're all descended from extraterrestrials then the government must be lying when they say we aren't.
QED
It is good isn't it.
The best bit is the technique of labelling "FE" and "RE" as two separate - and by implication, equially valid - theories. It's great, it's the same technique the creationist nutters are trying to use - borrowing the hard-won credibility of science for your own loony theories.
So, I hereby declare the "DJ is God" theory, which has equal validity to the "DJ is Not God" theory held by some other people. Hey, the DJING crowd have a right to their opinions too, you know
Also: stop having a go a Ghost, everyone, he does Tango so therefore is infinitely superior to you bunch of plebs
Go to the Bonneville salt flats
Look to a point in the distance
The earth should be curved between where you are and there (excluding hills etc)
Go to that point in the distance
Look at another point in the distance
The earth should be curved between where you are and there (excluding hills etc)
Go to that point in the distance
Repeat till bored / convinced.
What I think you're trying to argue here is how much belief you hold in common assumptions. Of course I can point you in the direction of pictures from aircraft that show the curvature of the Earth, or pictures of the Earth from space but you'll simply tell me that I didn't take them therefore how do I know they're true etc etc. So no point in arguing anything with a scientific base to you, because if you don't want to believe it's true then you won't. I mean, if you have to prove absolutely everything to yourself before believing that an assertion is true then you'd probably lead a rather strange life - how far do you take it?
@ DJ
Light does bend near massive objects. This is because they deform the space-time continuum so that light goes around the edge like a golf ball on an uneven green. Human beings do not deform the space-time continuum sufficiently for this to be measurable. Even a black hole or an entire galaxy will only shift photons by a tenny tiny fractions of an arc-second in a billion light years.
Well, tell us what worm holes you are thinking of, and maybe there is an answer. The only mathematical construct I know of that makes wormholes possible are inside black holes. By definition the laws of the universe don't apply inside black holes, so the speed could be faster, slower or the same...
If the earth was flat, then the horizon would be permanently bright in most locations at night, because of light pollution from urban areas. Note the amount of light in the Benelux region in this satellite image, for instance - that would be visible across the entire eastern seaboard of Britain on a flat earth. But it isn't.
I can't believe people are even bothering to offer any proof that the earth is not flat
Difraction of light is also a problem closer to "home", for example in surveying long tunnels. I'm a civil engineer and not a surveyor, but understand that diffraction becomes a significant issue for survey accuracies when you are constructing things like the Channel Tunnel. Some form of calculations are required to compensate for diffraction of the laser beams used for surveying. If anyone is particularly bothered, I'm sure I can probably find some references for this, but my university surveying notes are currently in an attic in Inverness.
I think the best example of earth curvature is looking at the Humber Bridge when standing at Spurn Point in Humberside. From memory, you can see only the top half of the two support towers, whilst the bridge deck is below the horizon line. The water in the Humber Estuary is flat, and hence the only explanation that you can't see the bridge deck is that the earth is round.
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