10/4/2018 What proof is there to back up the flat Earth theory?

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100+ Answers Do you believe in flat Earth? Why?

Glenn Rager, Instrumentation and Electrical Technician Is there any actual intelligent argument for the flat
earth? Or is it all garbage?
Answered Feb 21, 2017
Let's say I don't believe the world is round. How
Q: What proof do people have for a flat Earth? can one prove the world is round to me?

Why do some people want to believe the Earth is

The flat-earthers may think they have proof — but all they have are overly flat?
simplistic ways of looking at things, misperceptions of the natural world, and
Is Earth flat or spherical?
even intentional fallacies (thanks to YouTube sensationalists spreading
disinformation for profit). How do I prove the flat earth theory?

Why do flat-Earthers think the Earth is flat?

For example:
Why is there the flat Earth debate?
"Stand on the beach and look at the horizon... the curvature is not
Are there really people who still believe the Earth
visible, therefore we are being lied to by NASA". is flat?

"Simple proof that the Earth is flat: Water seeks its own level, so how  Ask New Question
can the oceans bend around the supposed globe? Impossible!" More Related Questions

"The horizon always rises to eye level."

In other languages
"If the Earth is spinning at 1,000 mph, plus going around the Sun at
67,000 mph, plus going around the Galactic center at 514,000 mph, plus En español: ¿Qué prueba hay para respaldar la teoría
de la Tierra plana?
who knows what else science claims... then we would fly off the planet En français : Pourquoi les gens disent-ils que la terre
est plate ? Y en a-t-il des preuves ?
at such ludicrous speeds! It makes more sense that we are not moving at
Auf Deutsch: Welchen Beweis gibt es, um die Theorie
all. Do you feel like we are moving? I didn't think so." einer flachen Erde zu stützen?
In italiano: Che prova c'è per sostenere la teoria della
"If planes flew straight without pointing their noses down, they would Terra piatta?
Dalam bahasa Indonesia: Bukti apa yang ada untuk
fly into space!" mendukung teori Bumi datar?
Em português: Que provas existem para apoiar a
"If a helicopter hovered over a rotating Earth, it would get left behind!" teoria da Terra plana?

"NASA admits to compositing enhanced photos of Earth, therefore

Question Stats
none of them are real."
231 Public Followers
"The Nile River flows north, but that would be flowing uphill if the
134,835 Views
Earth were a globe!"
Last Asked Sep 23

"When train tracks are built, no account is taken for the Earths 40 Merged Questions

curvature. If there was a curvature then the straight laid tracks would Question Locked

get higher and higher off the ground!" Edits

" If gravity is credited with being a force strong enough to curve the
massive expanse of oceans around a globular Earth, it would be
impossible for fish and other creatures to swim through such forcefully
held water."

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10/4/2018 What proof is there to back up the flat Earth theory? - Quora

"The flat Earth model supports the Sun and Moon having the same
diameter (making eclipses possible) but science tells us that somehow
they look exactly the same size, even though the Sun's diameter is
supposedly 400 times bigger and it is 400 times farther away, which
magically makes it appear the same size!"

Every single one of these erroneous assertions (and more not listed) have been
addressed and properly explained over and over again (by myself and others
more knowledgeable), but the flat-earthers continue to parrot them constantly
as if they have newly discovered evidence that "The Earth is Flat!"

For the first time in the history of humankind, we are finally able to break free of
the bounds of terrestrial captivity, to get a look back at ourselves, and to use
fascinating technologies to monitor our planet, keep track of storms, make
weather predictions based off of high definition imagery, install GPS satellites as
an invaluable location resource, build global communications networks and
monitor dangers from space, like coronal mass ejections.

So instead of appreciating all of the advancements that make our lives better,
astoundingly, some would rather deny the reality of our beautiful home planet
and claim it's all a hoax (all the while using the very same technology). One of
their favorite phrases is: "Wake up sheeple!", but ironically it is they who need to
come around and realize that their “proofs” are nothing more than dreamlike
delusions.

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Jordan Rooker
Every single one of those bullets made my eyes twitch....

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Camila Lezcano
Answered Mar 2, 2017
Originally Answered: Flat Earth Believers: What scientific duplicatable proof do you have to support your
belief ?

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10/4/2018 What proof is there to back up the flat Earth theory? - Quora

I would take the time to watch this video to get a glimpse into the mindset of
your average flat-earth supporter as I seriously doubt any of them will be lurking
around Quora (seriously - you'd have an easier time finding a Trump supporter).

For people wanting to spare their IQ points, I'll summarize the video for you:

The first few minutes are this guy establishing his credentials on why he's not a
fool for believing this. It's similar to your average Quoran bragging about their
online IQ test results.

The last few minutes are him saying that if he were to take a plane and ride from
the North Pole to the South Pole, he would eventually arrive in the plane to the
South Pole upside down as he travelled. The visual of him running a plastic
airplane down the globe really helped sell his point. I mean there's also gravity
you have to take into account, but fuck that. We’re talking flat-earth theory here.

Anyway, enjoy the video. Try not to get your hopes up.

Edit: It also just now occurred to me that with the flat earth theory, if you
wanted to travel anywhere - assuming that you wouldn't fall off the edge of the
earth - you would end up upside down anyway as you travelled over the edge.
Just putting that thought out there.

Edit 2.0: I’m starting to get angry messages from random flat-earth supporters
because of this answer. I will be happy to listen to your points on why the earth
is flat if you'll indulge me on why I firmly believe Santa Claus is real despite what
the liberal media has led you to believe.

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Jeremy Smith
Answered Feb 15, 2016
Originally Answered: How do 'flat-earthers' support their arguments? What is their theory?

The whole "theory" ,as far as I can tell, was started due to a miscalculation while
trying to find the curvature of the Earth.  Im not sure if it was done on purpose
or not, but while trying to calculate observing the Statue of Liberty they left a
major part out,  which is the height at which the person was standing.  So , in
doing so, they ended up with it being more than 2000 feet below the horizon, so

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they say this proves that it must be flat instead of round.   Later more and more
people started doing their own calculations with lighthouses, etc around them,
all leaving out that crutial part of the height at which they were viewing
from(most distances they give were also wrong.  For example something 15 miles
away was reported as being 20 miles.  They say you can see the Statue of Liberty
from 60 miles away but I haven't found anyone yet that can back that claim up). 
From there the theory basicaly evolved to creating conspiracy theories for
anything they couldn't explain(which is alot actualy).  For example, we have
never been to space, the sun is the same size of the moon, satelites are fake, etc. 
Pretty much any evidence you give them to try and prove the Earth isn't flat,
they find someway to turn it into a conspiracy theory .  In fact, if you take a close
look at some of the things they say to try and prove the flat Earth, they actualy
debunk theirself alot of times.  Take their model for trying to show how time
zones work with the flat Earth for example.  By their own model (and
explanation of how the sun orbits the Earth) we should NEVER see a lunar
eclipse, the places around the equator shouldnt have constant temps,  and parts
of South America and Africa should see 24 hours darkness.   Not to mention I
dont think we would see sunrises or sunsets(because the sun is just moving
away or towards you).  The sad thing about this theory is I don't believe that
most the people that actualy promote it actualy believe it themselves.  They just
see a way to make some money off  people that find it easier to just believe what
they hear then to actualy spend some time researching the information they are
giving. I really didn't mind this whole flat earth bs at first cause I was
entertained by it,  but WAY too many people are actualy starting to believe this
as fact now(not to mention all the "christians" spreading this stuff around,
making people dumber so they can get more views, hits, sales, etc for more
money and at the same time trying to say they are doing God's work).   To
anyone viewing this that actualy believes the Earth is Flat, PLEASE understand
that the ONLY reason their are so many people trying to promote this theory is
because you have a.)the people that have started believing this and supporting
this and b.) the rest of us that watch the videos or read the blogs and know whats
really going on and try our best to make people realise how silly this is.   Put
both of them together and that makes ALOT of traffic going to the website or
channel.

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Dave Consiglio, Founder at Consiglio Devastations (2016-present)

Answered Jun 10, 2016

That’s the exact problem with the flat Earth theory: it has proof!

Real theories, real science, doesn’t ever have proof. It has evidence. Lots and lots
of evidence. Evidence from various, unrelated sources. Evidence from widely
disparate fields. Evidence that has been tested in multiple ways.

But no proof.

Proof is like faith. It’s a thing you believe without investigating further. It’s the
word of someone on the Internet who’s pretty good with Photoshop. It’s that guy

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who really knows about these things telling you “they don’t want you to know”.
It’s the kid who got a D+ in physics but is absolutely certain he understands why
the Earth isn’t round.

The Earth is round. I can’t prove it, but I am confident all the same. I am
confident because Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth 2200
years ago using simple math. I am confident because I’ve seen Michigan from
the top of the Sears Tower…but I cannot see Canada from there. I am confident
because I have flown in an airplane. I am confident because I have watched a
Space Shuttle launch. I am confident because I understand the basics of how
gravity works.

Also, this:

“Proof” that the Earth is flat:

200 Proofs Earth is Not a Spinning Ball

This is the first link I found. In it, it claims that the wind should be blowing 1000
mph, the ocean should slosh around constantly, and that all flights from South
America to New Zealand have to go to the Northern Hemisphere because the
Earth is not a ball.

The wind doesn’t blow at 1000mph and the oceans don’t slosh very much for the
same reason we don’t get thrown up against the wall - gravity holds us down. As
for the flights:

Google Flights

Nope! You can fly from Santiago, Chile to Auckland, New Zealand non-stop:

LAN Airlines (LA) #801 ✈ FlightAware

When I wrote this, flight LA801 was over the South Pacific.

The site even talks about how you can see Michigan from Chicago which
shouldn’t be possible. It neglects to mention, however, that you can’t see Canada
from Chicago.

But what is perhaps the most telling thing about this site, and others like it, is
how many times it says “This guy says this” and “That guy says that”. What it
doesn’t say, though is that this guy:

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Saw this:

And a Japanese lunar probe saw this:

The Earth is round. All of the evidence points to the fact that the Earth is round.
But believing in conspiracy theories is exciting for some people, especially those
who dislike authority and feel special about being “different”. Different can be a
good thing.

But it can also be simply wrong.

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Ty Conner
It would be so cool to have a blue moon with white swirls....

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10/4/2018 What proof is there to back up the flat Earth theory? - Quora
Jonathan Emanuel-Hart
Answered Apr 15, 2017

A2A - Thanks Jonathan!

OP’s question: What are some 'facts' people use to justify the flat Earth theory?

A perennial weed they use is the fact that you can occasionally see past the
horizon.

It’s true, you can, but it does not justify a belief in the flat Earth.

If you want to prove that there is a horizon you should always observe from two
points. One higher up, and one close to the surface. See my answer to this
question:

Jonathan Emanuel-Hart's answer to Has anyone between us seen the earth from
a distance (to see with his own eyes) its shape?

If you only use one observation, close to the surface, you will almost certainly
get an incorrect value for the curvature of the Earth because of refraction.

sin θ 1 n2
Snell’s law of refraction, sin θ 2
=
n1
, tells us that the closer a ray of light gets to
a 90 degrees angle of incidence to an interface between two media with different
refractive incidences the larger the deflection will be.

Since the atmosphere is roughly the same when you move short distances along
the surface of the Earth, but changes much more significantly as you move
upwards towards the vacuum of space the “interfaces” are mostly parallel to the
ground.

This means that if you look vertically upwards there is essentially zero
atmospheric refraction. And you get very low values for all angles greater than
about 15 degrees above the horizon (which is one reason the best evidence
against the flat Earth is the angle of stars etc as measured with a sextant, see my
answer to “Is the Earth flat”).

But when you are looking right down on the horizon atmospheric refraction is
much greater and fairly difficult to predict. It can also bend light either way. If
the air near the ground is warm and the air higher up is cooler then light travels
faster through the warmer air than the cooler, making the refractive index close
to the ground slightly lower than the one higher up, and that has the effect of
bending the light upwards, making the horizon effectively closer than it would
otherwise be and hiding stuff that you would normally see.

On the other hand, if the air near the ground is cooler than the air higher up (the
meteorologists call this a “temperature inversion”) then the refractive index
close to the ground is slightly higher than the one in the air higher up, and that
has the effect of bending light downwards, allowing us to see past where the
horizon would normally be.

A photograph of this effect frequently touted by Flat Earthers is the “Chicago

Skyline” photograph:

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The first thing to notice is that you can see a horizon. If the Earth was flat you
would be able to see down to the shore line and you can’t!

Playing with Google Earth it seems to me that an “eye altitude” of at least 350
meters is about correct for the horizon line, the lake is about 175 meters above
sea level, so the horizon line is about 175 meters above the lake.

Some Flat Earthers will tell you this photograph was taken from 70 miles away,
on the shore of Lake Michigan, and that the top of the Willis tower should be 100
meters below the horizon. None of that is correct!

The ABC News team who first published the picture went back with the
photographer, Joshua Nowicki to the spot where the photograph was taken.
Their article can be found here: Skyline Skepticism: The Lake Michigan Mirage

The photograph was taken from the top of Tower Hill 250ft, or 76 meters above
the lake.

Add one meter because the camera is probably on a tripod to give 77 meters
above the lake.

The distance the ABC reporters give is 53 miles between Tower Hill and
Chicargo. I measured it myself on Google Earth and I get a slightly longer 86.2
Km so I will use that.

Plugging those figures into a horizon calculator (Earth Curve Calculator ) gives
a hidden height of 236.3375 meters.

So if approximately 236.4 meters should be hidden and only about 175 meters
actually are hidden that means we can see about 61.4 meters that we wou...
(more)

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Sasha Maddah, works at Freelance Photographers

Answered Apr 17, 2017
Originally Answered: What arguments do people use to support the theory that the earth is flat?

Their main (starting argument) is we see a flat horizon. The other arguments are
inherently wrong because they look for “evidence” that only supports their flat
earth idea right. As in they look at the data, pick whatever they like, discard the
rest.

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Their second argument is that the government/NASA is lying to us in order to

steal money. Of course this argument can never be proven wrong because to
them the absence of evidence simply means either:

a) NASA employees don't know about the lie,

or

b) NASA is good at hiding the truth.

And they never elaborate on who's actually telling the lies. Is it the Astronauts?
Astronomers? The head of NASA? Some illuminati style group?

The Conspiracy argument has a lot of holes in it that it cannot be filled so they
(flat earthers) opposing arguments stupid.

The other arguments are not either based on really bad science or based on lack
of scientific understanding. For example:

Gravity is not real because water doesn't stick to the surface of a ball on
earth.

Why don't we feel the earth move/rotate.

How can airplanes fly if there is gravity.

When looking at sunbeams we see them forming a triangle shape. This

means the sun is a spot light and much closer. To beat this argument
simply point out that railroad tracks seem to come from one point if you
look far enough.

We only see one side of the moon therefore the moon is also a flat disk.

All images from other planets are in 2D.

Wide angle lenses used to take pics of earth make the earth look curved.
And the dumber version: telescopes have circular lenses so they make
things look spherical.

The temperature in high altitudes is 2,000c plus, therefore, satellites

and the ISS cannot be up there. This comes from not understanding the
difference between heat and temperature.

Taking videos with cellphones or regular camera lenses of the stars and
zooming in and seeing a swirling/twinkling light source. They use this
to point out other stars/planets are simply balls of gas. Apparently they
can't use telescopes and/or don't understand how optics work.

I'm sure there are many other arguments but I don't remember them right now.

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David Goodman
Answered May 30, 2017
Originally Answered: Why is there more compelling evidence showing that the earth may actually be flat
rather than being a globe?

The wording of your question has a problem. There is much, much more
scientific and easily verified evidence showing that the Earth is a globe and not
flat like a pizza pie.

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As to compelling evidence, is it possible that you only find evidence compelling,

if it supports the belief that the world is flat?

There so many observations that you as an individual can make that proves the
Earth is roughly spherical. I’m not accusing you of this, but I have talked to
people who believe in a flat Earth and even though we could both see the same
thing, they denied the evidence of their own eyes because it conflicted with
what they wanted to believe.

Let’s take a look at a few examples:

1. The Earth rotates on its axis causing a transition of dawn to noon to

dusk to night. How this works is obvious to anyone in a dark room
spinning a globe with only 1 lamp shining on the globe. You can see the
same transition of light sweeping across the globe.

2. Now put a pizza on the a table and try the same thing as (1.) in a dark
room with one bright handheld light. If Earth were flat you could see
the Sun from every place on Earth until the light goes under the table.
When you watch the news and see live video from 12 time zones away,
one side is light and the other dark. This could not happen on a flat
Earth and you can duplicate this experiment any time in your own
home.

3. On a clear night, watch the sky. If you observe carefully, you will see
small points of light move swiftly from horizon to horizon. If you view a
point through a telescope you can resolve the larger satellites like the
ISS. These orbiting objects make perfect sense with a round Earth, but
are unexplained by flatties.

4. Line of sight: If the Earth were flat, you would be able to see every tall
object on Earth with a telescope because you would have a direct line-
of-sight to that object from where you stand.

5. Time lapse photos of the night sky: shows you the Earth’s rotation using
the most distant objects (stars) as reference points. The North star
appears stationary in the northern sky because of the rotation of Earth’s
axis. The flat Earth explanation I’ve been told for this, is the Aether
holds the stars and rotates around the Earth. But you can easily do
parallax measurements to show the closer stars are all moving across
your film at the same rate as the further ones, so it is obvious the Earth
is what is rotating.

6. The other planets can be observed moving in their own orbits. The
inner planets Mercury and Venus show phases growing large thin
crescents down to small full phase. This can only happen if they are
orbiting the Sun within Earth’s orbit.

7. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn never go to new phase. Unlike the inner
planets, they are full phase when we are between them and the Sun.
This is only explained adequately by round Earth

8. During a lunar eclipse the Earth casts a ROUND shadow on the moon.

9. The moon is round and orbits the Earth.

10. The planets are round when you look at them through a telescope. You
can watch the spherical Mars rotate and see its features change through
rotation.

11. Jupiter is round and has 4 large round moons that you can see
revolving around it. This is easy to verify with a telescope as Gailleo did.

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12. All other visible planets and moons are spherical

There is so much more solid evidence that the Earth is a globe, but if you don’t
find it compelling then the problem is with your thinking, not the evidence.

If the Earth was actually flat, an enormous number of things that we take
granted every day would not work.

1. Gravity would not work

2. We would have to accept that the moon which we can see with our
naked eyes is round, and all the other planets and moons you can see
with a typical telescope and see rotate and orbit are completely
different than Earth…why would Earth work on a completely different
principle than all other heavenly bodies we can observe

3. Satellites that we use for study and communications are not real

4. GPS can not work, although it accurately shows us our position, speed,
direction, etc as we drive

5. Geostationary satellites that we aim our TV & internet dishes at are

being held up by what

6. Ships going out to sea do not fall below the horizon though we can
clearly see they do

7. At night, as you watch satellites passing steadily from horizon to

horizon are not

8. When you are up in a jetliner, the curve of the horizon must be some
kind of optical illusion

9. Airliners flying in the southern hemisphere do not take longer to fly the

flat earth’s longer distances, nor do they fly over or crash into an ice
wall

10. When time lapse photographing the night sky, the North Star is
stationary while the other star’s appear to rotate around it

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10/4/2018 What proof is there to back up the flat Earth theory? - Quora

1. 1. When time lapse photographing the night sky, the Southern Star is
stationary while the other star’s appear to rotate around it

2. All the photographs of the round Earth from 1000’s of different

satellites and space missions owned by different governments and
private corporations have all been doctored to make the look Earth
spherical

3. During lunar eclipses the Earth always casts a round shadow on the
moon

4. The sun not setting during the arctic summer and not rising during the
arctic winter

5. The sun not setting during the antarctic summer and not rising during
the antarctic winter

6. The variation of day length at northern and southern latitudes

depending on the time of year

7. Differing shadow angles depending on latitude and time of year

8. The international date line

9. The knitting together of all sciences showing that a spherical Earth fits
in with our understanding of the universe

10. Why the government is paying millions of people to try to fool the
flatties, what advantage to the G is putting out such a ridiculous lie, and
how to cover the conspiratorial payments. What would be the reason to
do this and why haven’t I received my money for supporting it?

This is just scratching the surface, but where is a flat-earth supporting theory
that covers all this stuff, shows how the universe REALLY works that is self
supporting and not just a silly bunch of disconnected and superficial arguments
?
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