Dennis Diderot said,
The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
If the earth is a sphere or ball, then there must be evidence of a curved surface.
Generations of children and adults, from Aristotle to Roman times to this day, have
believed that the curve can be proved by watching ships gradually disappear as they
move away going over the curved surface of a spherical earth, because it is going
around the curve of the earth, right?
But does this really prove the earth is a ball?
Mathematicians have worked out a mathematical formula based on spherical trigonometry to
calculate what happens when a ship goes over the horizon and disappears from sight.
The formula for finding how far a distant object is below the horizon is 8 inches,
two-thirds of a foot per mile squared.
C equals two-thirds times the diameter squared.
The answer is in feet, where C is the curve, two-thirds of a foot is 8 inches,
and D is the distance below the curve. The answer is in feet.
For example, a ship at C is 10 miles away. How far is the ship below the horizon?
C equals two-thirds times D squared. D equals 10 miles.
C equals two-thirds of 10 squared, 10 times 10.
The answer is in feet.
Answer equals 66.6 feet.
The above formula is based on basic spherical trigonometry.
But if one goes to check this formula on the internet, one will see how a simple idea
can be expressed so complex even scientists find it hard to follow.
According to critics, the change is recent to support a spherical earth and heliocentricity.
This experiment will need two experimenters and two or more monitors.
Apparatus needed is a video camera with a large zoom lens,
access to a large lake like one of the Great Lakes, preferably frozen on a very calm and clear day.
Set up a station on the edge of the lake and place a marker on the ice three miles away.
Use a drone flying at a constant controlled one meter above the ice so as to pass over the three mile marker.
The drone camera will identify the marker and stop, hover in the place still at one meter above the ice.
Can the experimenters see the drone by naked eye or has it gone over the curve?
Or has it disappeared because the drone has gone beyond the vanishing point,
the limit of the human eye to see in the distance?
Now video the drone using the zoom lens and ask can it still be seen?
Now repeat the experiment but put the marker at six miles away and video through the zoom lens.
Carefully collate the video footage, repeat the experiment for analysis.
There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration of course.
In this experiment there is no need to use complex contrived mathematical equations,
just simple observation and common sense.
Is water flat?
The earth is over 70% water and water is flat.
So where is the curve?
Whenever experiments have been tried on the surface of standing water,
the surface has always been found to be level.
If the earth were a globe, the surface of all standing water would be convex.
This is experimental proof the earth is not a globe.
No curve is seen when mountains are observed at a distance as well.
Edward Henry cites John McIntyre, who researched three mountains,
Mount Tenant, Mount Greybeard and Mount Frying Pan,
all very nearly the same height.
Standing on Mount Tenant,
McIntyre expected to see Mount Greybeard lower down than Mount Frying Pan
because of the curve of the earth, since it was 34 miles away.
But to his shock and surprise, it was the same height.
When scientists are confronted with these factual results,
they will split hairs to bend the results to support what they believe.
But belief always carries the day, not science.
According to critics, when scientists discovered the earth was a flat plain,
they realized they had a problem.
So how did they cope with the spherical earth theory
that was so well developed and inscribed into the human psyche for centuries?
Well, they had gone too far down the rabbit hole to turn back for sure.
The truth about the real shape of the earth is too shocking.
So they wrapped the flat earth map around a globe.
But this made problems of their own.
Problems found on Mercator's projection, where Greenland appears huge,
much larger than it really is.
In actual fact, Greenland fits 13 times into the continent of Africa.
The strategic map in the White House is there for military uses,
should the USA be attacked.
The famous blue marble is not a photograph of the earth from space,
as many believe.
It's a composite of strips of a flat earth map wrapped around a sphere.
Any flat image can be wrapped around almost any 3D shape.
See one of these many blue marbles, for instance.
These are just some of the many blue marbles made over the years.
But this is not a photograph.
It is admittedly photoshopped strips wrapped around a sphere.
Also, the image of the Milky Way Galaxy cannot be a photograph,
since no vehicle carrying a camera launched from earth
has ever been outside the galaxy.
It's an artist's impression of a theoretical idea.
But how many people believe this is an actual photo?
Mountain ranges reflected in lakes is a good example of the flat earth.
If earth is a sphere, then lakes should behave as convex mirrors
and the image smaller, as seen at B.
Mountains reflecting on a lake or sea,
the reflection is the same size as the mountain in A.
On a curved earth, the reflection would be smaller, like in B.
What do we actually see?
What do reflections look like here on our actual earth?
These photos show perfect reflections,
which are exactly the same size as the mountain,
indicating the water is flat.
You may conduct your own simple experiment
using a regular flat mirror and a convex car reversing mirror.
You'll see the image in a flat mirror is always the same size as the object,
while the image in a convex mirror is always smaller than the object.
Many films and videos show the earth from high up in the stratosphere as a sphere,
particularly the video where Felix Baumgartner made his famous leap in 2012
from 20 miles up from a high balloon.
And of course, what we are told are views from satellites,
the International Space Station, and the Hubble telescope,
where the earth is decidedly spherical.
The cameras used, however, are special cameras fitted with fisheye lenses,
which can show straight lines as curved convex or concave.
But when film is taken from amateur balloons at more than 20 miles high,
using a regular lens, the horizon appears flat.
Critics claim there is a deliberate element of deception from space agencies
to exaggerate the curve.
The fisheye lens distorts the image.
Critics say it is deliberately used to deceive,
which is not too difficult since the majority of people
already believe the earth is a ball,
having been conditioned to see what they expect.
The following videos show the distortion of a fisheye,
which can be a convex or concave lens
in contrast to a regular normal lens.
Watch the short video of the Felix Baumgartner jump on the 15th of March, 2012.
Before Baumgartner jumped from his capsule from 128,000 feet above the earth,
a camera with an ordinary, regular lens inside
briefly shows a flat, eye-level horizon of the earth.
When Baumgartner steps out of the balloon from the capsule,
an external GoPro camera is switched on,
and then suddenly the whole horizon is transformed into a curved horizon,
which, according to critics,
was deliberately done to give the impression of a curved earth
to meet the expectation of viewers.
But watching the video more closely,
the curve is too sharp and small for a complete and whole earth.
The curves are seen as both convex and concave,
according to the angle of the camera.
But the horizon is not convex, nor concave, but flat.
What is considered to be the very first view from a rocket into space
from 65 miles up was from the Nazi V-2 rocket
launched from the White Sands missile range of New Mexico on October 14, 1946.
A regular lens shows a flat earth,
which is quite different from the view that NASA released thereafter
using fisheye lenses that distort the horizon
even from only five miles high.
Notice the sharpness of the curve.
The V-2 rocket is 13 miles higher and shows a very different picture.
Balloons were used extensively in the 19th century
before engine-powered airplanes existed.
Reports from that time are very interesting
and worth reading the impressions given by those balloonists.
In an editorial from the London Journal, July 18, 1857,
one journalist described the experience of his Haudenosaunee balloon ascent,
quote,
The horizon always rises up to meet the eye at high level.
Observers from a balloon 20 miles high using a standard lens
would have to look down to see the horizon.
But in practice, the horizon is always at eye level.
An average person sees the horizon about 3.5 to 6 miles away.
A taller person can see a little further perspective.
Perspective may be explained by railway lines.
The lines are perfectly parallel,
but a person standing in the middle of the lines,
looking into the distance, sees them getting closer and closer.
Although the person knows they are the same distance apart,
but they can only see as far as the horizon.
The railway line appears to get smaller, but of course it does not.
It is approaching the vanishing point.
But this is just perspective, and nothing has really vanished.
When a person starts to walk away down the middle of a road,
they appear to get smaller,
and eventually their legs start to appear blurry and shimmery.
This is because of the density of the air
and light returning from the legs becoming distorted.
Perspective, however, can be changed
by using binoculars, zoom lens, or a telescope,
and the image of the person appears closer and visible again.
Eventually, the person still walking down the road disappears,
not because they have gone over the curve of the earth,
but simply because they have gone out of range of view,
called the vanishing point.
Ships at sea that appear to disappear at the bottom
can be restored to full view using a good zoom lens camera.
The bottom of the ship can come into focus,
and the bow seen clearly breaking the waves.
There are hundreds of videos produced by researchers
which demonstrate that ships do not vanish
around the curve of the earth.
The teaching in schools that ships at sea disappear
because they have gone over the curve of the earth
is no longer a credible proof that the earth has a curved surface.
It's part of the natural physics of water and other fluids
to always find their level and remain flat.
If disturbed in any way, motion ensues until the flat level is resumed.
If raised up then released, the nature of all liquids
is to flood outwards taking the easiest course
towards finding its new level.
Hydroelectric power stations are a testament to this fact.
But if the earth is a giant sphere
tilted on its vertical axis, spinning through never ending space
then it follows that truly flat, consistently level surfaces
do not exist here.
Moreover, if the earth is spherical
then it follows that the surface of all earth's water
including the massive oceans
must maintain a certain degree of convexity.
But this is contrary to the fundamental physical nature of water
to always be and remain level.
The Nile River in Africa is 4,132 miles long
flowing over an arc of the curve of the earth
with some tendon angle at the center of the earth of about 60 degrees
then logically it must flow uphill at some stage
and then down to the Mediterranean.
There are other long rivers such as the Congo and Amazon
totally incompatible with the supposed globularity of the earth.
As Thomas Winship says
we know from practical experiment that water will find its level
and cannot by any possibility remain other than level
or flat or horizontal
whatever term may be used to express the idea.
It is therefore quite out of the range of possibility
that rivers could do as they would on a globe.
The situation is even more baffling
when scientists say the force of gravity is a weak force
yet it's able to hold down trillions of tons of water
on the surface of the earth
while traveling at 67,000 miles an hour in orbit
and rotating over 1,000 miles an hour at the equator.
Critics contend that all the evidence indicates
that earth is not moving and is flat.
Anyone can show that the horizon is perfectly flat
by a simple experiment on a suitable beach.
Take a rigid plank of wood about six feet long or more
and place it across two tripods as shown here.
Using a spirit level to ensure it is perfectly horizontal
place a plumb line in the middle
and at various places across the plank
to ensure it is perfectly level and square to the ground.
Then facing the sea and taking a line of sight
line up the plank with the distant horizon.
If the earth was curved
and the curve could be observed over a great expanse of the horizon
the curve should be observable at both ends of the plank.
The keel canal that cuts across Denmark peninsula
is almost 57 miles, 91 kilometers long
without a single lock to raise it up
and over a 91 kilometer curve.
There are thousands of canals, hundreds of miles long
across the world that are perfectly flat.
If there are locks it is to lift the boats and ships
over a rugged flat landscape
not a curved earth.
Other examples are the Suez Canal
100 miles connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Canals and railways are always custom made horizontally
often over hundreds of miles
without any allowance made for curvature.
One surveyor, Mr. T. Westwood
wrote in January 1896 to the Earth Review Magazine
stating that quote,
Another surveyor and engineer of 30 years
wrote to the Birmingham Weekly Mercury
on February 15th 1890 stating
I am thoroughly acquainted with the theory and practice
of civil engineering.
However bigoted some of our professors
may be in the theory of surveying
according to the prescribed rules
yet it is well known that such theoretical measurements
are incapable of any practical illustration.
All our locomotives are designed to run
on what may be regarded as true levels or flats.
Anything approaching 8 inches in the mile
increasing as the square of the distance
could not be worked by any engine
that was ever yet constructed.
Early in 1898 I met Mr. Hughes
chief officer of the steamer City of Lincoln.
This gentleman told me he had projected
thousands of miles of local railway
in South America
and never heard of any allowance
for curvature being made.
If the earth were a sphere
airplane pilots would have to constantly
correct their altitudes downwards
so as to not fly straight off into outer space.
If the earth were truly a sphere
25,000 miles in circumference
covering 8 inches per mile squared
a pilot wishing to maintain their altitude
at a typical cruising speed of 500 miles per hour
would have to constantly tip their nose downward
and descend 2,777 feet every minute.
When pilots set an altitude
their artificial horizon gauge remains level
and so does their course.
Nothing like the necessary 2,777 foot per minute
declination is taken into consideration.
Similarly,
ships captains in navigating great distances at sea
never need to factor the supposed curvature
of the earth into their calculations.
Both plane sailing and great circle sailing
the most popular navigation methods
use plane not spherical trigonometry.
Plane sailing is navigating a ship
making all mathematical calculations
on the assumption that the earth is perfectly flat.
If the earth were in fact a sphere
such an errant assumption
would make constantly glaring inaccuracies
and the necessity for using spherical trigonometry
would become obvious.
All distances whether they be great or small
by sea rely upon ordinary flat earth triangulation calculation.
From the highland near Portsmouth Harbor in Hampshire, England
looking across the spithead to the Isle of Wight
the entire base of the island
where water and land come together
makes a perfectly straight line
22 statute miles long.
According to the ball earth theory
the Isle of Wight should decline 80 feet
from the center of each side
to account for the necessary curvature.
The crosshairs of a good Theodolite
directed there however
have repeatedly shown the land
and the waterline perfectly level.
Since 2014
when Eric Dubey's book
The Flat Earth Conspiracy was published
hundreds of ordinary people
have conducted experiments all over the world.
Anyone can conduct an experiment
without any sophisticated instruments.
Experiments with lasers are common
since lasers can now be purchased easily online.
NASA are aware of these arguments too
so why do they not address these issues?
What do astronomers say about all these anomalies?
Astronomers have no answer
within the framework of the ruling paradigm
heliocentricity.
Does this show the heliocentric paradigm
fraying at the edges?
If so, this may be a time for change.
According to philosopher Thomas Kuhn
paradigms need to be flexible
ready to incorporate new learning
as it unfolds.
NASA reacts by
ridiculing anyone who considers and supports
Flat Earth arguments
monitoring Flat Earth literature and media
placing morning signs on all
permissible Flat Earth videos and books
and forbidding or banning Flat Earth videos
on YouTube and in publications.
Just pretending these anomalies don't exist
isn't going to make them go away
and certainly isn't a good look
for NASA.
For now, it seems NASA is content
ignoring these anomalies
hoping that Flat Earthers
like ships at sea
will one day just disappear
over the horizon.