Not Flat! Well Some Still Doubt

[Gord_in_Toronto]

I know we have discussed this before but could not find the thread.

Now they've actually gone and returned.

Flat-Earthers Travel To Antarctica To Test Theories

Flat-Earthers Travel To Antarctica To Test Theories, But Are Quickly Humbled

Lo and behold, they didn't discover a giant ice wall guarded by NASA.

www.iflscience.com

Some were deconvinced of the flatness of the planet . . . . but not all (apparently it's just one data point and, if we think hard enough, we're sure we can find expiation for what we saw with our own eyes).

(Disclaimer: I did not watch the entire video).

 

[novaphile]

I was sitting in a restaurant yesterday, having lunch with my brother, and enjoying the view of the ocean, out the window.

We were enjoying watching various boats coming over the horizon, and, going the other way, falling below it.

I recalled a time that I'd measured the distance from my kitchen window in Woomera, to a road sign on top of a small hill that I could see in the distance. To my dismay, it was only 16 kilometres to the sign (I drove there). (It was just a yellow speck from my window, and I was thinking it must be at least 30km away.)

We were thinking that the distance to the horizon, at the beach, must be much closer than that, because we could clearly see the boats...

It turns out that the horizon is only 4.8 km away on flat ground.

I'd always known that the horizon is close, but I'd worked on an estimate of 10 km under normal, flat ground, circumstances.

 

[Myriad]

I was sitting in a restaurant yesterday, having lunch with my brother, and enjoying the view of the ocean, out the window.

We were enjoying watching various boats coming over the horizon, and, going the other way, falling below it.

I recalled a time that I'd measured the distance from my kitchen window in Woomera, to a road sign on top of a small hill that I could see in the distance. To my dismay, it was only 16 kilometres to the sign (I drove there). (It was just a yellow speck from my window, and I was thinking it must be at least 30km away.)

We were thinking that the distance to the horizon, at the beach, must be much closer than that, because we could clearly see the boats...

It turns out that the horizon is only 4.8 km away on flat ground.

I'd always known that the horizon is close, but I'd worked on an estimate of 10 km under normal, flat ground, circumstances.

Depends on how tall you are!

 

[rjh01]

Depends on how tall you are!

I was thinking on the same lines. If you in the sea with only your head above water then another person with only their head above water would not have to be very far away to be below the horizon.

This was one of the ways the ancients knew the earth was round. When a ship approached from over the horizon, they could see the top of the sails before you could see the rest of the ship.

 

[novaphile]

Depends on how tall you are!

Distance (in feet) to horizon = 1.22459 x √((eye) height above sea level)

That's a fancy way of saying: "Yes, yes it does."

Although the 'ashctually' response would be, it depends on your eye height, not your body height, i.e. a short person standing on a ladder, can see further than me standing on the ground (if their eyes are above mine).

 

[The Great Zaganza]

If only someone would invent tall buildings

 

[Norman Alexander]

If only someone could invent shadows. And clocks.

 

[Myriad]

Distance (in feet) to horizon = 1.22459 x √((eye) height above sea level)

That's a fancy way of saying: "Yes, yes it does."

Although the 'ashctually' response would be, it depends on your eye height, not your body height, i.e. a short person standing on a ladder, can see further than me standing on the ground (if their eyes are above mine).

For (eye) height above sea level of five feet:
Distance (in feet) to horizon = 1.22459 * √5
= ~2.74 feet

Are you by any chance a Little Prince?

ETA: Sounds just about right in miles, though.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

If only someone could invent shadows. And clocks.

Or the telephone.

 

[Norman Alexander]

meteorological distance to horizon

Or the telephone.

Eratosthenes would have relished using the phone rather than walking 800 kms

Determining the earth's size

 

[Orphia Nay]

I've seen a story that goes that someone was talked out of flatearthism by the theory that if the earth had an edge to it, it would be more famous and more visited than Disneyland. So their belief in Capitalism saved them.

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

Eratosthenes would have relished using the phone rather than walking 800 kms

Determining the earth's size

Plus, he could have ordered lunch.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Plus, he could have ordered lunch.

But quietly. He was a librarian.

 

[The Don]

Depends on how tall you are!

As a rule of thumb, distance to the horizon in miles is the square root of distance of the observer above the surface in feet

Nevermind, repeatedly ninja'd