Some flat earth theories rely on an ice wall to hold in the oceans. If the surface of the flat earth is finite, then the ice wall keeps the water from flowing over the edge. If the flat earth is considered to be infinite, then the surface beyond the ice wall is described as an increasingly cold and inhospitable environment that eventually drops to near absolute zero.
So if the flat earth is finite, then what holds in the air in the same manner that the ice holds in the water? Especially if the earth is constantly accelerating, what stops the air from flowing off the surface over the edges of this incredibly fast moving plate?
And if the flat earth is infinite, then what holds out the extremely cold air over the more distant areas surrounding the area lighted by the sun? Cold air is heavier, and well before absolute zero, air would actually become liquid. In both cases there would be extreme temperature and pressure gradients that would cause the warm areas where humans live to be subject to fierce and unrelenting winds as the heated air from the sun would rise and the colder air from beyond the ice wall would rush in. Again there would be a limitless supply of truly frigid and sometimes liquid air that would rush into the area of rising heated air.
On a globe earth, the supply of cold air is limited (and none of it is anywhere near liquid), so that the overall climate on the surface balances out over time to create the warmer areas near the equator and the colder areas near the poles.
It takes more than an ice wall to make the flat earth model work. Do most flat earth believers actually believe there is a dome overhead? That might allow the atmosphere to be retained, although I would be curious as to what the dome is made of that it can contain all of that atmosphere. Who fixes it if it develops a leak near the edge and the air starts to leak out?
And I am not sure a dome would actually prevent the kinds of extreme weather and winds that would result if the area we inhabit were actually surrounded by such a large area of frigid temperatures as the ice wall model would suggest. Anyone with more background in climate science want to comment on how all of that frigid air surrounding us would behave in a closed system?
As for the bipolar model, I have not yet heard what is supposedly beyond the edges of the map. But whatever it is...maybe an ice wall that is so far away that we have yet to discover it?....the same questions ultimately apply. The land areas of the bipolar map would be surrounded by ever colder oceans that would have a dramatic effect on our climate and surface winds. Or there would be an edge where the atmosphere would leak away.
Lucy, you have some splaining to do