Hmmmm........good points. Although, if then earth is globular or 'flat' are not the distances the same? Rather like folding over a length of card?
No - they really aren't. Nor can they ever be. That's really the problem with FET. It simply doesn't match common observations.
Long before my FE friend gave me this challenge and having allocated FE to the realms of the understandings of the ancients, I had queried a good many things. If the earth is spinning at 1,000mph and rotating around the sun at over 60,000mph:
- Why WWII barrage balloons or other fixed balloons do not eventually lean to westward given that the earth is rotation West to East.
Because the atmosphere is being dragged around with the rotation of the Earth. There is friction within the atmosphere - so if it
was ever rotating slower than the ground, the earth and atmosphere speeds would gradually change until they were the same. Since aircraft (including helicopters and balloons) are blown around by the atmosphere at the exact same speed as the ground is moving (unless some weather is adding to the effect) - they stay in the exact same places.
- Why planes flying West do not arrive at their destination twice as quick as those flying Eastward.
Same answer. Aircraft pull themselves along relative to the speed that the air is moving.
- The gravity of the earth has to be just right to counter centrifugal force zipping things off the centre as well as ensuring the northern and southern ends not to drop. This also enable water to flow uphill.
No! The centrifugal force due to Earth's rotation is about 0.4% the force of gravity. So there is more than enough gravity to keep things pinned down and to stop water flowing uphill. In fact, things do weigh a little less at the equator than at the poles because of centrifugal force. But it's small enough that most people don't notice the change.
- How does orbit work if applying the principles of centrifugal force. If its gravitational pull then this too must be finely balanced to ensure we are not face planted onto the ground.
Well, the Earth rotates one revolution over 24 hours...this accounts (as I've said) to a force equal to about 0.4% of gravity.
A satellite in Low Earth Orbit rotates around the earth in about 90 minutes - that's a LOT faster than the Earth is spinning - and the centrifugal force EXACTLY balances gravity - leaving people floating inside their spacecraft.
In higher orbits (Geostationary orbits, such as satellite TV uses) they are much further from the center of the earth - and gravity gets a lot less at those distances - at some height (thousands of miles up) there is enough centrifugal force to balance gravity with a 24 hour orbit.
Gravity does "face plant us onto the ground" if we fall over! We remain standing because the force of gravity isn't really all THAT strong.
- If the earth rotating around the sun at over 60,000mph and the sun is 93m miles aways how does that work?
Same exact deal. Only now, we're talking about the sun's gravity. The sun is much bigger than the earth, the gravity at it's surface is crushing. However, (as you point out) we're 93 million miles away - and at this distance, the Earth feels relatively little gravity from the sun - and there is enough centrifugal force from going around the sun once a year to oppose the sun's gravity at this distance. That's why we don't feel heavier at night and lighter during the day! Yeah - that is happening, but the amount is so tiny, we don't feel it.
- How did the lunar module have instant voice response with mission control on landing approach?
It didn't. I was a kid when the lunar landings happened and there was a very noticeable 2.6 second pause between the NASA ground crew asking a question and the answer starting to come back from the astronauts. In some (but not all) recordings, that delay has been edited out to make things a bit easier to understand.
If you listen to Neil Armstrong in this recording, you can hear a distinct 1.3 second delay between him finishing his "One small step for man" speech and the mission control guys commenting on it. In this case, we're hearing only a one-way delay...but if you listen to the back-and-forth chatter later in the mission, the delays are very noticeable.