[Nirmala]

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 

[Rushy]

The earth is an infinite plane and the sun keeps us from freezing to death.

[Nirmala]

The earth is an infinite plane and the sun keeps us from freezing to death.

What keeps all of the incredibly cold air surrounding us from rushing in and displacing the air warmed by the sun? You do understand that winds are caused by this kind of temperature difference? If the area where we live was surrounded by extremely cold air, it would be endlessly rushing in and cooling us. In an infinite flat plane earth, there is no barrier to stop this and no matter how much the sun heated the central area, the cold would always be overwhelming that heat. After all it is an infinite amount of cold air and a finite amount of heated air.

[Flatout]

The earth is an infinite plane and the sun keeps us from freezing to death.

How do you know that it's infinite?

[alien experiment]

Really?? The earth is infinite?  Then what is outside the antarctic icewall? Why havent we explored it? 

[Tom Bishop]

http://wiki.tfes.org/Atmolayer_Lip_Hypothesis

[Nirmala]

http://wiki.tfes.org/Atmolayer_Lip_Hypothesis

Actually the center of Antarctica is an area of high pressure: http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/environment/weather

And the idea in the Wiki that the area around the earth gradually drops to absolute zero is hard to fathom. The atmosphere would turn to liquid long before absolute zero, and so that liquid air would either pool on the surface or possibly flow back towards the center and also outwards. I don't think a giant lake of liquid air could hold in our atmosphere as the wiki entry posits. And since cold air is much heavier than warm air, it also seems that long before the air was at a low enough temperature to liquefy, it would tend to flow under the hotter air in the center of our earth, which again would cool the area we live on drastically.

And I am curious why you would refer to the Wiki when it clearly is suggesting that the earth fits the unipolar model. Do you personally believe that Antarctica is a continent or an ice ring around the earth? Or are you undecided, so you refer to both models as needed to answer questions?

And how would you answer this question in regards to a bipolar model? What lies beyond the area of the flat earth that we live on in the bipolar model? More ocean? A different ice ring? Why have humans not traveled beyond the edge in the bipolar model if there is no ice ring patrolled by armed guards stopping them? In the bipolar model, why are there warm areas near the edge of the earth and cold areas (the poles) surrounded by warm areas? In the globe earth, there is one central band of warmer temps around the equator that then gradually cools as one approaches the poles. How do the cold areas form in the middle of the large circular warm areas that would seem to exist on the bipolar map if the sun circles the poles as you described in another thread. And why wouldn't the oceans on the side of the south pole that is farther away from the the north pole than the south pole itself freeze in the southern winter when the sun gets nowhere near them. The area around the south pole tends to form more ice in the southern winter, so why wouldn't the area beyond the south pole which is also in constant darkness freeze during the southern winter?

As usual, the flat earth model raises many more questions than it ever answers.