Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #40 on: March 08, 2014, 12:52:42 PM »
Do flat earthers believe in atmospheric refraction?

Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #41 on: March 08, 2014, 01:05:50 PM »
Some do. I am from the school of thought that suggests it is the firmament that causes the fraction. That's why the earth still looks flat to us, but celestial bodies and stars suffer from the effects.

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #42 on: March 08, 2014, 06:33:14 PM »
Given that, can you please describe how Doppler radar functions on a flat plane?



Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #43 on: March 08, 2014, 07:33:36 PM »
Extremely well. Radar travels in straight lines.

Maybe you would like to elaborate on the problem you have with it? Are you suggesting the high altitude weather aircraft that generate these images would be outside of the firmament?

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #44 on: March 08, 2014, 07:48:01 PM »
The radar you will typically see is ground-based, from a tower such as this:


Given this, if the earth were planar and there were no refraction, then the radar beam would overshoot most object in the long-range, since the radar beam would have to be directed upwards to reflect from the clouds.

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Offline Tintagel

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Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #45 on: March 08, 2014, 07:49:23 PM »
Extremely well. Radar travels in straight lines.

Maybe you would like to elaborate on the problem you have with it? Are you suggesting the high altitude weather aircraft that generate these images would be outside of the firmament?

Does it?  Historically I've been a bendy-lighter, but lately I've been entertaining new ideas about the way light travels.   

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #46 on: March 08, 2014, 08:02:00 PM »
Here's a drawing that'll help demonstrate the issue:



And srry about the size, idk how to make it smaller.
(I've taken the liberty to make it smaller for you. Hope you don't mind! You can do that yourself by adding width=(pixels) or height=(pixels) to the [img] tag. ~pizaaplanet)
« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 10:27:06 PM by pizaaplanet »

Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #47 on: March 09, 2014, 12:24:01 AM »
Oh, I see. But I just told you, earth has a firmament. No problem bouncing sky waves off of that. Its a solid crystalline structure, which frankly makes a lot more sense than bouncing waves off of thin air.


Excuse the crudity of the diagram. The sun, moon etc should be outside of the firmament.

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #48 on: March 09, 2014, 01:11:45 AM »
Parden me, are you saying that the electromagnetic waves go straight in the atmosphere, until they hit the dome? Let me put this into better perspective. You can detect how far away that a storm is with radar by measuring the times at which the light returns to the radar tower. If a storm is 20 miles away, then the radar will receive the light that bounced off the particles in the storm would take the amount of time for light to travel 40 miles. If they had bounced off the dome, then bounced off the storm farther away, then it would take much longer for the microwaves (that's the kind of light that is used) to return the tower, and the storms on the radar image would be grossly misplaced. Also, the beam becomes more diluted (the energy spreads out) over large distances, and by the time it reached the dome then got back, it would no longer be useful data.

Also, let me show how the radar beam would look on a flat plane:



I hope this helps.

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Offline jroa

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Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #49 on: March 09, 2014, 02:52:35 AM »
Parden me, are you saying that the electromagnetic waves go straight in the atmosphere, until they hit the dome? Let me put this into better perspective. You can detect how far away that a storm is with radar by measuring the times at which the light returns to the radar tower. If a storm is 20 miles away, then the radar will receive the light that bounced off the particles in the storm would take the amount of time for light to travel 40 miles. If they had bounced off the dome, then bounced off the storm farther away, then it would take much longer for the microwaves (that's the kind of light that is used) to return the tower, and the storms on the radar image would be grossly misplaced. Also, the beam becomes more diluted (the energy spreads out) over large distances, and by the time it reached the dome then got back, it would no longer be useful data.

Also, let me show how the radar beam would look on a flat plane:



I hope this helps.

HHunter, in your previous drawing you showed the radar cone bending downwards.  Now, you are showing it bending upwards.  This makes it a bit hard to answer your question.  Could you please clarify?

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #50 on: March 09, 2014, 03:12:31 AM »
Parden me, are you saying that the electromagnetic waves go straight in the atmosphere, until they hit the dome? Let me put this into better perspective. You can detect how far away that a storm is with radar by measuring the times at which the light returns to the radar tower. If a storm is 20 miles away, then the radar will receive the light that bounced off the particles in the storm would take the amount of time for light to travel 40 miles. If they had bounced off the dome, then bounced off the storm farther away, then it would take much longer for the microwaves (that's the kind of light that is used) to return the tower, and the storms on the radar image would be grossly misplaced. Also, the beam becomes more diluted (the energy spreads out) over large distances, and by the time it reached the dome then got back, it would no longer be useful data.

Also, let me show how the radar beam would look on a flat plane:



I hope this helps.

HHunter, in your previous drawing you showed the radar cone bending downwards.  Now, you are showing it bending upwards.  This makes it a bit hard to answer your question.  Could you please clarify?

The second image is showing a flat surface, and takes into account curvature of the earth and refraction. In most cases, the curvature of the earth bends more than refraction bends the light, so if viewed on a flat plane, it would appear to bend up. In the first drawing, curvature of the earth is included, and so is refraction. However, you can see that over distance is gets farther away from the ground. If you put it into a flat perspective, it would appear to bend upwards. However, different atmospheric conditions can make is so that the refraction bends light more than the curvature bends, which is when it hits the ground. The problem is, if curvature isn't taken into account, the light will bend into the ground due to refraction, as demonstrated in the second drawing of the image.

Basically, the new image (the nice looking one) is what it would look like from a flat perspective, when atmospheric conditions are normal. I apologize for the confusion, I hope this clears it up a bit.

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Offline Pete Svarrior

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Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #51 on: March 09, 2014, 03:27:43 AM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
Follow the Flat Earth Society on Twitter and Facebook!

If we are not speculating then we must assume

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Offline Tintagel

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Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #52 on: March 09, 2014, 03:41:19 AM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.

Ayup.  Looks consistent with EA-accelerated light to me.  Neat!  Thanks for your contribution, HHunter.

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #53 on: March 09, 2014, 03:51:01 AM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.



Let me note that there are some situation where it would bend downwards on a flat earth, like above, specifically when there abnormal atmospheric conditions, which results in higher-than-normal density in the atmosphere. It can create some whacky stuff on radar.

On a round earth, this would be characterized by refraction causing the light to curve more than the curvature of the earth.

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Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #54 on: March 09, 2014, 07:41:56 AM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.



Let me note that there are some situation where it would bend downwards on a flat earth, like above, specifically when there abnormal atmospheric conditions, which results in higher-than-normal density in the atmosphere. It can create some whacky stuff on radar.

On a round earth, this would be characterized by refraction causing the light to curve more than the curvature of the earth.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.
Read the FAQ before asking your question - chances are we already addressed it.
Follow the Flat Earth Society on Twitter and Facebook!

If we are not speculating then we must assume

Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #55 on: March 09, 2014, 12:49:47 PM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.
Let me ask you something. If a radar wave bends upwards, strikes an object and bounces off ... how do you get the return? Am I supposed to believe it then bends back the exact same way it came? Throw a curve ball at a wall and see if it comes back to you along the same path.


You have a problem.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2014, 12:51:40 PM by Thork »

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #56 on: March 09, 2014, 04:08:04 PM »
This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.



Let me note that there are some situation where it would bend downwards on a flat earth, like above, specifically when there abnormal atmospheric conditions, which results in higher-than-normal density in the atmosphere. It can create some whacky stuff on radar.

On a round earth, this would be characterized by refraction causing the light to curve more than the curvature of the earth.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here.
I'm trying to say that light can also appear to bend downwards, if viewed from a flat perspective

This phenomenon, together with many others, is why many flat Earth theorists believe that light bends upwards. I'm interested to see Thork's explanation in his model, however.
Let me ask you something. If a radar wave bends upwards, strikes an object and bounces off ... how do you get the return? Am I supposed to believe it then bends back the exact same way it came? Throw a curve ball at a wall and see if it comes back to you along the same path.


You have a problem.

When light strikes an object, it will reflect in all directions. It's as if you shined a flashlight at an angled wall, some of the light will come directly back to you. And if the light from the radar reflects at the same exact angle (which some of it will when striking an object) then it will undergo the same levels of refraction that it had when moving towards the object, bringing it to the same place.


Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #57 on: March 09, 2014, 04:15:38 PM »
Clouds aren't hard.

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #58 on: March 09, 2014, 04:19:39 PM »
Clouds aren't hard.
They have water particles which reflect light.

Thork

Re: Ask a Flat Earth Theorist Anything
« Reply #59 on: March 09, 2014, 04:26:36 PM »
water refracts light. It doesn't reflect it.