If I wasn't confused before, I surely am now. What rays are "actually relevant?"
The ones that end up producing the image of the Sun on your optical device of choice's retina.
Those are the ones that are curving upward, I thought.
Oh. I see. You're asking about the little bit of light you'll see shortly after a sunset, or immediately before sunrise.
I'm asking about your relevant rays that are more luminous and numerous. Are those the little bit of light seen shortly after a sunset or immediately before sunrise? Whatever that is? I've seen thousands of sunsets and never seen any little bit of sun after sunset. Hence, it wouldn't be sunset.
I can talk about round earth and distant sun in which a visual sunset isn't coincident with astronomical sunset due to refraction, so that when you see the sun at the horizon, it's actually lower and I'm just seeing the sun higher because it's light is bending around the curve of the earth.
But I simply am not deciphering what you're talking about on a flat earth with sunlight that's bending in the opposite direction, away from earth. I understand how that works with atmospheric temperature inversions where refraction will work to bend light away from the surface of earth, but that causes inferior mirages. You can see that with a setting sun in which a "mirror" of the sun's lower limb will appear to rise from a false horizon and join with the setting sun. I've seen sunsets in which bent light distorts the appearance of the sun. (
example)
But I've never seen any little bit of light of the sun that appears after sunset. (Reflected/scattered light of twilight, of course, or illuminating clouds...but the rays of the sun? They're gone at the moment of sunset.)
Of course, it would take a pretty tall mountain for you to be able to see sunrise 2 hours in advance (you're looking at about 180km!), but I'll humour you and your little space elevator.
Thank you, Pete. That's very kind of you to humor me in using a cartoon diagram that isn't to scale and that I never meant to suggest was a practical depiction of real world details. But I'm just trying to apprehend this EA concept and how it is so obvious to you but my dense brain isn't getting it. Appreciate your patience.
The answer is: yes, you will see this fairly frequently. Nearly every day, dare I say. The Sun will indeed appear to be hiding behind the Earth, and the light will be coming from somewhere down-ish.
You lost me again. The sun appears to be hiding? Can the sun be seen or not? We're not talking about sunlight illuminating other things. We're talking about the sun itself. Can we see it or can't we? That's what sunset is. The earth is obstructing our view of the sun. Is it because the earth is curved and its rotation is putting the sun behind the curve? Or is the earth flat and upward bending light gets obstructed at the point where it is tangent to the earth's surface?
Light "coming from somewhere down-ish." Huh? No. You're not getting it. I'm not talking about the sun after sunset and, oh, hey, it's still light in the sky that appears to be coming from over the horizon. No. I'm talking about seeing the sun still, even after it's supposedly "hiding." If light "rays" from the sun are bending upwards, and I'm able to get my retina in the path of those rays that were, say, tangent, but not obstructed, then I'm going to see the sun itself NOT appearing to be hiding. I will see the sun, or some upper portion of it at least, and it will not only be "down-ish," but below the horizon. It will appear in front of the earth's surface.
Here's a real world example, that doesn't require hyperbole of "space elevators" or 2 hour time differences.
I can watch a sunset on the beach at Del Mar, CA.
At 7:58pm, I see the "green flash" and the sun is gone. There's no little bit of it still there. It's gone.
At that same time, 1000 feet up and 1 mile to the east, occupants of a hot air balloon are still seeing the sun. For them they see the sun disappear at 8:00pm. Not only that, but the pilot give the guests a 2nd viewing of sunset by climbing another 1000', bringing the sun back into view so that they can see it slip away again.
Is that the effect of the upward curving light of EA over a flat earth? The upward curving rays from the sun were obstructed by the flat earth, but rise in elevation puts you back in the path of the curving rays so you see the sun again, unobstructed. Yes?