[Roger G]

The effect of the light upon the earth is a "spotlight", but the sun is not unidirectional. Read Earth Not a Globe.

It is the effect of the light upon the earth that is the "spotlight". Spotlight refers to the area of light that is limited in duration and extent, not the sun or its direction of light.

If the Sun is not unidirectional then the assumption would be that it is omnidirectional. Your second quote is also misleading as a 'Spotlight' is not limited in duration and extent, it is a focused light specifically lighting up a selected area and does not emit light in other directions. There are many almost identical dictionary definitions of a spotlight, here is one: Spotlight definition, a strong, focused light thrown upon a particular spot, as on a small area of a stage or in a television studio, for making some object, person, or group especially conspicuous.

Roger

Correct. It is an omnidirectional light which creates a spot-of-light upon the earth.

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/spotlight_1

spotlight - definition and synonyms
NOUN [COUNTABLE]  /ˈspɑtˌlaɪt/

1 a powerful light that shines on a small area, for example in a theater

Sorry Tom, an omnidirectional light casts it's light in all directions, so how can it possibly cast just a spot-of-light on the earth. It must surely cast light in every direction on the earth.

Roger

[Tom Bishop]

Sorry Tom, an omnidirectional light casts it's light in all directions, so how can it possibly cast just a spot-of-light on the earth. It must surely cast light in every direction on the earth.

Roger

Its explained in Earth Not a Globe.

[Roger G]

Sorry Tom, an omnidirectional light casts it's light in all directions, so how can it possibly cast just a spot-of-light on the earth. It must surely cast light in every direction on the earth.

Roger

Its explained in Earth Not a Globe.

Thank you Tom. As I have already downloaded Earth Not A Globe and have started to go through it already, perhaps you would be so kind as to direct me to the appropriate section.

Thanks,

Roger

[Curious Squirrel]

Sorry Tom, an omnidirectional light casts it's light in all directions, so how can it possibly cast just a spot-of-light on the earth. It must surely cast light in every direction on the earth.

Roger

Its explained in Earth Not a Globe.

Thank you Tom. As I have already downloaded Earth Not A Globe and have started to go through it already, perhaps you would be so kind as to direct me to the appropriate section.

Thanks,

Roger

The 'spot-of-light' Tom and Rowbotham describe is 100% due to their misuse of perspective. The claim is that all objects are affected by it at long distances, and as such past X distance from the sun, the perspective lines of the sun have converged to the point the light can go no further....wow, laying it out like that it sounds even dumber than I've always thought, but that's what they are claiming. You'll have to get past the experiments to see how he explains things, although he does refer to his experiments as though they are all without fault. I personally feel demonstrating the faults in the first section going over his experiments is the proper way to dismantle Rowbotham, but many of them come down to things similar to his 'proof' against theodolites, which boils down to "This instrument shows a dip angle. If I look without using it though I don't see one. Clearly the instrument is in error." It's kind of hard to disprove such intentional ignorance.

[Rounder]

The claim is that all objects are affected by it at long distances, and as such past X distance from the sun, the perspective lines of the sun have converged to the point the light can go no further....wow, laying it out like that it sounds even dumber than I've always thought, but that's what they are claiming.

Laying it out like that reveals another reason it can’t be true: on the night of the full moon, there are night-time places on the earth which are closer to the sun than the moon is to the sun, but somehow the magic perspective that prevents sunlight from reaching those closer places on earth fails to prevent sunlight from reaching the farther-away moon?

[devils advocate]

But Tom, what your "theory" fails to accommodate is that spotlights, such as those seen in theatres can only achieve their selective distribution of light due to the surrounding casing they have, which prevents light escaping laterally, which would;

A) be visible - which it isn't

B) mean your sunsets via perspective couldn't occur.

[Ratboy]

No one is debating a similar point on my thread so I will move mine here.
I gave the example of 24 hr night in the north and snowmobiling up the hill to see the sun in full glory, a full 3 miles farther away from the sun than where I was originally.  If we cannot see the spotlight sun because of distance, moving farther away should not let me then see it.  In my example, it all works okay if the sun is 20 miles up.