To me, this is one of the main phenomenon I can't rectify with a spherical earth. A standing body of water appears to have no curvature, and we have used water based levels to build very large structures with out flaw.
More so, it seems physically impossible water could ever exist on a curve as its tendency is to go from its highest elevation to the lowest. A spherical earth woud indicate that some rivers on earth would somehow have to flow up to reach the ocean.
Lastly, is it even possible to have a flat surface on a curved planet? Would there not be a way to measure a stretch of standing water to try to detect a curvature? I know mathmatically that a circle doesnt consist of a finite amount of flat lines, in fact there is never a flat line on a circle.
Would like some input from the community on this, thanks.
The accepted rate of the Earths curvature is about 8 inches per mile or 1 inch per 660 feet.
Is your vision (perception) sharp enough to allow you to resolve an item that is 1 inch long from a distance of 660 feet? How about 8 inches long at 5,280 feet?
How are you equating a bubble level with the oceans of the world? The volume of the Earth's oceans is around 1.4 billion cubic kilometers and is spread out over thousands of miles. The volume of a bubble level (figuring at 2 inches long by 3/8 inch diameter) is 0.23 cubic inches (not allowing for the displacement for the bubble) and is constrained by the physical size of the vial. I'm not even sure what you're trying to argue with this statement.
As far as water going from high to low. Water does flow from high to low, without question, unless acted on by an outside force.
As far as flowing up to reach the ocean, implying flow from the lower portion to the upper portion of a sphere. On a grand scale there is no up, down, left or right in space. This holds true regardless of whether you believe in a FE or RE. What are you basing your perception of up, down, left or right on? More importantly what are you basing your perception of a lower portion on?
Why would it be impossible to have a flat surface on a curved planet? Do you perceive a curve in everything around you except the earth?
Of course there is a method for measuring a stretch of standing water to detect a curvature, in fact here are the directions:
http://www.astro.princeton.edu/~dns/teachersguide/MeasECAct.html .
What is your argument concerning flat lines on a circle? Mathematically, no the line of a circle does not consist of a series of flat lines but, going back to the 8 inches per mile of curvature, it takes 7,920 inches (660 feet) of linear travel to accommodate 1 inch of curvature so from your perspective this is a flat line.
FE theory, as well as your argument/question rests on perception. Perception implicitly relies on only that which you can see at any given point, at any given time. At what point is that perception considered to be unreliable to describe an entire planet?