[InquisitiveREer]

I recently talked to a sailor who had spent 18 years working on ships during that time he became very good at spoting ships on the horizon when I explaind the flat earth perspective on how ships diminish in size he told me "No matter how much you magnify the ship it will be blocked out by the curviture of the earth."

[AATW]

I was talking to a friend to is a keen sailor - I told him about my recent fascination about the Flat Earth Society.
He was telling me how often you can see lighthouse light bouncing off clouds before you can see the light itself.
Then as you get closer and when the curve permits you can then see the light.

This is an example of the "heads I win, tails you lose" argument Flat Earthers resort to.
Rowbotham claimed that the dark hull of a ship can merge into the sea, so it only appears to be sinking behind the horizon and the hull can be restored with magnification.
That can be true in some cases if the ship gets far enough away it can be hard to distinguish from the sea.
But at some point it will sink behind the curve of the earth and when you post photos of video of that they just say "waves".

This video has been posted before.



Are they seriously claiming that is caused by waves? He shows where the different shots were taken from, looking at the times when he shows the GPS readings it looks like the same afternoon and the weather doesn't seem significantly different. While the channel does connect with the ocean, you can see that the water is pretty calm in all the shots as you would expect in a fairly narrow channel like this. It's not the open ocean. If waves were a factor you would expect the amount of the building you can see to vary significantly as the swell comes and goes, but you can't.

[Sydney]

I recently talked to a sailor who had spent 18 years working on ships during that time he became very good at spoting ships on the horizon when I explaind the flat earth perspective on how ships diminish in size he told me "No matter how much you magnify the ship it will be blocked out by the curviture of the earth."

It is called atmospheric magnification / refraction. The moisture above the water acts as a lens. As the object on the water recedes it will begin to "sink" from the bottom up. This is elementary science that a sailor will not get from "spotting ships" and not knowing a thing about atmospheric magnification / refraction. For you to cite that reference really is ludicrous. You eyes are lenses. The atmosphere is another lens you are looking through. That's two lenses to view an actual object.

The video aptly explains this phenomena quite well and nothing more needs to be said about such simplicity.

[JohnAdams1145]

I recently talked to a sailor who had spent 18 years working on ships during that time he became very good at spoting ships on the horizon when I explaind the flat earth perspective on how ships diminish in size he told me "No matter how much you magnify the ship it will be blocked out by the curviture of the earth."

It is called atmospheric magnification / refraction. The moisture above the water acts as a lens. As the object on the water recedes it will begin to "sink" from the bottom up. This is elementary science that a sailor will not get from "spotting ships" and not knowing a thing about atmospheric magnification / refraction. For you to cite that reference really is ludicrous. You eyes are lenses. The atmosphere is another lens you are looking through. That's two lenses to view an actual object.

The video aptly explains this phenomena quite well and nothing more needs to be said about such simplicity.

That video is actually junk. Magnification is not refraction; a curved mirror can also magnify FYI. You don't actually know what you're talking about when you invoke refraction. If refraction were at play (which it is), it goes both ways, which is not observed at all. Additionally, it does not refract that much, as can be calculated by the indices of refraction.

[Sydney]

I recently talked to a sailor who had spent 18 years working on ships during that time he became very good at spoting ships on the horizon when I explaind the flat earth perspective on how ships diminish in size he told me "No matter how much you magnify the ship it will be blocked out by the curviture of the earth."

It is called atmospheric magnification / refraction. The moisture above the water acts as a lens. As the object on the water recedes it will begin to "sink" from the bottom up. This is elementary science that a sailor will not get from "spotting ships" and not knowing a thing about atmospheric magnification / refraction. For you to cite that reference really is ludicrous. You eyes are lenses. The atmosphere is another lens you are looking through. That's two lenses to view an actual object.

The video aptly explains this phenomena quite well and nothing more needs to be said about such simplicity.

That video is actually junk. Magnification is not refraction; a curved mirror can also magnify FYI. You don't actually know what you're talking about when you invoke refraction. If refraction were at play (which it is), it goes both ways, which is not observed at all. Additionally, it does not refract that much, as can be calculated by the indices of refraction.

Alright. I appreciate your view and opinion and personal citation. Should we agree to disagree now?

Respect. I appreciate your vigor.

[JohnAdams1145]

Where did I make a personal citation? Did you even look up anything I wrote? Refraction is the phenomenon of light bending toward the normal when it enters a medium of higher optical density. This is well documented, and you can start by reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law. Therefore, if there were an appreciable amount of refraction, you would expect that the constituent particles in the atmopshere would not prefer any specific ordering, and refraction would go both ways. If you think I'm asserting anything without basis, perhaps it's because I don't bother pasting links to explain basic physics to people, and would prefer that you do the slightest amount of research before making a bad rebuttal. At least Tom does this. I actually think that Tom is one of the least dishonest people here.

Magnification is not refraction. I don't know what to say to you if you think this is so. I suggest you look into magnifying mirrors, which operate using reflection.

[douglips]

In the video the paper sun shrinks a LOT before it hits the horizon.

In the sunset video that shows the sun shrinking, that's not what the sun looks like. The sun doesn't shrink when it sets.

If you have any understanding of how cameras work, you can compensate for the extreme brightness of the sun with a filter, and you'll see the sun is identical in size at all points in the sky. If any sunspots are visible, you'll see them just the same size at any point in the sky.

[InquisitiveREer]

I recently talked to a sailor who had spent 18 years working on ships during that time he became very good at spoting ships on the horizon when I explaind the flat earth perspective on how ships diminish in size he told me "No matter how much you magnify the ship it will be blocked out by the curviture of the earth."

It is called atmospheric magnification / refraction. The moisture above the water acts as a lens. As the object on the water recedes it will begin to "sink" from the bottom up. This is elementary science that a sailor will not get from "spotting ships" and not knowing a thing about atmospheric magnification / refraction. For you to cite that reference really is ludicrous. You eyes are lenses. The atmosphere is another lens you are looking through. That's two lenses to view an actual object.

The video aptly explains this phenomena quite well and nothing more needs to be said about such simplicity.

Well I contacted the "Simple sailor" NOT only did he know what Atmospheric Magnification/Refraction was(which by the way he learnt what it was during his time on ships) he also explaind that what you are referring to is NOT in fact atmospheric Magnification/Refraction but in fact Thermal Inversion due to the fact it is over water it is reflected on the water as well as naturaly being a phenomenon that acts at short range only .

 In terms of your video it dose not explain anything thought the guy has some good video splicing skills maybe link the source videos next time.

Also I looked up Atmospheric Magnification/Refraction and Guess what it works on a ROUND EARTH AS WELL hear is a site i found this information on https://aty.sdsu.edu/explain/atmos_refr/magnification.html

The only ludicrous thing here is that YOU assumed someone's level of education by there career.