[Icaruss]

I would expect so. 

I do not understand the animosity in this thread. 

The earth is not curved but I am not surprized that you perceived a curvature.  There are lots of optical illusions that give the impression of curved lines when they are actually straight. 

At some point, your eyes fail to see forever ---- that place along your horizon will unlikely represent a straight line.  Thus, you get the impression of a curve.

I don't understand it either. Oscar brought up the fisheye effect, which is I think the most probably explanation. It's easy to see with a curved lens (same shape as airplane windows) whatever you look at through them has 'sagging' edges. It could be that with a combination an optical illusion.

[Thork]

Sigh. You started this post saying that YOU saw curvature on a flight.

Now forget whether the earth is round or flat, you demonstrably did not, as referenced in SexWarrior's link. Now you are saying that the source is invalid because it says earth is round? What point are you trying to prove? You said you saw curvature, you did not. Your premise for thinking earth was round has been invalidated. Forget the article's assumptions because the shape of the earth becomes irrelevant as your observations were made up. So this thread has become a discussion of your imagination, not the shape of the earth.

[Icaruss]

Sigh. You started this post saying that YOU saw curvature on a flight.

Now forget whether the earth is round or flat, you demonstrably did not, as referenced in SexWarrior's link. Now you are saying that the source is invalid because it says earth is round? What point are you trying to prove? You said you saw curvature, you did not. Your premise for thinking earth was round has been invalidated. Forget the article's assumptions because the shape of the earth becomes irrelevant as your observations were made up. So this thread has become a discussion of your imagination, not the shape of the earth.

I did, and 4 posts later Oscar brought up, what I believe to be, the most probably cause. I thought the discussion was over but people kept posting and SexWarrior linked that article. Again, you fail to read what was actually said in the thread and choose to believe something else.

I'm not saying the source is invalid because it says the Earth is round, I look to the actual results and calculations. I'm saying that his calculations of curvature presupposes a round Earth. In essence, in his calculations, he has variables accounting for a round Earth. His findings are a direct result of his calculations. This is what I take issue with, everyone is happy to read his introduction and completely ignore the calculations behind his argument.

Please go over the calculations and lets talk about them.

[Thork]

What difference does the premise make?

If the earth is flat, YOU didn't see curvature.
If the earth is round, YOU still didn't see curvature.

Either way, using any model you like, you didn't see curvature as you claimed. That's it. We solved the mystery. This thread called 'Flying over the ocean' was about a made up scenario.


We get irritated by this because so many people come here "I used to work for NASA and ...", "I'm a Mig-25 pilot and ...", "I have been on a Soyez Rocket and ..." and then they expect us to solve how they saw something they made up. It is very boring.

[Icaruss]

What difference does the premise make?

If the earth is flat, YOU didn't see curvature.
If the earth is round, YOU still didn't see curvature.

Either way, using any model you like, you didn't see curvature as you claimed. That's it. We solved the mystery. This thread called 'Flying over the ocean' was about a made up scenario.


We get irritated by this because so many people come here "I used to work for NASA and ...", "I'm a Mig-25 pilot and ...", "I have been on a Soyez Rocket and ..." and then they expect us to solve how they saw something they made up. It is very boring.

You seem to be missing the point, we have moved on from the airplane example, that was solved 4 posts in. You are the only one still talking about it. Lets move on to the paper. I think you get irritated because you've already fabricated a scenareo in your head before reading the thread (as you say yourself, because you get lots of people coming in here talking about it). Now either read the thread properly and lets discuss some math, or leave because you have shown in every post on this thread that you have not read it and have no intention of contributing to the dialogue. The moderator has accused me of getting off topic when every single person who has argued with me on this thread has refused to read it.

Charming Anarchist and Oscar were the only two who actually read the thread and responded in context to the topic.

In my last post I outlined how I observered what I saw, you chose to ignore this, meaning you aren't actually reading anything I'm typing.

[Earthisround]

Something your imagination is telling you you should see, maybe, since even REers recognize that the supposed curvature of the Earth isn't visible from an airplane.

its not your imagination, rather the distortion that the double paned, curved windows cause to the light you see, and it all depends at what height you're flying at