It Is Known that on 21st June, 2200 years ago, Eratosthenes measured the angle of the noon Sun in Alexandria at 7.2 degrees and he knew the distance to Syene to be 500 nautical miles. Solving the triangle, the height for the Sun is 3958 nautical miles.
It Is Known that because the Earth is flat then the Sun must be low, and 3958 is close enough to Doctor Birley’s figure of 700 miles, or 608 nautical miles.
Bingo.
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It Is Also Known that New York City is 5188 nm from the City formerly known as Syene. Since we know the distance and the height, we can calculate the elevation of the Sun at 37.3 degrees.
Which is unfortunate for It Is Known that noon in Aswan is daybreak in Brooklyn. I’ve never been to the Big Apple, so can anyone there (or in Eastern Time generally) confirm that at sunrise the Sun looms out of the sky, already at an elevation of 37.3 degrees, or does the Sun appear to Rise out of the Atlantic at SunRise?
If you prefer your Sun to loom "into perspective” at, say, 1 degree above the horizon then you’re looking at a triangle with a base length of 226,754 nm or 260,767 miles.
It Is Known that EgyptAir flies from JFK to Cairo in 11 hrs which requires an average speed of mach 31.6. If the timetable is faked by NASA then it could be 3 weeks at 510mph.
Or 11 hrs @ 510mph, but only if Earth a Globe.