This is a simple investigation/ concept that I'm sure has come up before in flat Earth vs globe Earth discourse, but I'd like some further clarification from the flat Earth camp:
- It's well established that during the equinoxes on a globe Earth, the sun will rise due east or 90 degrees azimuth when observed from any point on the Earth (give or take ~10 degrees due to refraction).
- What is the expected azimuth for the sun to rise when viewed from a given point on a flat Earth and what is the explanation for this? My guess at the moment is that the azimuth of the sun should decrease non-linearly when measured from north as the observer's latitude decreases, but I'd like some input from a flat Earther.
Finally, we can easily investigate this by observing the sun during the coming equinox on the 20th March and compare these to the two models above. Any thoughts?
The Equinox explanation is right here: https://wiki.tfes.org/Equinox#A_Flat_Earth_Equinox
So I'm trying to wrap my head around all this. This is a big idea for a small head, OK?
If I'm a few thousand miles north of the equator, and the sun is "rising" (Aproaching, along the equator ring) a few thousand miles above the ground, the sun is going to appear far to the right of east, right? Like a lot more than several diameters worth?
Or do I need to build a scale model of the flat earth with a revolving sun. I guess if I can build a cavendish experiment I could build a model flat earth.
Furthermore the wiki says:
The atmolayer is not perfectly transparent. At night when we look out at where the sun would be across the plane of the earth we are looking into hundreds of miles of fog, and thus the sun is dark and unseen.
Help me understand that one. So when the sun sets, it's actually just reaching a distance where suddenly the fog obscures it 100%?
It takes what, 2 minutes, from the time it touches the horizon until it's obscured entirely?
So do I understand correctly that it's visible for let's say 12 hours, and for 6 of those hours it's getting farther and farther then when it's 6 hours away, suddenly 2 more minutes and it reaches a critical distance where it goes from very bright to out of sight? (And yet it's still shining on the clouds for some time?)
And that raises another interesting question, if the sun is so far that we can't see it directly on account of the fog, then how come it's light is still bright enough to hit the clouds with enough light that they can be seen?
I'm also still struggling with the apparent position of the sun when it "sets" or "rises" -- right down on the horizon.
Must be sinking ship effect.
Wow all I can see is we need a scale model.
I can build one, I just need the dimensions of the flat earth, the height of the sun and moon. I can do the rest.