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Flat Earth Community / Some basic questions...

« on: April 18, 2014, 04:57:58 PM »

Hello all! This question is directed toward legitimate Flat Earthers only... In previous threads and on the FE wiki: I have read several things about "Celestial Gears". What are they? Are "Celestial Gears" just a metaphor for the inner workings of the universe in FE theory? Also, I know there is another thread about this, but maybe if I post this here someone will take it more seriously: What are the exact measurements of the Sun Disc?

If someone could answer these question I would be extremely grateful.

Thank you in advance.

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Flat Earth Community / Friendly discussion about "Flat Earth Theory"

« on: April 15, 2014, 11:20:25 PM »

Hello all!
I heard about your site from one of my students that I teach at Harvard. It's all very interesting! I am a planetary scientist as you can probably tell from my signature. That means that I study planets, not only the curvature of planets, but also the possibility of extraterrestrial life on other planets. I have devoted my whole life to this science and I currently teach it at Harvard. Not to brag, but I have a PHd in Education and teach Round Earth theory for a living, for the most part.
 
It surprises me that people still cling to the old fashioned notion that the Earth is flat when there is so much evidence to the contrary. In the following few paragraphs I will detail some points that provide clear evidence that the Earth is indeed round.

1) Aristotle (who made many observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noticed that during lunar eclipses (when the Earth’s orbit places it directly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow in the process), the shadow on the Moon’s surface is round. This shadow is the Earth’s, and it’s great irrefutable evidence that the Earth is round.

2) Back to Aristole: Returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted that “there are stars seen in Egypt and [...] Cyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions.” The farther you move from the equator, the farther the ‘known’ constellations go towards the horizon, and are replaced by different stars. This would not happen at all if the Earth was flat, like your site claims.

3) Here's a more interesting point: If you stick a stick in the ground outside it will produce a shadow. The shadow moves as time passes (which is the principle for ancient Shadow Clocks). If the world had been flat, then two sticks in different locations would produce the same shadow.

4) And for my final point, I would just like to point out that every observable planet and celestial body in our solar system and the known universe (as far as we know) is spherical. This is mostly due to gravity. We can observe these planets with telescopes and other devices... so we know that they exist. If every other celestial body in space is round, then why would the Earth be flat? That goes against almost all our accepted beliefs about space and the universe itself.  What makes our Earth so different from the spherical bodies hanging in space all around us? Why are we so special?

Anyways, I hope that this promotes some real serious debate and that some of you will step away from the FE theory and come back to the Dark side (Haha), we do have cookies!