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Flat Earth Investigations / Re: Experiment with sun sets
« on: February 22, 2018, 06:51:52 PM »Knowing now, how perspective works; that the perspective lines will merge a finite distance away, we now move on to what is actually blocking the sun at the horizon. We know that it can get there, but what blocks the light? According to Samuel Birley Rowbotham it is the small imperfections on the earth's surface that blocks the sun. The perspective lines merge at a finite distance and any little disturbance on the earth near the horizon, such as a series of ocean waves, can cause even more distant bodies to be obscured; much like how a dime can obscure an elephant.
The perspective lines are perfect, but the surface of the earth is not perfect, and there will be an area upon which something can disappear behind. That area is the solid line of built up ocean waves when you look out at the ocean's horizon, or the imperfections of the land when on land. It is mentioned in Earth Not a Globe that the sunset takes longer when the seas are calm compared to when they are more disturbed:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/za33.htmQuoteThe above remarks are made considering the water to be still, as if it were frozen; but as the water of the sea is always in a state of undulation, it is evident that a line of sight passing over a sea horizon cannot possibly continue mathematically parallel to the plane of the water, but must have a minute inclination upwards in the direction of the zenith. Hence it is that often, when the sun is setting over a stormy or heavily swelling sea, the phenomenon of sunset begins at a point on the horizon sensibly less than 90° from the zenith. The same phenomenon may be observed at sunrise, from any eminence over the sea in an easterly direction, as from the summit
p. 275
of the Hill of Howth, and the rock called "Ireland's Eye," near Dublin, looking to the east over Liverpool Bay, in the direction of the coast of Lancashire. This is illustrated by diagram 97:----
FIG. 97.
A, D, B, represents the horizontal surface of the sea, and D 1, and D 2, the optical or apparent ascent of the water towards the eye-lines O 1, and O 2; O, D, the observer; Z, the zenith; H, H, the horizon; and S, S, the morning and evening sun. It is obvious from this diagram that if the water had a fixed character, as when frozen, the angle Z, O 1, or Z, O 2, would be one of 90 °; but on account of the waves and breakers at the horizon H, H, mounting half their altitudes above the lines O 1, and O 2, the line of sight meets the sun .at S, which appears to rise or set on the elevated horizon H, the angle Z, O, S, being less than 90°.
This is evidently the cause of the sun setting and rising at sea, later when the water is calm, and earlier when it is greatly disturbed--a fact well known to observant sea-going travellers and residents on eastern or western shores. It is also the cause of the sun rising later and setting earlier than it would over a smooth plane of earth, or over absolutely still water, or than it ought to do mathematically for its known altitude.
I have a HUGE problem with the imperfections on the earth type explanation. Firstly, if you were to stand on a hill next to an ocean facing the setting sun, it would set. According to the theory, the imperfections on the Earth should block the sun. But when there is no imperfection to block it, where does the sun go?
You may argue that the sea will block the sun, but "water is always flat" is one of the arguments I always see for the FET. So again, where will the sun go? Are there massive waves hundreds of meters high out there? Has the government built some wall to 'hide the truth'?
Even if this theory were true, I believe from my own lived experiences that night would not be possible. Get a lamp or light source, for example, and put it on a table. If you get yourself below the table and look the opposite direction, the light will still shine on the wall or object. Even in the diagram shown, from D to H the sun would illuminate that ground. I know from experience that a setting sun isn't a black line travelling up a hill, its a gradual change.