[nickrulercreator]

Today is the equinox! Happy equinox everyone.

Just a quick question for the flat-earthers out there, though. Because it is the equinox, everyone, everywhere, will be seeing the sun rise perfectly in the east, and set perfectly in the west. No matter your latitude, this is a fact. Even suncalc gives the parameters based on your location: suncalc.net

How is this possible on a Flat Earth?

[Dr David Thork]

This is a tricky one for a flat earther to explain to round earthers, and its tricky because what do you see when you look East? On a flat earth, what even is East?



Let us say you are at point A in western Africa. If you look East, do you see point B (Madagascar) which is not East of you, or do you see along the line of East to point C (India) which is East and see around a bend?

The answer has to be 'B'; when you look East, you see things that aren't East of you. And conversely, things can appear to be East, when they aren't actually East. Equinoxes ... they are that easy. 

[Frocious]

This is a tricky one for a flat earther to explain to round earthers, and its tricky because what do you see when you look East? On a flat earth, what even is East?



Let us say you are at point A in western Africa. If you look East, do you see point B (Madagascar) which is not East of you, or do you see along the line of East to point C (India) which is East and see around a bend?

The answer has to be 'B'; when you look East, you see things that aren't East of you. And conversely, things can appear to be East, when they aren't actually East. Equinoxes ... they are that easy. 

The defense rests, Your Honour.

So the sun doesn't rise in the east? Is that the claim here?

[Dr David Thork]

It certainly appears to rise in the East. It just might not be East of you.

[nickrulercreator]

It certainly appears to rise in the East. It just might not be East of you.

So how does this work? How is the sun magically able to change its location in the sky. The further you are from the Equator on the FE, according to that model, the less East/West the sun is during rise/set. If you're further south, the sun appears further north, and vice versa. How is the sun able to change itself?

[Dr David Thork]

Look at the map above. If you looked East, would you expect to see things that are East of you? Or do you expect your vision to follow the curve of East?

If the former, you have to accept that things that appear East, can be some place other than East. It isn't the sun changing location. Its just the sun could look to be East when in fact it isn't.

[Frocious]

Look at the map above. If you looked East, would you expect to see things that are East of you? Or do you expect your vision to follow the curve of East?

If the former, you have to accept that things that appear East, can be some place other than East. It isn't the sun changing location. Its just the sun could look to be East when in fact it isn't.

And this somehow didn't wreak absolute havock on ancient navigation?

Or modern navigation?

[Dr David Thork]

Ancient navigation? Look at the map. The lines of longitude are straight. You see the pole star as North, and that's where it is. North is always North. Its just that East isn't always East ...

despite what Hollywood tells you.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0166175/

[Scroogie]

Look at the map above. If you looked East, would you expect to see things that are East of you? Or do you expect your vision to follow the curve of East?

If the former, you have to accept that things that appear East, can be some place other than East. It isn't the sun changing location. Its just the sun could look to be East when in fact it isn't.

"the sun could look to be East when in fact it isn't" - What?!?!?!

If that makes sense to someone here, could they please explain it to me? Where the hell is it going to be? North? West? South? North by northwest?

[Pete Svarrior]

Where the hell is it going to be? North? West? South? North by northwest?

That would strictly depend on your location and time of day.

[nickrulercreator]

Look at the map above. If you looked East, would you expect to see things that are East of you? Or do you expect your vision to follow the curve of East?

If the former, you have to accept that things that appear East, can be some place other than East. It isn't the sun changing location. Its just the sun could look to be East when in fact it isn't.

I accept the former, but your second paragraph is wrong. I do not have to accept that things appearing East can be somewhere other than East. That's not logical. How can the sun appear to be East when it isn't?

This is what the flat earth model would look like during the equinox: http://i63.tinypic.com/2zspc87.png

It is impossible for the sun to appear East for everyone during sunrise and sunset on this model.

[Dr David Thork]

I accept the former, but your second paragraph is wrong. I do not have to accept that things appearing East can be somewhere other than East. That's not logical. How can the sun appear to be East when it isn't?

Well its very logical. Either you see round corners, or light travels in straight lines. East isn't a straight line on a flat earth. So it stands to reason if I look East (the way my compass is pointing), anything a very long way away won't actually be East of me. It must be some place else. It just appears to be East. Things that are genuinely East of me, must often appear to be some place else too, but that doesn't really apply to an equinox.




In the image above, I could be way up North in Canada, or I could be on the equator in Africa, and in both cases, the sun appears to be east. But the sun isn't actually East of either. I should point out, this isn't unique to flat earth. The same is true of a globe. If you just went straight on a globe, in the direction of East, you be off out into space. You correct with the curve of East.

The false dichotomy here, is that round earthers claim on a globe that the sun rises in the East. It doesn't. It appears to rise in the East. If you followed East on a globe, you'd never get to the sun. You'd go around the earth. And as you moved towards the sun, it would appear more south east as you approached in the northern hemisphere, then South and eventually it would be behind you in the West. Even on a globe, the sun appears to rise in the East, even though it isn't East of you. And I just showed that's the same for flat earth. Canada or Africa, the sun can appear to rise in the East to both at once, even though it isn't East of either.

[xenotolerance]

itt: Thork doesn't know what a tangent line is. that whole post purposefully confuses tangents with surface directions to try and make bendy light voodoo sound reasonable. it doesn't; Thork, you never came close to 'showing it's the same for flat earth'

on the equinox, tangent lines pointing east from the terminator line at sunrise point at the sun.

if the Earth were flat, only tangent lines pointing east from intersections of the terminator and the equator would point at the sun. in the southern hemisphere, the sun would appear to rise in the southeast, and in the southern hemisphere it would appear in the northeast.

hence the bendy light rationalization, which holds no water. that's another argument that's been done to death