Starting around the 5:30 minute mark looking at the laser-boat example Jeran clearly demonstrates many inconsistencies in the video and the fact that the curvature seen does not match up to Round Earth Theory. The experimenter is not seen to do any measuring when they receive of the beam at the boat. The beam is pointing upwards into the sky from the boat rather than at it, among other issues.
The "results" stated in the video of the boat-laser example exactly matches what the results would be if one used an earth curvature calculator to calculate the drop if the height of the observer (or laser in this experiment) was zero. Someone in production obviously just found the results they wanted while neglecting to account for the height of the laser, which would have given a significantly different result.
This takes the experiment from the level of inconsistent to the level of fraudulent.
While Stephen Hawking is disrespected several times in the video, seeing that this is a fraud, I feel that the disrespect is probably deserving.
Right. I've gone through this in more detail.
At 7:40 Jeran claims there is 10 inches of change at the first location when there should be almost none, but he is completely estimating that. There is no calibration on the video so there is no basis for that claim of 10 inches. Later in the video he chastises the makers for claiming the difference is 6 feet without proper measurement, he does the exact same thing here.
8:50 he shows this still and says you can see the laser coming from the shore and asks why she isn't behind a hill of water.
The answer, quite simply, is it depends how high the film was taken from and in that still you can't determine that.
BUT, if you do this earth curve calculator and put in a distance of 3 miles and an eye height of 3 feet then you'll see the target hidden height is 0.5 feet.
https://dizzib.github.io/earth/curve-calc/?d0=3&h0=3&unit=imperialI think we can safely assume that the camera is more than 3 feet off the ground, given that they're on a boat, so unless the laser is lower than that 6 inches to the ground - which it clearly isn't - you'd be able to see it from 3 miles.
He then says the still shows the laser is "shooting off into space". It's amazing how selectively you guys use perspective.
You say over and over that sunset is caused by merging perspective lines and use the example that railroad tracks look closer the further they are, but here the guy wilfully misunderstands perspective to imply the laser is not horizontal. At best it's stupid, at worst it's downright dishonest.
The guy on the original video proclaims the difference to be 6 feet admittedly with little accuracy, Jeran picks up on that but the point here surely is on a flat earth the difference would be 0. The only way to account for the difference is if the laser is not horizontal which you have no basis for other than just shouting "PANTS ON FIRE!" or pretending on this occasion that you don't understand perspective.
He then produces this ridiculous still which he has drawn lines on:
Where does he get that angle from? If that angle was accurate then the laser would be about 20 feet away, not 3 miles. He then uses that as the basis for saying that the lake must tilt ridiculously if that was right. It's a complete straw man, the angle of the laser cannot be as shown there. This is the actual still
You can't see the line of the laser but given that it's coming from 3 miles away it's impossible that the angle is as he shows in his annotated still.
He then claims they made the result what they expected it to be, again the difference was not accurately measured but the important point is there WAS a difference and yes, it was about 6 feet. Now comes the interesting part. He claims that the difference should have only been 1 foot because they neglected to take into account the height of the laser. He is wrong because the thing they are measuring is the DIFFERENCE in height at the two distances. Look at this diagram showing two lasers both horizontal to the ground but at different heights.
The difference in heights of the green laser is: H2 - H0
The difference in heights of the red laser is: H3 - H1.
But because the lasers are parall H1-H0 = H3-H2
(note that because of the angles shown in the diagram there would be a very slight difference but these angles are grossly exaggerated, in real life the difference would be negligible over 3 miles on a globe the size of the earth).
So, if:
H1-H0 = H3-H2
We can add H0 to both sides to get:
H1 = H3 + H0 - H2
So we can substute H1 for H3 + H0 - H2
H3 - H1
= H3 - (H3 + H0 - H2)
= H2 - H0 (+H2 because we have two minuses, which cancel out)
QED. The laser height cancels itself, his claim that they failed to account for the height of the laser is spurious.
So your only get out now is to claim they're lying which you have no basis for other than the experiment proves you wrong.
Oh, and he clearly does thing Hawking died years ago, he spends some part of the video talking about ALS and other celebrities who got it and how long they lived with the disease, why bother doing that if he was kidding?