Careful observers of my recent posts may be aware that I've been rigging a gigantic logical trap for the FE'ers.
All of this debate about airline flight distances is VERY close to a perfect proof that no possible flat earth map can be true.
The ONLY remaining argument that Tom Bishop has is that he denies the maximum speed of an Airliner is known to us.
Well - I'm getting bored with that debate - the RE'ers have won it 20 ways.
So it's time to spring the next piece of the trap.
If Tom declares that people who make and fly airplanes have no idea how fast they fly....what is the one thing in the entire universe who's speed is DEFINITELY known?
It's the speed of light.
The speed of light (technically: "the speed of light in vacuum") is known to be an absolute universal constant...it doesn't vary by the slightest amount, no matter how it's measured - and it's the "universal speed limit" - nothing can go faster.
So if I could measure those distances using the time light takes to travel - then nobody could doubt the distances I end up with.
Ooohhhh! Wouldn't THAT be cool?!
BACKGROUND:
Most computers contain a software tool called "ping" - I'm not sure it's standard on Windows computers - but Mac's and Linux machines have it installed by default and there are free versions of it that you can download for Windows too. The Linux version (and probably some of the Windows downloadable versions of it) come with "source code" - which means that you can see how it works and verify that neither NASA, the US government nor anyone else couldn't have sneaked some flat-earth-coverup software into it. (I just looked - they didn't!)
The name of the software ("ping") comes from the analogy of a sonar 'ping' from a submarine...but this is an internet ping.
What "ping" lets you do is to send a very short message to more or less any other computer on the Internet - have that message be instantly turned around and sent back to you. Ping measures and displays the amount of time that took.
USING THIS HANDY TOOL:
Since we know that a message cannot possibly travel faster than the speed of light - we can use 'ping' to provide distance measurements to more or less any place on the Earth...with one caveat: We don't know exactly which undersea cable or satellite link carried the signal - and there will be some small delays in that signal due to the time it takes computer software to turn it around and get it back to us.
So if you take the 'ping time' and multiply it by the speed of light, what you know is that the target computer can be no FURTHER than that distance (but it may be somewhat closer).
What's more - on the Internet - I can log into some distant computer - and have it issue a "ping" to a third machine and report back to me how long that took.
That means that I can measure times not only from my computer to any other machine in the world - but also from any machine I have legal access to, to any other point in the world.
Now - this is an interesting research tool for FE'ers:
For example, if I had access to a computer in Sydney Australia - I could "ping" a computer in Santiago Chile and know that the distance between those cities is no greater than some distance I can calculate. The distance might be less than that calculation says - but it cannot possibly be more because signals along electrical wires and optical fibers can be no faster than that.
Now - Mr Bishop isn't going to like this very much.
It destroys his last remaining objection.
So, for example - I just logged into a computer in Silicon Valley, California and did a 'ping' to the Japanese culture center in Tokyo, Japan. I got a 'ping' time that's around 71 milliseconds (0.071 seconds).
The speed of light is 299,800,000 meters per second.
0.071 seconds x 299,800,000 meters per second = 21,300,000 meters.
But the 'ping' signal went from Silicon Valley to Tokyo AND BACK AGAIN - so the one-way distance is 10,700,000 meters or so...10,700 km.
So we now know - for 100% sure - that Silicon Valley and Tokyo are less than 10,700 km apart - which is ~6,600 miles.
The ACTUAL distance according to Google and Airline sources is 5,200 miles - but we know that the "ping" approach will produce numbers that may be too BIG - but can NEVER be too SMALL - so this is an expected result. NO MORE THAN 6,600 miles.
Looking at BOTH of the flat earth maps that we have available to us, we can see that they both make the distance between California and Japan VASTLY more than that...so with just one simple software command, I've proved conclusively that both maps are WILDLY incorrect.
No underlying assumptions beyond the value of the speed of light. Anyone here can try the same test...feel free...go nuts!
Oh...Mr Bishop...are you in trouble now? I think so!
We can now use "ping" to verify that the distances for airline routes aren't a hell of a lot longer than they claim...sure the 'ping' approach can't show that they are too short - but it can definitely prove that the distance between Sydney Australia and Santiago Chile isn't two or three times what Qantas says it is...and that's enough to disprove BOTH of the current FE maps.
Anyone, anywhere on the Internet can happily ping computers and compare to the distances that any FE map you'll ever produce and INSTANTLY disprove it from the comfort of their own homes.
Oh dear, Tom...I do think your FE ideas are going to be in a lot of trouble now.
Now - it's possible that your very next reaction will be to claim that the number we have for the speed of light must be wrong.
You may be interested to know that I can tell everyone here how to measure the speed of light using just a microwave oven and a bunch of chocolate chips.
(Yeah - I know that sounds batshit crazy - but google it.)
So - "ping", chocolate chips and a microwave. That's delivers 100% of the experimental evidence you need to prove that the word isn't flat.
Is this fun or what?! :-)
More disproofs coming soon - I have lots of ideas left to go still!