[ICanScienceThat]

c) is your problem.

With perspective, how high do you think Everest is at 7500 miles away?

It is the teeniest pimple on the horizon. Imperceptibly small. So how would a star shine through it? Its so small as to be barely visible. Its not blocking anything. Its teeeeeeny. The star would shine round both sides of it with no issue at all. Like putting your thumb over the sun, then moving your thumb away from you until you can see the sun again round both sides of your thumb. 

I'm not heated. I'm exasperated. This is very basic stuff.

I think Mt. Everest would be 0.042 degrees off the horizon at that point. Pretty tiny. To get it to be 0.5 degrees tall, we'd have to get a lot closer. We'd need to be 630 miles away for that. How about we relocate to 630 miles away from Mt. Everest? Can we get a straight-line shot at Mt. Everest from sea level 630 miles away?

If we can find a spot 630 miles away from Mt. Everest with a clear line of sight to it, would you agree that it would be 0.5 degrees tall then? That's the size of the moon. Would we see Mt. Everest from there? Could we get a star behind it then?

[Dr David Thork]

good luck sorting that out. Clear line of sight ... its in the Himalayas.

[ICanScienceThat]

good luck sorting that out. Clear line of sight ... its in the Himalayas.

Maybe we could choose a different mountain? Do you think it would be possible to find a scenario where we have a clear line of sight to something really big, but also really far away? Something we could test this out with?

[ICanScienceThat]

good luck sorting that out. Clear line of sight ... its in the Himalayas.

Maybe we could choose a different mountain? Do you think it would be possible to find a scenario where we have a clear line of sight to something really big, but also really far away? Something we could test this out with?

Off the top of my head, how about Mauna Kea? It's 13,803 ft sticking more or less right out of the ocean. How about we sit in a boat 300 miles off shore and look at it? At 300 miles, I figure Mauna Kea should be 0.5 degrees tall. As long as we're careful to observe from high enough to see over any potential waves... cruise ships are easily 200 ft tall, and cruise ships go to Hawaii all the time. Should work right?

[Dr David Thork]

good luck sorting that out. Clear line of sight ... its in the Himalayas.

Maybe we could choose a different mountain? Do you think it would be possible to find a scenario where we have a clear line of sight to something really big, but also really far away? Something we could test this out with?

Off the top of my head, how about Mauna Kea? It's 13,803 ft sticking more or less right out of the ocean. How about we sit in a boat 300 miles off shore and look at it? At 300 miles, I figure Mauna Kea should be 0.5 degrees tall. As long as we're careful to observe from high enough to see over any potential waves... cruise ships are easily 200 ft tall, and cruise ships go to Hawaii all the time. Should work right?

So, you want to take me to a far flung destination on a boat with you to "look at a mountain and see if we can see stars behind it"? Let me guess, I'll need to go to the hand rail and lean over and peer at the mountain waiting for the cosmic alignment?

I fell for that once before on this forum. I ended up going to a basement in Ohio to help some large guy with his rocket. He insisted I polish it and help lighten his payload. When I got there ... there was just a stained mattress and no space stuff. 

[ICanScienceThat]

good luck sorting that out. Clear line of sight ... its in the Himalayas.

Maybe we could choose a different mountain? Do you think it would be possible to find a scenario where we have a clear line of sight to something really big, but also really far away? Something we could test this out with?

Off the top of my head, how about Mauna Kea? It's 13,803 ft sticking more or less right out of the ocean. How about we sit in a boat 300 miles off shore and look at it? At 300 miles, I figure Mauna Kea should be 0.5 degrees tall. As long as we're careful to observe from high enough to see over any potential waves... cruise ships are easily 200 ft tall, and cruise ships go to Hawaii all the time. Should work right?

So, you want to take me to a far flung destination on a boat with you to "look at a mountain and see if we can see stars behind it"? Let me guess, I'll need to go to the hand rail and lean over and peer at the mountain waiting for the cosmic alignment?

I fell for that once before on this forum. I ended up going to a basement in Ohio to help some large guy with his rocket. He insisted I polish it and help lighten his payload. When I got there ... there was just a stained mattress and no space stuff. 

Alas, you have seen through my ruse!

But seriously, don't you think that would be a really good, really conclusive experiment to try? If you see the star, the earth is round. If you see the mountain, the earth is flat. If you can't make out the mountain, but something is blocking the star, we have good evidence that the earth is flat.

That's science, baby!

[Dr David Thork]

If we could take a spaceship into orbit, that'd do it to. We would you pick something that isn't going to happen?

[ICanScienceThat]

If we could take a spaceship into orbit, that'd do it to. We would you pick something that isn't going to happen?

Why do you think a cruise ship to Hawaii is impossible? People do that all the time. All you need to do to prove the flatness of the Earth is book a cruise to Hawaii. Bring along a camera with a telephoto lens.