[simon_and_jo]

If two planes flew around the tropics on the flat earth model, the plane that flew around the tropic of Cancer would fly 16,436.5 kilometres, whilst the plane that flew around the tropic of Capricorn would fly 79,384.8 kilometres, a much, much further journey. This is clearly not the case as they will both arrive at roughly the same time, so how do you explain this?

[Rounder]

If two planes flew around the tropics on the flat earth model, the plane that flew around the tropic of Cancer would fly 16,436.5 kilometres, whilst the plane that flew around the tropic of Capricorn would fly 79,384.8 kilometres, a much, much further journey. This is clearly not the case as they will both arrive at roughly the same time, so how do you explain this?

You cannot say “this is clearly not the case” unless you have documentation that such a pair of flights have actually taken place.

[douglips]

[simon_and_jo]

from london to washington dc, 5915 km and a 7 hour 50 minute flight
from rio to cape town, 6075 km and an 8 hour 3 minute flight
in different hemispheres, the latter flight should take more than double the time
also the IF was to indicate a hypothetical experiment and the CLEARLY NOT THE CASE was referring to the hundreds of flights in the different hemispheres. that someone would have noticed if the southern hemisphere took a considerably longer time

[devils advocate]

from london to washington dc, 5915 km and a 7 hour 50 minute flight
from rio to cape town, 6075 km and an 8 hour 3 minute flight

Hi So an Jo,

If you haven't personally measured these distances I'm afraid they are of little value here sorry 

[simon_and_jo]

ive been on both of those flights and can confirm their times and therefore their distances

[3DGeek]

ive been on both of those flights and can confirm their times and therefore their distances

When we RE'ers have argued this with the FE'ers in the past, they have put up three (equally crazy) arguments:

1) The jet stream speeds up aircraft as needed to make the times come out right.  (BOGUS - because the wind only blows in one direction - so if it speeded up East-to-West flights, it would slow down West-to-East.

2) We don't have an accepted map of the flat earth - so the distances you pulled from the map on the Wiki (or anyplace else) are wrong.

3) (This is my favorite) Airlines and airplane manufacturers don't know how fast they can fly - and the pilots are altering their speed as necessary to stay on schedule.  (This would require any long haul airliner to be capable of at least Mach 2 or 3 for any reasonable estimation of flat earth distances).

Suffice to say, we've had this debate before an while it's quite clear that the FE'ers don't have a good answer for it - you're no more likely to convince them than those of us who've argued this in minute detail before.   Bottom line is that you're right that this disproves the flat earth - but re-stating it now isn't going to win any new victories.

[Pete Svarrior]

the plane that flew around the tropic of Cancer would fly 16,436.5 kilometres, whilst the plane that flew around the tropic of Capricorn would fly 79,384.8 kilometres

How have you established these lengths?

[douglips]

In the unipolar model OR in the globe earth model, 1 degree of latitude = 60 nautical miles. So the distance from the north pole to the tropic of Cancer  is (90-23.5) * 60 nautical miles, and the distance from the north pole to the tropic of capricorn is (90 + 23.5) * 60 nautical miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile

On the unipolar map that would mean that the tropic of Cancer is a circle of radius 3990 nautical miles, for a diameter of 25000 nautical miles.

The  tropic of Capricorn would be a circle of radius 6810, for a diameter of 42800 nautical miles.

These numbers differ from what simon_and_jo found, I'm not sure how he got a ratio of about 5:1 for these distances when it should be less than 2:1.

THe underlying problem of the tropic of Capricorn being longer than the tropic of Cancer remains, however.

[simon_and_jo]

my bad, i seem to have calculated the tropic of cancer as 23.5 degrees from the north pole rather than the equator.
thanks for correcting my error

[mtnman]

In the unipolar model OR in the globe earth model, 1 degree of latitude = 60 nautical miles. So the distance from the north pole to the tropic of Cancer  is (90-23.5) * 60 nautical miles, and the distance from the north pole to the tropic of capricorn is (90 + 23.5) * 60 nautical miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical_mile

On the unipolar map that would mean that the tropic of Cancer is a circle of radius 3990 nautical miles, for a diameter of 25000 nautical miles.

The  tropic of Capricorn would be a circle of radius 6810, for a diameter of 42800 nautical miles.

These numbers differ from what simon_and_jo found, I'm not sure how he got a ratio of about 5:1 for these distances when it should be less than 2:1.

THe underlying problem of the tropic of Capricorn being longer than the tropic of Cancer remains, however.

I believe you were referring to circumference there, not diameter.

[douglips]

Well, your error points out something interesting - the antarctic circle would be (90 + 90 - 23.5) * 60 nautical miles from the north pole, so in unipolar earth it would be a circle of radius 9390 nautical miles, for a circumference of about 59000 nautical miles.

Flights from Johannesburg to Sydney yada yada yada flat earth doesn't work yada yada.