Earth LOOKS flat.
It FEELS flat.
The logical explanation is: the earth is flat!
Right?
#facepalm.
But like, once you get past the crazytalk…
How do we know the Earth IS round?
Welcome back my woke friends, Trace here for DNews.
If you follow the pervasive yellow journalism online and elsewhere, you've probably heard
of Rapper B.o.B.'s beef with NASA, science and specifically Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson,
astrophysicist and science celeb.
In short, some pop culture peeps think the Earth is Flat.
Proving them wrong is simple, though it took hundreds of years for science to figure it
out in the first place.
how do we know otherwise?
We know the Earth is round by observing it closely.
If you watch a ship as it disappears over the horizon, the bottom vanishes first and
then the top disappears later.
It looks like it's sinking.
That's because the Earth is curved.
Using a stopwatch you can do your own experiment to prove it.
Watch the sun set over the ocean or a open plain with a friend.
If you stand, while they lay down, each will see the sun cross the horizon at a slightly
different time!
how did we first realize the earth was round?
The Greeks first realized this 2500 years ago, and spent hundreds of years attempting
to explain it.
First, mathematician Pythagoras looked at the moon and discovered a curve in the line
dividing light from shadow on its surface -- called the terminator.
A flat moon would have a straight line!
The only explanation?
The moon must be a sphere!
Sometime later, Anaxagoras, while watching the moon during an eclipse, realized the shadow
covering the moon must be from the Earth!
As that shadow is definitely curved, the Earth must be round!
And still later in about 350 BC, Aristotle noted that star constellations, visible in
Greece were hidden beyond the horizon in Egypt.
His conclusion, yet again, was the Earth must be a sphere, just like the moon!
Sidebar: Notice, humanity knew the Earth was round 1800 years before 1492 when Columbus
Sailed the Ocean Blue.
Just debunking some grade school crap.
how curved is the earth?
Once these great thinkers realized the Earth was curved, they wanted to PROVE IT.
A Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes figured it out.
On the summer solstice, the sun reaches a peak at the top of the sky.
Eratosthenes went to two distant locations in Egypt on the Solstice and measured the
angles cast by the shadows in each place.
Then, using some geometry he could calculate the curvature of the Earth between those places!
From there, he could extrapolate how many degrees around the circle of the Earth he
had moved -- ultimately, revealing the circumference and diameter of the EARTH!!
Dang.
Thanks to all these ancient humans we know Earth is just a bit over 40 thousand km around
the poles (about 24,860 miles) (which is supported by modern observations), and knowing that
we can determine how far the horizon is from you -- which changes depending on how high
above sea level you are.
The Earth is curved, and we know it.
Why do these people think this?
In the end, the problem is Flat Earthers just don't trust science.
When the Flat Earth Society was founded in the mid-1920s, the idea was observation trumps
all.
This is called the Zetetic philosophy.
Many skeptics believe the same.
If the Earth looks flat it must be flat.
Often they cry "Prove me wrong!"
"Only trust your own observations!"
The funny thing about that argument is that it was observation that showed us the Earth’s
curvature in the first place!
Pythagoras observed that shadow line across the moon.
Countless people have observed ships sailing underneath the horizon.
NOT TO MENTION the fact that we’ve gone to space and observed a very spherical Earth
from above.
And if you don’t believe all those people for some reason, make your own observation.
Climb a mountain, watch a ship sail away, or watch the sun set with a friend.
And behold an inarguably spherical Earth.
Your move, B.o.B.
Conspiracy theories are just, the best, aren't they?
Have you ever wondered why people love 9/11 conspiracies?
Why are we so obsessed with the Illuminati or which conspiracy theories might be actually
true?
TestTube Plus is the podcast/show for you!
We cover…
Do y'all know anyone that we should make a video debunking?
Comments.
Do it.