Is the earth really round? If the Earth were flat, what would happen to us? Measure the size of the ball again

In 2015, I noticed a very noticeable increase in games about space, planets, exploration of other galaxies and UFOs. every now and then another project of this kind comes up, and it is far from being of the best quality. Maybe it's because I started looking closely at this kind of thing only a month ago, or maybe not...

Let's start from far away. In 1993, I got a computer for use - an inconvenient, bulky thing that constantly buzzed, required frequent text entry into the console and insisted on compatibility with your tape recorder + TV. Games took a very long time to load, since they had to be “emulated” every time they were launched. 23 years have passed, look around - computers have ceased to be “consoles for the wealthy”, having become an integral part of a person’s daily life. The Internet has covered the entire planet, gadgets, programs, devices - there is an extremely large amount of all this. Just think about how far the computer industry has come over the years, essentially rising from scratch. Although, of course, the platform appeared much earlier (in 1982). Now let’s sharply direct our gaze upward, towards space. How long has it been since man visited space and the Moon? In distant, attention, 1969! In other words, 46 years have passed. Now tell me, how long has it been since you personally flew to the moon? Are there many moon rocks in your room? Do your friends often vacation there? Got some cool selfies from the moon? NO? How is this possible? In 46 years, the moon should have become as progressive a point in human life as a computer. We humans are extremely interested in everything, we just want to own it, we want to poke our nose into everything, we want to go to other planets, so why don’t we do it?

And this question constantly worried me: why did something that originated not so long ago develop much better (PC), while flights to the moon remained the prerogative of science fiction films? Why does every second person own a computer (I didn’t count), but no one can boast of flying into space? Just don’t say that people don’t have money - they buy stamps for their collection for millions, squabble over ancient paintings and artifacts, but don’t fly to the moon? Why haven't they razed the ground there yet? Doesn't this seem strange to you? Where is the spirit of research, where is the desire to discover new things, where is the eternal desire to relax in style? Why do criminals escape to desert islands when there is a real place where no one can get you?

Round Earth theory

And you know, each of these people, whom we will call “zombies,” has a remarkable feature - contagiousness. If such a zombie bites you, you will also become a zombie, and you don’t need to have close contact, just open your eyes and read their text or watch at least one, the most pathetic, video. Basically, how do we know the Earth is round? Thanks to government missions to the moon, of course. (Oh, thanks you, Nasa)! Now tell me, do you really believe the government xD? Now, returning to the first paragraphs of this topic, you should already have a visual comparison. Who doesn't let you fly into space? Government. Why? He doesn’t care what games we play on the computer, what programs we install, how we talk and what we eat. He doesn't care about anything. But as soon as it comes to space, there is a strange silence and denial of access.

Based on the fact that we live on a round Earth, the earth constantly makes a slope, well, so that the same circle emerges. At the same time, the planet moves at high speed through space, and even spins in a certain direction. If you poke your nose into the Internet and try to find evidence of the roundness of our planet, you get a funny thing: there is either no evidence, or it was provided by the government (in words, without physical data), or they fit in the same way with the second theory that will be discussed below. It’s also funny that the data confirming the fact of landing on the Moon was lost in its entirety. That is, using modern technologies it is simply impossible to prove the truth of those pictures and videos. Is it a coincidence, or was the data simply not there to begin with?

Flat Earth theory

P.S. I’m not going to prove anything to anyone here, these are just personal notes and observations. My words can and will differ from the direct text of those authors from whom I read this information. I won’t give any links - if you want the perfectly pure truth, go to Google and draw your own conclusions.

1) According to this theory, the Earth is flat and is set on one large ocean. The planet has no core, as well as the planet itself, since from the side we look like a rock. At the edge of the Earth there is a layer of ice called Antarctica, which surrounds us in the form of a ring. And here let's think again, stepping back into the past. What is Antarctica? Why don't planes fly over it? The government's answer is that it's cold there. Why don't expeditions go there? Why aren’t there a bunch of photographs, films, programs, reality shows “Survive in Antarctica”? Why are even the names Arctic and Antarctic so similar? Why do they confuse us even in this matter? Is it just to make our eyes dirty? No, really, how many films about the South Pole (for ease of perception, let’s call it that) have you seen in your life? I - none. This part of the planet was never discussed at school, it does not appear in the news, neither politicians nor businessmen talk about it. Just like the Moon. If you go to Google, all you can find is that there is an old American station there, that’s all. How is this, that's it? Is no one in this world interested in a whole piece of Earth?

2) Gravity. Once upon a time, an apple fell from a tree, and Newton realized that there is gravity in the world, which pulls everything down. Or doesn't it work? I noticed a funny similarity - one apple in ancient times has already misled humanity, and history, as you and I know, likes to repeat itself xD What is gravity? This is the force that attracts objects to the earth, as if to the core of the planet. It is gravity that allows the oceans not to float into space, but to stay inside our dear planetary ball. Then a reasonable question: “Why, having such a powerful force that holds the water in check, can we walk calmly? How can fry swim through water, ignoring the force of gravity?” It turns out that the fry is more powerful than all the force that holds the ocean? It sounds strange and raises questions. This is akin to the brain-buster question: “is there an omnipotent being who can create an unliftable stone”?

3) Horizon. Have you ever seen the horizon? Yes, of course, we saw it. It is absolutely smooth. Based on the theory of a round Earth, the horizon must gradually tilt to form this very circle. In fact, no matter what area you cover with your high-precision camera camera, there will be a straight line. Planetologists (those who claim that the Earth is round) calculated the angle of inclination of the planet per unit of displacement. Ultimately, if you take your binoculars/spotting scope and look "straight" at a flat area, at some point you will lose sight of the ground because it will slope down. What's funny is that she doesn't shy away... You can conduct an experiment that is accessible to everyone - draw colored marks on a sheet of metal / log or other clearly visible object and place it eight kilometers away from you on a perfectly flat area. Then take something magnifying and try to look at that sheet from the indicated distance (8 km). If the Earth is round, your object should not be visible, since it will be “beneath you,” below the horizon line. If the Earth is flat, you can easily observe it. Interestingly, balloons have been actively launched in recent months (this is certainly affordable for ordinary people). Cameras are installed on the balloons and this entire structure stupidly flies upward, filming the horizon. And, strangely, it is completely level and is always “at eye level”. If we lived on a circle, then the horizon would drop down more and more as we take off, but this does not happen.

4) Space. According to the flat earth theory, there is not a single planet in space. Each so-called planet is a light bulb - a luminous disk. This is why we cannot see the back of the Moon (the dark side). Interestingly, many have conducted research in recent years - other “planets” are indeed visible through the Moon. Through? Yeah, imagine that. The dimensions of the Sun and Moon are several thousand km and these light bulbs are located at approximately the same distance from the Earth (that is, they are much smaller than the Earth in size). We stand still, and the lamps spin above us, describing rings. Periodically, the rings narrow and expand, which gives rise to seasons. As for the pictures of the round Earth that Nasa made/lalo - they are all fake, visible to the naked eye. In their videos, the clouds do not move at all, while many of them are copied and pasted in programs such as Photoshop, and the shape of the planet itself is ALWAYS round, although we know for sure that it is an ellipsoid. And recently they began to claim that the Earth is a pear... Lies drive lies. It is always easy to catch a thief when his own words contradict themselves.

5) Why hide? I’ll say right away that this is the part that puzzles me the most. Attention, to the question “why is the government hiding this” they gave the following answer: “they worship the devil”... Yes indeed. It is not surprising that adherents of the flat theory are considered crazy. According to them, all the rulers of the world work together, they know very well about the south pole and space, they know that we are surrounded by a dome, that we cannot simply fly into endless space. And since they worship the devil, then their task is to pile up lies, deception and lead people away from religiosity. The government is promoting the idea of ​​multiplanetism, that a person is not special, he is ordinary, there are many of them in the universe. “Zombies” say that man is ideal, that we are at the epicenter of the world, that the world was created exclusively for us.

6) Old times. Back in 1500, the Earth was seriously considered flat. Now we look back at that time and say: “those dummies.” But are those people idiots? Let's look at what the world has received since 1500... Well, apart from the Internet and weapons, it seems to me skeptically that nothing. And what did those same dunces achieve before our era? They built the pyramids of Maya and Egypt, created many memorable artifacts of the past, perfectly verified in mathematical terms, created unimaginable tables, calendars and accounts. They could easily predict the movements of the stars, predict the weather, and simply create miracles of science and technology. To this day, not only are their technologies not available to us, but we have not even come close to solving even one mystery of antiquity. How were the pyramids built at that time? Why are their blocks so huge and perfectly cut with tools, if they didn’t really use metal yet? How did the Stooges manage to leave such a strong imprint on the face of the world? Or are they not idiots?

According to the flat earth theory, the whole world is in a conspiracy. Accordingly, in order to keep people's minds away from the south pole and space, the government periodically starts wars. At the moment, everyone's eyes are on Ukraine. At the same time, computer developers are massively creating games about space and planets. From the point of view of this theory, everything is logical - it is the devil who forces them...

What do you think about this hilarious matter?

On October 4, 2017, planet Earth celebrated the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the space age of mankind - the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite into orbit.

Satellite for exposing the conspiracy of scientists

But, as it turns out, there are still skeptics who believe that all space research is a complete hoax. In particular, scientists allegedly lie about what shape our planet actually has.

At the end of September American hip-hop artist Bobby Ray Simons, performing under the pseudonym B.o.B, began raising funds for the construction of satellites. With their help, he plans to expose the NASA conspiracy and prove that the Earth is actually flat.

This could be regarded as a curiosity, but, as it turns out, a not very large, but quite active brotherhood of flat Earth supporters operates throughout the planet.

Mr Rowbotham and his followers

In 1992, the Vatican—perhaps the world's most conservative organization—officially exonerated Galileo Galilei, recognizing that the Earth is not a stationary body and does indeed revolve around the Sun. This would seem to be the end of the flat Earth story. But it turned out completely differently.

In the 19th century English inventor and writer Samuel Rowbotham wrote a book in which, based on his own experience, he proved that the Earth is flat. He popularized his theory through lectures and attracted many supporters. In the United States, Rowbotham's supporters founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, which preached the idea of ​​a flat Earth.

In 1956, the International Flat Earth Society was created. Oddly enough, the ranks of this organization were replenished even after Gagarin’s flight and the landing of American astronauts on the Moon. By the way, it was flat Earth supporters who actively promoted the version that the moon landing was a hoax filmed in Hollywood.

The Earth is a disk, the North Pole is the center, Antarctica does not exist

So what is the Earth according to the supporters of this theory?

Our planet is a disk 40,000 kilometers in diameter, with the North Pole at the center. In fact, Antarctica and the South Pole do not exist - the wall of ice encircling the edges of the planet is mistaken for the southernmost continent. The Sun, Moon and stars revolve over the Earth's surface.

Flat Earth supporters do not consider images from space as an argument. In their opinion, the planet's scientists are in a conspiracy, and everything that is published is a well-thought-out lie.

“I'm going down. At the same place!"

In May 2017 American Darryl Marble I took a construction level with me on the plane and put it on the table in the back of the front seat. According to the man’s calculations, in 23 minutes of the experiment the plane must cover 326 kilometers. According to Marble, if the Earth has a curved surface, then the plane's trajectory will deviate from the horizontal by 8 kilometers. To compensate, the pilot would have to lower the nose of the plane. But this did not happen, which means, they say, the Earth is flat. The experimenter called the existence of gravity “just a theory.”

In July 2017, the fighter for a flat Earth became famous in Russia. Schoolboy Maxim Ozherelev on his video channel on the Internet he fiercely defended the version about the plane of his native planet: “So I jumped. The earth rotates at a speed of 400 meters per second. I'm going down. At the same place! I think why didn’t the Earth do this... movement, and I didn’t fly 400 meters somewhere?”

Maxim became famous throughout the Runet, but turned out to be not a very persistent person. After users ridiculed him, he chose to delete his videos and is no longer performing today.

“Who are we with? With God and the Bible, or with the Freemasons and their pseudoscience?

However, there are people in Russia who are stronger in faith. On the social network VKontakte there is a “Flat Earth Society”, whose members are more than 28 thousand people.

“This group was created to counter pseudoscience that encroaches on the foundations of the biblical world order,” say the project organizers. — Why do we defend the truth about a Flat Earth? The point is not that we, like all honest people, are fighting for the Truth. And not even that the plane of the Earth is obvious to anyone who has eyes and the ability to look with them. It's all about the question of trust in God... The Bible gives us a clear and clear picture of the world order. Modern science, financed by Masonic circles, denies this picture and substitutes its own, designed to confuse minds. We have a choice - who are we with? With God and the Bible, or with the Freemasons and their pseudoscience?

Flat Earth on TV

On September 25, 2017, flat Earth supporters in Russia had a real holiday. The REN TV channel showed an episode of the TV show “The Most Shocking Hypotheses” with Igor Prokopenko, in which the floor was given to those who believe the Earth is flat.

Among the heroes of the program were former NASA employee Matthew Boylan, who claimed that he was forced to edit real satellite images to make the Earth appear spherical, and Pavel Sviridov, one of the most famous “flat earthers” in Russia. The latter announced his performance in the program on the Internet: “I am involved in the creation of this film. As you know, success on television is measured by ratings. Therefore, I appeal to you with a request - spread the information about this film as much as possible, let as many people as possible watch it, be active, write reviews, discuss, including on the channel’s forum, and then we will break through this dam of lies and silence.” In the program, Sviridov states that NASA, showing footage of astronauts from orbit, actually uses chroma key and other technologies, falsifying reality. The floor was also given to other flat Earth supporters from among bloggers and amateur scientists who debunked all evidence of the planet’s sphericity.

At the same time, real scientists were not given a chance to speak in the program, and it turned out that they had nothing to object to Sviridov and company.

“Anyone who wants to know information that is recognized by official science should go to a natural history textbook.”

But a real scandal erupted after it became known that the author of the program, Igor Prokopenko, became a TEFI-2017 laureate in the nomination... “Educational program.” True, he received the award not for “The Most Shocking Hypotheses,” but for his other project, “Military Secret.”

The presentation of the award to Prokopenko immediately after the program about the “flat Earth” caused indignation among many. The journalist himself answered the critics this way: “I have no goal that a number of data that appear in my program are recognized by official science, for one simple reason: the program is called “The Most Shocking Hypotheses.” Anyone who wants to know information that is recognized by official science should read a fourth-grade natural history textbook. Those who want to know all the versions and hypotheses that exist today - from classic to the most ridiculous and fantastic - come to us. There is no contradiction in this."

Indeed, there is no contradiction. In essence, the TEFI laureate said the following: I have the right to present any theories, and if someone not burdened with the burden of knowledge falls under their influence, then this is not the problem of the creators of the program.

“I don’t believe people can be such idiots.”

The cosmonauts currently in orbit also joined in the discussion of the topic, which became unusually sensitive during the 60th anniversary of the launch of the first satellite.

During the presentation of the SPACEWALK 360 project, dedicated to the first ever panoramic video made in outer space, the Russian Sergey Ryazansky remarked: “In my opinion, flat Earthers are such cool professional space trolling. I don't believe people can be such idiots."

Still, one can argue with space heroes. People can be extraordinary idiots. Even in the 61st year of the space age.

Famous basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has stated that he is a supporter of the flat Earth theory. Despite the humorous tone of the message, it immediately hit the media headlines and caused a heated discussion among conspiracy theorists.

RT asked a psychologist why the marginal Flat Earth Society is becoming mainstream and why people are starting to believe in more and more incredible things.

NBA legend and center Shaquille O'Neal said he shares the position of Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving, who said the Earth is flat.

"It's true. The earth is flat. Listen, there are three ways to manipulate consciousness: with the help of what we read, see and hear. The first thing we are taught at school is that Columbus discovered America. However, think about it: when he got here, he met red-skinned people with long hair smoking peace pipes. So Columbus didn’t discover America,” O’Neill said on The Big Podcast. After this discouraging statement, the legendary basketball player continued to egg on his co-hosts.

A few weeks earlier, Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving made a similar statement, but later said he was just joking. Such comedic comments from famous athletes caused a stir in the American segment of the Internet, because, as it turned out, the flat Earth society is becoming increasingly popular.

The Flat Earth Society is a fringe organization even according to various US conspiracy theorists and alternative historians following the trail of UFOs, Bigfoot and Masonic conspiracies. Thus, the popular conspiracy channel on YouTube Secure Team has almost a million subscribers and videos with supposedly alien objects and murky photographs of alien bases on the Moon. In one of the published materials, the channel’s authors expressed regret at the “growing number of people who have regressed to this ancient faith.” The channel was immediately attacked by thousands of Flat Earth Society followers.

The society itself states on its website that it is guided exclusively by scientific principles. According to adherents of the theory, resorting to the method of Cartesian skepticism, the burden of proof lies with anyone who believes that the Earth is spherical. They regard the evidence for this as insignificant or fabricated. At the same time, they are happy to publish videos from low orbit, allegedly proving that the Earth is flat.

“The most reliable evidence for a flat Earth is the Bedford level experiment. Conducted many times over a six-mile stretch of water, it has produced results which prove that there is no curvature of the earth's surface." on the society's website.

The experiment the organization refers to was conducted by the English inventor and founder of the society, Samuel Rowbotham, in 1838.

• Bedford experiment

Members of the society claim that our planet is a flat disk 40,000 kilometers in diameter, centered around the North Pole. Also, adherents of this theory deny the existence of gravity and the South Pole, instead of which a huge wall of ice extends around the disk.

Followers of this theory claim that all photographs of the Earth from space are computer-generated, and the belief in a spherical Earth supports a global conspiracy of governments and scientists. Space flight is a hoax, and the moon landing was filmed jointly by Stanley Kubrick and Andrei Tarkovsky from a script by Arthur C. Clarke.

The society produces a huge amount of Internet content, literally inundating its supporters and opponents with a variety of “evidence”: from obscure mathematical formulas to lists of quotations from the Bible. It got to the point that even fundamentalist Christians took up arms against flat Earth followers. Radical Baptist preacher Stephen Anderson, himself a peddler of world government conspiracy theories, launched an angry tirade against the society's followers.

Many alternative journalists, historians and conspiracy theorists have suggested that behind the Flat Earth Society itself there may be government intelligence agencies who want to make ridicule of any alternative views on the world.

RT turned to Alexander Neveev, candidate of psychological sciences, for comment. The scientist explained that there are two reasons why people may suddenly begin to take anti-scientific postulates seriously.

“The first is external to the person. We receive a huge amount of information in the form of specially prepared information packages. We are simply told about something and we take it on faith. This is completely normal, since we do not need to know absolutely everything from our own experience. You don't need to go to America to find out how people live there. But the side effect of this is that people have misunderstandings and fears that some forces may distort any information. The media saturate people with news and facts, but no one is concerned with developing an understanding of them. As a result, we have a similar situation. No one has seen our globe with their own eyes, only in photographs, so a huge number of insinuations are possible,” said the psychologist.

“The second reason is that our minds are initially built into systems of errors - cognitive distortions and heuristics. Under the influence of these distortions, we tend to believe that our version of events is the most plausible. A person does not seek a refutation of his beliefs. Our mind operates on the principle of cognitive ease - we tend to consider what does not bother us as truth. This is actually an illusion. Conspiracy theories exploit the problem that we cannot directly present a person with evidence to the contrary - send him into orbit and show that the Earth is round. It is very difficult to explain to them mathematically and astronomically the parameters that forced scientists to come to such a conclusion. It’s very easy to say that scientists lied and the Earth is flat, and it’s very easy to accept it,” the expert concluded.

The generally accepted statement that ancient scientists considered our Earth to be flat is not entirely true. Of course, someone thought it was flat, but in fact there were several versions, including one that the Earth is a sphere. Today, it would seem, all the i’s are dotted and no one doubts that the Earth is a ball revolving around the Sun.

No matter how it is. Whether for fun or for PR, or maybe for religious reasons, the world is again split on this issue into two opposing camps. Are you surprised? If someone comes up to you and claims that the Earth is flat, will you twist it at your temple? Oh well. The fact that the Earth is a ball (to be precise, a geoid) and revolves around the Sun is a generally accepted theory and, it seemed, beyond doubt? It wasn’t there...

Which Earth is it: round or flat?

On the one hand, modern science claims that the Earth is round, and on the other... At the head, perhaps, is the Flat Earth Society. The main goal is to prove that the Earth is flat, and the governments of all countries are in a conspiracy and in various ways mislead about the sphericity of the Earth, hiding the fact that the Earth is flat.

The Flat Earth Society still has its adherents.

The basic concepts of the flat earth society are:

The Earth is a flat disk, 40,000 kilometers in diameter, centered near the North Pole.

The Sun and Moon and stars move above the surface of the Earth.

Gravity is denied. The acceleration due to gravity occurs because the Earth is moving upward with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s². Due to the curvature of space-time, this can last indefinitely.

South Polenet. Antarctica is actually the icy edge of our disk - a wall encircling our world.

All photographs of the Earth from space are fakes.

The distance between objects in the southern hemisphere is actually much greater. The fact that flights between them occur much faster than should be according to the flat Earth map can be explained simply - the airliner crews are involved in a conspiracy.

The Sun is something like a powerful searchlight 51 km in diameter, which circles above the Earth at a distance of 4800 km and illuminates it.

Everything that happens is an experiment on us.

All scientific institutes deliberately lie that the Earth is spherical, etc.

The government also lies - it works for its masters - the reptilians.

There were no flights into space, and there’s nothing to say about the Moon, it’s all a hoax.

All videos about space flights were filmed on Earth.

And off we go. Gradually the world is splitting into two halves. One goes to live on a round and spherical Earth, the other – also round, but flat.

Both sides provide “irrefutable” evidence of their vision of the shape of the earth.

Here are some of the most interesting facts of the universe from the lips of both opponents.

The earth is flat because:

IN THE AREA OF VISIBILITY THE HORIZONT LINE IS FLAT Flat-Earth Evidence: Take any photograph where the horizon line is flat, not rounded. Ball-earth refutation: to see the real curves of the horizon line or plane in the frame, you need a much greater distance from the shooting point from the surface of the earth. This is clearly visible in photographs from space. Flat earth answer: all pictures from space are fakes from NASA and the like. Space doesn't exist.

THE BIBLE SPEAKS ABOUT A FLAT EARTH

Flat earth proofs: In many descriptions in the Bible, the Earth is flat earth.

(Daniel 4:7, 8): “The visions of my head on my bed were as follows: I saw, behold, a very tall tree in the middle of the earth. This tree was large and strong, and its height reached to the sky, and it was apparently up to ends of the whole earth » -

This expression only applies to flat earth.

Ball-earth rebuttal:(published taking into account the opinions of fundamentalist Christians):

It should be immediately clarified that the Bible is not a scientific work aimed at explaining the structure of the universe. In the Holy Scriptures, this is done figuratively and in a language understandable to the common people, based on the knowledge that the people had in those days. However, when carefully read and interpreted, the Bible does not contradict modern science and does not indicate that the Earth is not spherical.

In this case, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, who reigned from September 7, 605 to October 7, 562 BC, is described. e.. The tree in the dream, as it turned out from Daniel’s interpretation of the dream, is Nebuchadnezzar himself. It is correct to consider the edge of the Earth to be the border of the Neo-Babylonian kingdom, for a simple reason: Nebuchadnezzar never ruled the entire Earth. Moreover, it speaks of vision, and not of direct observation.

Flat earth:

(Isaiah 42:5): “Thus says the Lord God, who created the heavens and their expanses, who spread out the earth with its products.” This can only be done with a flat earth.

Ball-earth rebuttal:

This description refers to what are currently called continents. Modern science, with minor reservations, considers the continents to be flat. If this action is considered applicable to a plane, this does not in any way indicate that the entire Earth is also flat.

Flat earth:There is no continuation of dialogue from the appender yet

(Matthew 4:8): “Again the devil takes Him [Jesus] to a very high mountain and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”

This is only possible if the Earth is flat.

Ball-earth rebuttal(from Bible scholars and scholars):

All the highest mountains on Earth are known. Climbers have climbed everything, and more than once. Unfortunately, it is not possible to examine all the “kingdoms” with any of them, and the reason is not at all that the Earth is round (this is not a hindrance), but because it is impossible to examine anything at such a distance . But a modern person can watch “all the kingdoms of the world” on a computer monitor or smartphone. However, Satan's capabilities and abilities far exceed those of humans. In what way he showed the kingdoms and why the high mountain was needed, we do not know.

The most interesting thing is that theoretically this is how the entire Earth can be viewed. Don't be surprised, this is really true. This phenomenon is called diffraction. Under certain conditions, we see the horizon line much further than theoretically we should see it. This is how mirages arise. Of course, in real life the chances of seeing something like this are incredibly small. After all, this requires a certain air temperature, humidity, transparency and, possibly, something else. There is even less chance of seeing the whole Earth. And it’s absolutely insignificant - to view what you want. But who said that the devil does not know how to use this phenomenon? Showing such mirage pictures to Jesus would be a very effective way to influence his human spiritual-sensual nature in order to achieve admiration from him. On the other hand, here we can also talk about vision without direct observation.

Flat earth:There is no continuation of dialogue from the appender yet

(Job 38:12,13): “Did you ever give orders to the morning in your life and show the dawn its place so that it would embrace ends of the earth and shook off the wicked..."

(Job. 37:3 )"Under the whole sky its roar, and its shine - to the ends of the earth ."

The edges can only have a plane.

Ball-earth rebuttal:(from Bible scholars and scholars):

The Lord speaks to Job about the unshakable order of alternation of day and night established by Him. It is figuratively said that the dawn disperses darkness and stops the deeds of the wicked committed at night. The expression “end of the earth” is also used by those who are well aware of the spherical shape of the Earth.

There are other references in the Bible to the edges and corners of the Earth, which can be interpreted in different ways: for example, that these are the edges of continents or countries. In addition, the Bible itself confirms that the word “earth” means dry land:

(Life 1:10 ) And God called the dry land earth , and called the collection of waters seas.

Therefore, it is impossible to accept these scriptures as proof that the Earth is flat.

Flat earth:There is no continuation of dialogue from the appender yet

BEDFORD EXPERIMENT

It was carried out in 1838 by Samuel Rowbotham. This experiment is considered the most reliable evidence.

The essence of the experiment is extremely simple. Rowbotham found a flat area of ​​about 10 km (6 miles) on the Bedford River. I installed the telescope at a height of 20 inches (50.8 cm) from the surface of the water and began to watch the receding boat with a five-meter mast.

The mast was visible throughout the boat's movement. On the basis of which Rowbotham stated that the Earth is flat.

If the Earth were round, the mast should have disappeared from view.

Ball-earth rebuttal:

Lifting horizon in this case it happened due to the phenomenon of refraction. Due to positive refraction, the visible horizon has risen. As a result, its geographic range increased compared to its geometric range. This made it possible to see objects hidden by the curvature of the Earth. At normal temperatures, the horizon rise is 6-7%.

For reference: If the temperature increases excessively the visible horizon can rise to the true mathematical horizon. At the same time, the earth's surface will visually straighten. The earth will become flat, to the delight of flat-earthers. Of course, only visually. The visibility range under these conditions will become infinitely large. The radius of curvature of the beam can become equal to the radius of the globe.

For reference: The discoverer of light refraction is considered to be the Italian physicist and astronomer Grimaldi Francesco Maria (1618-1663)

Naturally, Samuel Rowbotham was well aware of the phenomena of refraction. And it is quite logical that the published book describing experiments proving that the Earth is flat did not arouse any interest among scientists. But there were many adherents. One of Hemplein’s followers even placed a bet of 500 pounds (not a small amount at that time) that he would allegedly prove to any opponent that the Earth was flat. And such an opponent was found. It was the scientist Alfred Wallace. Of course, he knew perfectly well what he was doing. The experiment was carried out in the same valley. But Wallace changed the observation slightly. He used an intermediate point - a bridge, on which a circle was fixed. A horizontal line was placed at the end point. The telescope, circle and line were at the same height relative to the surface of the water. If the Earth were flat, a line would be visible through the circle at its center. Naturally, this did not happen. However, Hamplen refused to pay the due amount and called Wallace a liar and a forger.

So what is the Earth like?

Isn't it time to tell the true story that Magellan simply swam in a circle, not around the Earth? Cook sailed along the edge of the Earth in search of Antarctica. And by the way, he was right: Antarctica does not exist! Kruzenshtern also had good reason to doubt it when he discovered Antarctica. After all, he just ran into an icy wall that was created to prevent the oceans from flowing out. It is not clear, of course, how he managed to get around our Earth’s disk (yes, a disk, let’s call a spade a spade) in 751 days. Again conspiracy and falsification! He didn’t put anything on the map and didn’t go anywhere, he probably drank beer somewhere in Australia, and the maps were given to him ready-made, drawn at NASO. NASO is a special organization that, for our billions, fools us, draws cool pictures of space, makes viewing programs for the supposedly round Earth, and films hoax shows of flights into space and to the Moon. Governments are in cahoots, all scientists are in cahoots, pilots are in cahoots, the police are also aware - collusion, all smart people are also in cahoots. In short, everything is in conspiracy against honest people who understand the essence of the true universe and, finally, with the advent of the Internet, are ready to open the eyes of those who are not yet in the know.

This is roughly what this serious problem looks like today. So what kind of Earth do we actually live on? If you know any facts, please report them in the comments. Perhaps you will be able to find inaccuracies in the article or the need to supplement it, we will also comment. And we will certainly make an addition, and possibly a continuation, taking into account all your comments and wishes. Please behave correctly, do not send your participants to the third grade of high school or to a psychiatrist, or twist your finger to your temple. Checked - doesn't work. Only strong arguments and evidence of a flat or spherical Earth will help save the situation.

American rapper B.o.B is raising money for satellites to find evidence that the Earth is actually flat. And on September 25, the federal TV channel REN showed an episode of Igor Prokopenko’s program, which states that filming from space is computer graphics, and the video with astronauts on the ISS is studio filming on chromakey with further processing. The Flat Earth Society regularly appears in news headlines. Who are all these people and what to do if they are trying to prove to you that the Earth is not a geoid or even a sphere - in the material of “Futurist”.

“If the Earth were a ball, the waters would flow down from it and people would die of thirst and plants would dry up. The earth, O most worthy and noblest of teachers and mentors, was and is in the shape of a flat disk and is washed on all sides by a majestic river called “Ocean”. The earth rests on six elephants, and they stand on a huge turtle. This is how the world works, O teacher!” - this is what the answer of Volka Kostylkov, the hero of the fairy tale “Old Man Hottabych” looked like at a school exam in geography. The teachers decided that the head of the astronomical circle and a diligent student was sick or worried, but in fact the culprit for Volka’s failure in the exam was a fictional character, a genie named Hassan Abdurrahman ibn Hottab, who was released after 3.5 thousand years of imprisonment in a bottle and decided to help to your savior.

A flat map of the Earth drawn by Orlando Ferguson in 1893. The map contains several references to passages from the Bible, as well as arguments against the sphericity of the Earth

It's hard to believe, but people who would rate such an answer as "excellent" still exist. The Flat Earth Society is increasingly making headlines. According to members of the society and their followers, the Earth has the shape of a flat disk with a diameter of 40 thousand km, in the center of which is the North Pole. The South Pole does not exist at all, and what we call Antarctica is an icy mountain that runs along the edge of the Earth, cutting it off from the rest of the world. Supporters of the theory support their conclusions with ancient maps depicting a flat Earth. They claim that all photographs and videos of the Earth from space are falsified by space agencies as part of a conspiracy theory - and in general, space does not exist. There is also no gravity within the framework of their cosmology: objects are attracted to the Earth, because it supposedly constantly moves upward with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s². And finally, there is no atmospheric pressure.

Who are all these people?

In ancient times, people really believed that the Earth was flat. This concept appears in the cosmogonic myths of the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians, in Hinduism, Buddhism and Scandinavian mythology. However, already early scientific research gave an idea that the Earth has the shape of a ball. For example, Aristotle in 330 BC. e. provided evidence of the sphericity of the Earth. In particular, he noticed that the starry sky looks different at different latitudes.

In the Middle Ages, views on the structure of the Universe were varied. In the writings of the church fathers, the Earth appears either as a pancake or as a ball, hovering over the sea under a spherical dome, and in illustrations from the book of Cosmas Indicopleustos, the surface of the planet is inscribed in a tabernacle - a camp tent where the church could be located - and the Sun rises from behind a large mountain and sets for her. However, Ptolemy's idea dominated: the Universe is a closed system, in the center of which is a stationary spherical Earth, surrounded by nine rotating heaven-spheres, which are located one above the other. This idea is reflected in Dante's Divine Comedy.

However, there have always been people who claimed that the Earth is flat. As a rule, these were religious fundamentalists, illiterate people or charlatans. In 1956, Briton Samuel Shenton created the International Flat Earth Society (IFERS), better known as the Flat Earth Society. The organization was to become the successor to the Universal Zetic Society, which was founded by the English writer Samuel Rowbotham. This man, who lived in the 19th century, lectured for a long time on the flat Earth under the pseudonym Parallax and wrote the book “Zetetic Astronomy - The Earth is not a Globe.” During one of his lectures, in which he could not explain why the masts of ships remained visible on the horizon while their hulls disappeared, he had to flee. And in one of the experiments, he falsified the results, saying that the lighthouse lantern on the horizon was completely visible, although in fact only half of it was visible. Contemporaries called him a charlatan, but noted his wit and skill as a storyteller.

Shenton deeply embraced Rowbotham's ideas. Shortly before the launch of the first satellite in the USSR, he said: “Will sailing around the Isle of Wight prove that it is spherical? It’s the same with these satellites.” Because of the space race, the ideas of society did not gain popularity. But with the arrival of a new president, journalist Charles Johnson, the flat Earth theory gained many supporters. Johnson acted as a professional media man: the Apollo program became an information source for popularizing the ideas of society. Society leaders publicly claimed that the moon landing was a hoax, filmed in Hollywood from a script by Arthur C. Clarke or Stanley Kubrick. The society gained several thousand supporters and existed until Johnson's death in 2001. It was later revived by Samuel Shannon's namesake, Daniel, as a website.

In the United States, flat Earth ideas were championed and propagated by religious fundamentalists such as John Alexander Dowie and Wilbur Glenn Voliva, who led the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, founded by Dowie in 1895. In one of Russian speaking groups Flat Earth supporters on VKontakte write that the community was created “to counter pseudoscience that encroaches on the foundations of the biblical world order” and is called upon to fight everyone who preaches “atheism and obscurantism.” They describe their worldview as “Scientific Orthodoxy.”

At the same time, many church representatives criticize their views. Thus, the Tsargrad TV channel published critical material about Igor Prokopenko’s film “But the Earth is Flat!”

With the advent of popular Internet services such as YouTube and Twitter, it has become much easier to spread such ideas. Previously, members of the public had to drop leaflets, but now it is enough to post a video or post a tweet.

“We are pleased to see that the gender bias in the representation of the flat Earth theory is disappearing. Just look at this cool woman!”

Rapper B.o.B. started posting tweets in support of the flat Earth theory last January. In particular, he wrote that if the Earth were spherical, the horizon would be curved, but this is not the case in reality. The young man believes that all videos and photos from the ISS and frames from space telescopes were shot with a wide-angle lens (fish-eye), which distorts the real contours of objects.

Science popularizer Neil deGrasse Tyson responded to B.o.B’s tweets and began explaining to the musician that it’s all about the low viewing angle.

However, the musician was not convinced. The rapper recorded the song Flatline, where he appears as a man who revealed the truth about the flat Earth to the world and therefore became the number one target for the intelligence services. B.o.B included a recording of his opponent’s lecture in which Tyson talks about the sphericity of our planet. And he recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to launch satellites that would photograph the Earth and test its shape. The rapper does not have a concept for satellites, but he managed to collect $2,136 out of 1 million.

Basketball player Shaquille O’Neal also voiced his views on the shape of the Earth, following his colleague, Cleveland Cavaliers player Kyrie Irving. However, Irving later said that he was just joking and did not think that his words would be taken seriously. But O’Neill is confident that he is right.

“I drive from Florida to California all the time, so it's flat for me. After all, I don’t move up and down at an angle of 360 degrees, I don’t feel gravity and other nonsense. Have you seen all these buildings outside of Atlanta? Are you saying that China is under us? This is wrong. The earth is flat,” O’Neill said on the Internet radio station podbay.fm.

The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 led to numerous YouTube videos showing how the details of the eclipse proved that the Earth is flat.

And a scandal recently erupted in Arab scientific and educational circles when a Tunisian graduate student attempted to defend a thesis claiming that the Earth is flat, stationary, at the center of the Universe, and is 13,500 years old.

On September 25, the federal TV channel REN showed an episode of Igor Prokopenko’s program dedicated to the flat Earth theory. It says that filming from space is computer graphics, and the video with astronauts on the ISS is studio filming on chromakey with further processing. As stated in the film, flat earthers even launched a rocket, and it broke through the dome, but no one at NASA believed them.

Andrei Bukharin, presented in the credits as a “science popularizer,” appears as an expert in the program. In fact, this man is engaged in astrology. He has his own website, on which he tries to popularize astrology as an exact science - while modern science denies the effectiveness of its methods, and in the American Science and Engineering Indicators assessment system, astrology is completely the standard of pseudoscience.

How to argue with them?

Only the most basic arguments are given here.

“The horizon is straight, but photographs with a curved horizon are shot with fish-eye.” It just seems to us that the horizon is straight. We are on the surface of the planet, and our height is too short and our eyes are too narrow to perceive the curvature of the line. But it can be seen from an airplane window or from the roof of very tall buildings.

“Photos and videos of space are fake!” It turns out that not only the leaders of NASA and Roscosmos are involved in the global conspiracy, but also ordinary cosmonauts who personally broadcast from the ISS, and amateur astronomers who photograph deep space objects and other planets without any remuneration. Strange logic. Flat Earthers often cite the following video as an example of the use of chromakey. Indeed, chromakey of this kind is used as a substrate for 3D animation. However, the grid looks different: the cell sizes in it are different. A video grid is used to video record the trajectory of objects against a clear background.

“There is no gravity, the Earth is simply moving upward with universal acceleration.” Suppose that if a person jumps, the Earth will not pull him back (there is no gravity), but will itself rise up. Then how do birds, insects and airplanes fly? After all, according to this theory, nothing can remain in the air for a long time, since the disk is constantly rising.

“The sun is located only 4,800 kilometers from us and has a size of approximately 51 kilometers.” How then can we explain the change of seasons and the length of the sunny day, as well as climate zones? The Earth's surface would always receive the same amount of heat and light.

“How can planes land on a runway if the Earth is round and constantly spins on its axis? By the time of landing, the runway would have moved far from the intended landing site.” Atmospheric pressure drags along everything that is in its field of action. That is, everything that enters the atmosphere flies along with the surface of the Earth.

“There is no atmospheric pressure.” Invite your opponent to climb the mountains and monitor his well-being at high altitude. After this, you can solemnly read him a school physics course.

"The moon is a hologram." At this point, you can apologize to the person and end the conversation. Let him think that you are at the same time with them - it’s more fun.