People across the earth have believed in a flat earth (in some form) for tens of thousands of years. Remote tribes, civilizations with no external contact. All with wildly different ideas about the nature of the earth, but with some notion of its flat shape.

1. Why do you think there has been a widespread belief in some form of a flat earth across virtually all civilizations over all of recorded history?

2. If you have an answer to question 1, do you have any evidence (preferrably irrefutable) to support your answer?

www.theflatearthsociety.org

They couldn't see the curvature of the earth.

Evidence? I can't see the curvature of the earth from where I stand.

We know that primitive homo sapiens were working with very little empirical data and they made assumptions about their reality that turned out to be incorrect.

Now the question becomes: Now that we have empirical evidence that the earth is a sphere, why are there still people who "believe" it is flat?

I'm just guessing.

Long ago there were people who believed the earth might be round. There were other people who went around saying "there is no round earth. That's silly. I lack a belief in a round earth."

At some point there was empirical evidence that the earth was not flat.

Those who lacked a belief in a round earth clung to their lack of belief in a round earth.

If you visit the website I linked to, you'll quickly find that the Flat Earthers do not simply "lack a belief" in a round earth. They actually make a positive claim that the earth is flat, even though we now have empirical evidence that the earth is not flat.

But of course you know that.

I like my explanation.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2011 03:06AM by thingsithink.

People believe what they have experience with. The earth is so large in comparison to the size of humans that the curvature is hard to perceive. So why would people who haven't flown in space or circumnavigated the globe assume it was some shape other than flat? Seems like a rational assumption for pre-columbian civilizations to have. Unless you are sailing around the world, the fact that the earth is round has little impact on how most people move about on the planet.

And there was that little issue about the flat earth being written down in a book that people thought was authored by God the creator, and how denial of the theory could cost you your life. Those facts can be powerful motivators for people to adopt a particular world view.

I'll second that and add that I even ran into a firefighter today who is convinced that the earth's gravity pull things toward the equator... I tried to tell her about the northward running rivers of Russia and how gravity pulls toward the center of the earth rather than across its sphere-ish surface... but couldn't get a word in. :P I type faster than I talk, and I type s-l-o-w-l-y. :D

Things are attracted to the equator by "centrifugal force" due to the spin of the earth. In adaptation to this the earth is an oblate spheroid and not exactly spherical in its basic shape. If the earth stopped spinning on its axis the waters would gravitate [yes, I mean literally gravitate] away from the equator and toward the poles. Northern cities and countries would be flooded under miles of water.

That's wild. I did not know that. I guess I'm not much more advanced than the flat-earthers, which I think someone was trying to point out to me earlier. :)

If you become a god and create your own planet, you'll need to know these things.

What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?

The probability for such an event is practically zero in the next few billion years. If the Earth stopped spinning suddenly, the atmosphere would still be in motion with the Earth's original 1100 mile per hour rotation speed at the equator. All of the land masses would be scoured clean of anything not attached to bedrock. This means rocks, topsoil, trees, buildings, your pet dog, and so on, would be swept away into the atmosphere.

If the process happened gradually over billions of years, the situation would be very different, and it is this possibility which is the most likely as the constant torquing of the Sun and Moon upon the Earth finally reaches it's conclusion. If the rotation period slowed to 1 rotation every 365 days a condition called 'sun synchronous', every spot in the Earth would have permanent daytime or nighttime all year long. This is similar to the situation on the Moon where for 2 weeks the front-side is illuminated by the Sun, and for 2 weeks the back side is illuminated. This situation for the Earth is not the condition of 'stopped' rotation, but it is as close as the laws of physics will let the Earth get.



If it stopped spinning completely...not even once every 365 days, you would get 1/2 year daylight and 1/2 year nightime. During daytime for 6 months, the surface temperature would depend on your latitude, being far hotter that it is now at the equator than at the poles where the light rays are more slanted and heating efficiency is lower. This long-term temperature gradient would alter the atmospheric wind circulation pattern so that the air would move from the equator to the poles rather than in wind systems parallel to the equator like they are now. The yearly change in the Sun's position in the sky would now be just its seasonal motion up and down the sky towards the south due to the orbit of the Earth and its axial tilt. As you moved along constant lines of Earth latitude, you would see the elevation of the Sun increase or decrease in the sky just as we now see the elevation of the Sun change from a single point on the Earth due to the Earth's daily rotation.

For example, if you were at a latitude of +24 degrees North in the Summer and at a longitude where the Sun was exactly overhead, it would slide gradually to the horizon as Fall approached, but since the Sun has moved 90 degrees in its orbit, it would now be due west. Then as we approach Winter, you would now be located on the dark side of the Earth, and would have to travel in longitude to a location 180 degrees around the Earth to see the Sun 1/2 way up the sky because in the Winter, the Sun is 48 degrees south of its summer location in the sky. It's a little confusing, but if you use a globe of the Earth and orient it the right way, you can see how all this works out.

As for other effects, presumably the magnetic field of the Earth is generated by a dynamo effect that involves its rotation. If the Earth stopped rotating, it's magnetic field would no longer be regenerated and it would decay away to some low, residual value due to the very small component which is 'fossilized' in its iron-rich rocks. There would be no more 'northern lights' and the Van Allen radiation belts would probably vanish, as would our protection from cosmic rays and other high-energy particles. This is a significant biohazard.

Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald

I've always wanted to visit a round world...have you ever been to the parts where people walk around upside down?

(paraphrased from C.S. Lewis)

I went to Niagra Falls in 1957 and, believe me, the earth is flat. Otherwise those falls would just be a meandering river.

Ron

weren't you born around then?
the Falls are mesmerizing!
watching the river upstream from the falls almost makes ya want to jump in...almost.... beauty!

It was known that the earth could not be flat long before sailing ships circumnavigated the globe. The ancient Greeks, through some simple geometry combined with observations of the shadows cast by the sun at different latitudes, were able to not only determine that the earth was spherical but also its approximate circumference. All educated people in the Western world from Greeks through the Middle Ages knew that the earth was not flat.