![]() If you don’t trust Google, take such a flight yourself, look out the airplane window, and try to spot North America beneath you while you fly. Which way do real planes travel between these two cities? Just google it, and you’ll find out that commercial airplanes only need to cross the Pacific Ocean to fly from Santiago to Sydney. On a flat Earth, the shortest route would look like this: a plane would have to fly across all of South America, all of North America, and only then over the ocean to Sydney. ![]() Proof 6: Look at airplane routesĪs an example, let’s take a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Sydney, Australia. Flat-Earthers’ “spotlight Sun” concept could also have explained this phenomenon, but we’ve already told you why this concept is not valid. As the sticks are far enough apart, the sunlight hits them at different angles. The reason for this is, again, the Earth’s curvature. You’ll find out that the shadows have different lengths! On a sunny day, both of you should take identical sticks, place them in the ground at the right angle and at the same instant of time, and measure the length of the shadow. Proof 5: Measure objects’ shadowsįor this experiment, you’ll need a friend who lives at least a few kilometers from you. In reality, we don’t see the Sun at night, so this model is obviously incorrect. However, in this case, we should be able to see the Sun in the sky all the time, even if its light doesn’t fall directly on us. This happens because the Earth is a sphere rotating around its axis.įlat-Earthers argue that time zones are also possible with their model because the Sun shines more like a spotlight, emitting light only on a specific location. Why is the time in New York 12 hours different from the time in Beijing? The thing is, when New York is illuminated by the Sun, the other side of the planet – where Beijing is located – is completely dark. If the Earth were a flat disk, everyone would see the same set of constellations. This happens because the Earth’s curvature hides some of the constellations from our view. For example, the Big Dipper asterism is not visible from Australia, and the Southern Cross cannot be seen from most of the USA. You’ll learn that certain constellations are visible only from one of the Earth’s hemispheres. Look up at the sky, find some constellations, and then ask your friend what constellations they can see. If you have a friend who lives in another hemisphere, do the following. This happens because of the Earth’s curvature. In reality, though, ships on the horizon disappear hull-first, and the last thing that sinks below the horizon is the top of the ship’s mast. If the Earth were flat, the entire ship would always stay in view, it would only get smaller and smaller. Grab a pair of binoculars, go to the seashore, and watch a ship sail away. To better understand the mechanics of lunar eclipses, watch our video. But in this case the Sun would have to be positioned beneath the flat disk, and flat-Earthers claim that the Sun always hovers above it, shining like a spotlight. Yes, it can, but only at a certain illumination angle – when it’s perpendicular to the Sun’s rays. Someone might argue that a flat disk can also produce a round shadow. The only shape that makes a perfectly circular shadow every single time, no matter the object’s orientation, is a sphere. Moreover, the Earth’s shadow on the Moon is ALWAYS circular at every lunar eclipse and doesn’t change with the Earth’s rotation. If you look at the Earth’s shadow during a lunar eclipse, you’ll notice that it is curved – like a part of a circle. Can you tell for yourself that the Earth is not flat? Yes, you can, and we’ll tell you how! ContentsĪ lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow over our natural satellite. Although the very existence of the “flat-Earth theory” is quite discouraging, we’d like to use it in a positive way – as an exercise in critical thinking. While some people are getting ready to send astronauts to Mars in just a few years, other people, apparently, still don’t believe the Earth is round.
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