How to prove that the Earth is actually round: 10 arguments for flat-earthers

It has been more than 2 thousand years since the bright minds of mankind realized what seemed impossible - the Earth is not flat, it does not stand on the backs of elephants, which, in turn, stand on a large space turtle. The Earth is spherical.

Mankind had been guessing this since the 5th century B.C., with no telescopes, no satellites, and no photographs taken by man from the Moon. Nevertheless, in the 21st century there are people who continue to believe that the Earth is flat. Well, anyone can be wrong, just so long as it does no harm.

For those who just want an arguments, Smarter Than That has published 10 facts proving that the Earth is not flat.

Shadow on the Moon

Aristotle, who lived in 384-322 B.C., observed that during lunar eclipses, the silhouette on the surface of a satellite is circular. This shadow is caused by the Earth being between the Sun and the Moon.

As the Earth rotates, the constant oval shadow it creates at each lunar eclipse proves that the Earth is not just round (like a donut), but spherical.

Ships on the horizon

Perhaps you have already noticed, while on the shore of the sea or ocean, how a ship has surfaced from the depths of the sea in the distance. Of course, it did not surface from the sea, but simply passed the limit of the visibility horizon.

Such an appearance of a ship only proves that the Earth has a rounded shape. After all, if the world were flat, the ship would not create the illusion of surfacing out of the water, but would simply appear entirely at the point where your vision allows you to see it.

Stars in the sky

Aristotle noted that as one moves away from the equator, one can see different constellations. When he returned from a trip to Egypt, he noted that he saw stars there that were not visible in the northern regions of the Earth.

He realized that such changes could only occur if the Earth's surface is round. He also realized that the Earth was not giant, because then the changes would not have been as obvious on a relatively close trip.

So the farther you are from the equator, the farther the "known" constellations move away from the horizon, and other stars replace them. This would not happen if the world were flat.

Sun Clock

If you stick a stick in the ground, it will cast a shadow, which will move with the passage of time. That's how the ancient sundial worked. If the world were flat, two sticks in different places would cast the same shadow. But it wasn't.

The view from the mountain

This is the simplest experiment you can perform yourself. Standing on a plain, look as far as your eyesight allows (you can even use binoculars) and remember what you see in the distance.

Then go higher - climb a tree, climb a mountain or the roof of a house - the higher you are, the more obvious the effect will be.

You'll notice that the higher you are, the farther you'll see. And it's not because the obstacles of houses, trees, and other things have disappeared in front of your eyes.

The only reason you can see farther is because of the curvature of the earth. You went up and saw over a "hill" that didn't allow you to see from a lower point. This is further proof that the earth is spherical.

Fly in an airplane

If you have flown in an airplane, you may have noticed that airplanes can fly in a relatively straight line for a very long time and they do not reach the edge of the flat earth and fall over it. They can also fly around the Earth without stopping.

If you look through a porthole, you can also probably see the curvature of the earth.

Flying in an airplane will also confirm the theory of the previous test.

Other Planets

Yes, Earth is, in a sense, a unique planet, if only because life has evolved on it. However, both Earth and all the other planets observed by mankind are similar.

If you look at Mars, Venus, Pluto, Jupiter, they all formed in different parts of space and under different conditions, but they all formed in the form of a sphere. So why would the Earth have formed flat?

A flat planet would be such an incredible discovery that it would contradict everything we know about how planets form and behave. It would change our knowledge of star formation. In particular, our Sun would have to behave very differently to fit the flat Earth theory.

Time Zones

You know for a fact that when it's 3 p.m. in Kiev, it's already 10 p.m. in the east, say in Tokyo, and only 8 a.m. in the west, in New York.

This can only happen if the world is round and rotates on its axis. When the sun is high above Kiev, Tokyo sees its parting rays, and New York meets the dawn.

If the Sun were a lantern shining over a flat Earth, as the adherents of such a theory believe, the beam would fall on Kyiv, creating daylight there, but the people of Tokyo and New York would see this lantern in the sky and even the sunbeam too. In reality, they see the sun fleeing over the horizon.

Gravity

If the Earth were spherical, we would just fall off it, like a person trying to stand on a balloon. Yes? Yes, relative to a person on a ball, but not relative to falling off the Earth. Gravity decides everything.

Gravity between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. A person standing on Earth can't just jump and fly off into space, because the mass of the planet is so much greater than the mass of the person that gravitational pull won't let you do that.

If the Earth is spherical

Since the sphere has a constant shape, no matter where you stand on it, the same amount of sphere will be below you. The center of mass of the sphere is at the center of the sphere, which means that gravity will pull everything on the surface straight down toward the center of the sphere. This will happen regardless of where the object is located.

If you jump straight up on a round Earth, you will land in the same place because gravity will pull you down.

If the Earth is flat

The center of mass in a flat plane will also be at its center, so gravity will pull everything on the surface toward the middle of the plane. This means that objects on the edge of the plane will be pulled toward the center, not down.

That is, if you jump on a flat Earth, gravity will pull you not down, but in the direction where the center of mass is.

Photo from space

Over the past more than 60 years of space exploration, mankind has sent satellites, probes, and humans there. They have sent us an incredible amount of scientific data about Earth, space, and other planets in our system. But they also sent us an unbelievable number of pictures in which the Earth has only one shape. Have you guessed which one?

Earlier OBOZREVATEL also published an "alien" photo of Earth, which was made by NASA astronaut from the ISS.

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