NASA says humans could land on Mars in 25 years

[walrus]

Alpha, what are the dimensions of the planet. People only live on the top right? Since when we did we find things like oil, gold and silver might that mean the underside may be eldorado for lack of a better word?

[walrus]

Welcome to the new year, 2018. The Earth has yet again made a revolution about the sun. But not so fast. If you subscribe to the idea of a flat Earth, then you’d believe that no such thing happened, because the sun rotates in a circle around the sky.

Humans have known for thousands of years that the planet is round, yet the belief in a flat Earth refuses to die. Members of the Flat Earth Society and several celebrities, including Atlanta rapper B.o.B and NBA player Kyrie Irving, claim to hold such beliefs. Let’s examine, then, how the well-known principles of physics and science would work (or not) on a flat Earth.

Gravity Fails

First of all, a pancaked planet might not have any gravity. It’s unclear how gravity would work, or be created, in such a world, says James Davis, a geophysicist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. That’s a pretty big deal, since gravity explains a wide range of Earthly and cosmic observations. The same measurable force that causes an apple to fall from a tree also causes the moon to orbit the Earth and all the planets to orbit the sun.

People who believe in a flat Earth assume that gravity would pull straight down, but there’s no evidence to suggest it would work that way. What we know about gravity suggests it would pull toward the center of the disk. That means it would only pull straight down at one point on the center of the disk. As you got increasingly far from the center, gravity would tug more and more horizontally. This would have some strange impacts, like sucking all the water toward the center of the world, and making trees and plants grow diagonally, since they develop in the opposite direction of gravity’s pull.

Solar Problems

Then there’s the sun. In the scientifically supported model of the solar system, the Earth revolves around the sun because the latter is much more massive and has more gravity. However, the Earth doesn’t fall into the sun because it is traveling in an orbit. In other words, the sun’s gravity isn’t acting alone. The planet is also traveling in a direction perpendicular to the star’s gravitational tug; if it were possible to switch off that gravity, the Earth would shoot away in a straight line and hightail it out of the solar system. Instead, the linear momentum and the sun’s gravity combine, resulting in a circular orbit around the sun.

The flat Earth model places our planet at the center of the universe, but doesn’t suggest that the sun orbits the Earth. Rather, the sun circles over the top side of the world like a carousel, broadcasting light and warmth downward like a desk lamp. Without the linear, perpendicular momentum that helps generate an orbit, it’s unclear what force would keep the sun and moon hovering above the Earth, Davis says, instead of crashing into it.

Likewise, in a flat world, satellites likely wouldn’t be possible. How would they orbit a plane? “There are a number of satellite missions that society depends on that just wouldn’t work,” Davis says. For this reason, he says, “I cannot think of how GPS would work on a flat Earth.”

If the sun and moon just loop around one side of a flat Earth, there could presumably be a procession of days and nights. But it wouldn’t explain seasons, eclipses and many other phenomena. The sun would also presumably have to be smaller than Earth so as to not burn up or bump into our planet or the moon. However, we know the sun to be more than 100 times the diameter of the Earth.

Removing Heaven and Earth

Deep below ground, the solid core of the Earth generates the planet’s magnetic field. But in a flat planet, that would have to be replaced by something else. Perhaps a flat sheet of liquid metal. That, however, wouldn’t rotate in a way that creates a magnetic field. Without a magnetic field, charged particles from the sun would fry the planet. They could strip away the atmosphere, as they did after Mars lost its magnetic field, and the air and oceans would escape into space.

Tectonic plate movement and seismicity depend on a round Earth, because only on a sphere do all the plates fit together in a sensible way, Davis says. Movements of plates on one side of the Earth effect movements on the other. The areas of the Earth that create crust, like the mid-Atlantic ridge, are counterbalanced by places that consume crust, like subduction zones. On a flat Earth, none of this could be adequately explained. There’d also have to be an explanation for what happens to plates at the edge of the world. One could imagine they might fall off, but that would presumably jeopardize the proposed wall that prevents people from falling off the disk-shaped world.

map of flat earth
How some Flat Earthers map out the planet. The Arctic is at the center, and an “ice wall” around the edges supposedly prevents people from falling off. Image: Wiki Commons
Perhaps one of the most glaring oddities is that the proposed map of the flat Earth is totally different. It places the Arctic at the center while Antarctica forms an “ice wall” around the edges. In such a world, travel would look very different. Flying from Australia to certain parts of Antarctica would, for example, take forever—you’d have to travel over the Arctic and both Americas to get there. In addition, certain real-world feats, such as traveling across Antarctica (which has been done many times), would be impossible.

https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-e...-actually-flat

[Alpha]

Alpha, what are the dimensions of the planet. People only live on the top right? Since when we did we find things like oil, gold and silver might that mean the underside may be eldorado for lack of a better word?

I don't know, I have never seen the earth for myself. Only fake images.

We are also not free to explore this earth freely.

All I know is it needs to be some type of container to keep the water in.

[p4pking]

There are far too many common sense arguments to take this premise seriously. You can’t say all you know is the water needs to be contained on a flat surface, and at the same time “you don’t know” how this could be. The earth IS free to explore, for fucks sake. That’s what scientists do.

[walrus]

Alpha, what are the dimensions of the planet. People only live on the top right? Since when we did we find things like oil, gold and silver might that mean the underside may be eldorado for lack of a better word?

I don't know, I have never seen the earth for myself. Only fake images.

We are also not free to explore this earth freely.

All I know is it needs to be some type of container to keep the water in.

Wtf dude at least give me your ideas. You study this you must have painted a pic in your head. Are we living on top and bottom IN YOUR OPINION

[p4pking]

He doesn’t have any....

[Spicoli]

Never really set out to scale anything or pretend I'm Mr. Wizards world, but if that's done would it be done with same speed as Earths rotation? At what point are photos no longer believed?

[Spicoli]

And what is the magic of the Chocolate fountain? I like chocolate as much as the next guy but what magnetic befuddling genius is that. Serious inquiries.

[Alpha]

There are far too many common sense arguments to take this premise seriously. You can’t say all you know is the water needs to be contained on a flat surface, and at the same time “you don’t know” how this could be. The earth IS free to explore, for fucks sake. That’s what scientists do.

I don't know what we are on, have never professed to know exactly. I know it has to be some sort of container to keep the water in. Try going to Antarctica and exploring around by yourself. You won't even get close. You have never seen the earth with your own eyes, so you can't tell me exactly what it is either.

Alpha, what are the dimensions of the planet. People only live on the top right? Since when we did we find things like oil, gold and silver might that mean the underside may be eldorado for lack of a better word?

I don't know, I have never seen the earth for myself. Only fake images.

We are also not free to explore this earth freely.

All I know is it needs to be some type of container to keep the water in.

Wtf dude at least give me your ideas. You study this you must have painted a pic in your head. Are we living on top and bottom IN YOUR OPINION

I can speculate for you if you'd like, I have already said it must be some sort of container, whats below that, I have no idea, the deepest hole we have ever dug is 8 miles down. I know it's at least that thick.

He doesn’t have any....

More than you, still waiting on that scale model, challenge goes out to anyone. Back up your claims, with something I can observe and repeat or sit back down.

Never really set out to scale anything or pretend I'm Mr. Wizards world, but if that's done would it be done with same speed as Earths rotation? At what point are photos no longer believed?

Depends on what it takes for you to believe something. If a photo is all it takes for you to believe something, then that's your prerogative. But photo's, and video can be manipulated.

And what is the magic of the Chocolate fountain? I like chocolate as much as the next guy but what magnetic befuddling genius is that. Serious inquiries.

I'm not sure what you mean, are you comparing water to chocolate?

[p4pking]

https://goo.gl/images/cdxRY6


Is that edited?

[Alpha]

https://goo.gl/images/cdxRY6


Is that edited?

Are you comparing a drop to the earth?

It's the same as a drop of water or bubble forming in water. The pressure is equal on all sides.

Try again.