Is the earth round or flat?

Alligatorob said:
Neither, but much closer to round than flat. I'm not sure many really believe its flat, but it can be fun to claim you do.

Modern flat Earth beliefs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_beliefs#Flat_Earth_Society
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See, that's my suspicion, that's it's fun to be part of a group, people like to be included and feel part of. Maybe it's just one of those fringy, outlier group things. Although, I understand they can be quite convincing in their fervor.
 
Alligatorob said:
Neither, much closer to round than flat. I'm not sure many really believe its flat, but it can be fun to claim you do.

Modern flat Earth beliefs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_flat_Earth_beliefs#Flat_Earth_Society
Click to expand...
K, so I've read this Wiki. This concept seems an amalgamation of pseudoscience, religion and conspiracy theory.

I am wondering (and I'm sure they have one) what they're explanation is for the Earth's obvious spherical shape as seen from space?
 
Marie5656 said:
The life and death of daredevil ā€˜Mad Mikeā€™ Hughes ā€” WHYY
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Surely a good candidate for a Darwin Award. An interesting cause to die for... From the article @Marie5656 cites:

It takes a certain kind of person to build a rocket and launch themself inside it. ā€œMad Mikeā€ Hughes was a limousine driver turned stuntman. What made him famous was not just his homemade rockets, but why he wanted to build them: to shoot himself to the edge of space, to prove that the Earth is flat.

Hughesā€™ third and final rocket launch, on February 22, 2020, ended in his death at the age of 64.
 
George1959 said:
The earth is not a regular sphere or globe but an earth ellipsoid, a flattened sphere becauce of it's rotation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_ellipsoid#Reference_ellipsoid
And exactly it is a geoid.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoid
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So this is about the forces placed on what would be the spherical shape of Earth by rotation and gravity, "warping" it into what's called an ellipsoid shape or more closely, a geoid, which is really more about a mathmatical explanation of the shape?
Did I get that right?

Because the surface of the Earth is irregular and complex, geodesists use simplified mathematical models of the Earth for many applications. The simplest model of the Earth is a sphere. A much more complex model of the Earth is the geoid, used to approximate mean sea level.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/educa... surface of the,to approximate mean sea level.
 
Medusa said:
So this is about the forces placed on what would be the spherical shape of Earth by rotation and gravity, "warping" it into what's called an ellipsoid shape or more closely, a geoid, which is really more about a mathmatical explanation of the shape?
Did I get that right?

Because the surface of the Earth is irregular and complex, geodesists use simplified mathematical models of the Earth for many applications. The simplest model of the Earth is a sphere. A much more complex model of the Earth is the geoid, used to approximate mean sea level.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/tutorial_geodesy/geo03_figure.html#:~:text=Because the surface of the,to approximate mean sea level.
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No the geoid is the real shape of the Earth because of the rotation (earth ellipsoid) and the different surface (ocean vs. mountains) (geoid).
And in fact it's even more complicated:
"Even the geoid is a simplified model, however, when compared to actual topographic relief, as shown in this image of four figures of the Earth (Grand Canyon)."
The explanation in your link to oceanservice is excellent.
 
Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail a small boat around the world on his own, made several stops along the way, recording what he saw and lecturing to interested groups. This was in the late 1800s. In South Africa he spent an evening with the governor, or someone with an equivalent title, who tried to convince the man who had now circumvented 3/4 of his trip around the world that the earth was flat. Slocum was unable to convince him otherwise.
 
However, a large world map does hang nicely on a flat wall. You could put it on the ceiling or the floor. It's always flat. You can even see the edges of the Earth where you could fall off if you got too close. My map puts North America in the center, but I suppose other maps may put Asia in the center so the edges of the world may still be under debate, at least the east/west edges of the Earth. There seems to be less disagreement about the north/south edges.
 
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Hereā€™s a graphic of a Flat Earth in relation to the rest of our solar system. I canā€™t help wondering what universal laws have been suspended that would allow a flat earth to be formed? If no laws have been suspended, then who has made it and how is it being held together in its flat state?
flat earth 01.JPG

I read some time ago that a Flat Earther engineered & made a rocket that would take him high enough to prove a flat earth. Apparently, he got into it, launched himself into the air and almost killed himself in the process. He sounds like a candidate for an honourable mention in the international ā€œDarwin Awardsā€.

It would have been cheeper & simpler for him to have gone to South Africa, Thunder City, and got a ride in a cold war interceptor (something like an English Electric Lightening) which would have taken him above 60,000 ft. Some reports have said that this plane has managed 80,000ft?

Brian Cox checking for the curvature of the earth in an English Electric Lightening:
 
Magna-Carta said:
Hereā€™s a graphic of a Flat Earth in relation to the rest of our solar system. I canā€™t help wondering what universal laws have been suspended that would allow a flat earth to be formed? If no laws have been suspended, then who has made it and how is it being held together in its flat state?
View attachment 274927

I read some time ago that a Flat Earther engineered & made a rocket that would take him high enough to prove a flat earth. Apparently, he got into it, launched himself into the air and almost killed himself in the process. He sounds like a candidate for an honourable mention in the international ā€œDarwin Awardsā€.

It would have been cheeper & simpler for him to have gone to South Africa, Thunder City, and got a ride in a cold war interceptor (something like an English Electric Lightening) which would have taken him above 60,000 ft. Some reports have said that this plane has managed 80,000ft?

Brian Cox checking for the curvature of the earth in an English Electric Lightening:
Click to expand...
@Marie5656's post is about the guy who made the rocket... Mike Hughes. He died in one of his rockets when it crashed back to earth. Guess he didn't believe in gravity either.
 

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