Flat Earth Society

[daqq]

...Erm... yeah... erm... but... I don't even... well... what?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society

It does not seem to be a joke...

[Phaedrus]

They've been around for ages. Bunch of nutters, with a fair mixing of trolls as well. Many of them are either hyper-fundamentalist Christians, or mentally ill conspiracy theorists.

[mos6502]

Another candidate for Poe's law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law

[TerraHertz]

I'd like to see a Flat Earther arguing with a Hollow Earther.
There probably should be single quotes around 'arguing'.

It seems odd there are no Klein Bottle Earthers.

[lewis]

Well there could be something in it.

After all, no-one's actually gone all the way round the earth in a boat or someth...oh wait.
Well no-one's actually seen it from spa.... oh wait.
No-one's actually flown round the earth in a balloo.... shit.
Erm...

[Richard Head]

It seems odd there are no Klein Bottle Earthers. 

Brilliant!

[Richard Head]

A flat earther thinking outside the box is a Mobius twister.

[lewis]

Check out the Wikipedia article, they have answers to all that. People who think they sailed or flew around the world actually just went around in a big circle, and the appearance of the earth from space is an optical illusion. What they don't seem to be able to explain is why no-one can get to the edge of this flat earth.

I started reading it, but really couldn't be bothered. How 'thick' do they think the earth is? And what's on the other side?

[Gribo]

Turtles, all the way down.

[Excavatoree]

Turtles, all the way down.

Drat, Gribo beat me to it.

I think some of these "flat earthers" are proponents of logical argument - the art of "proving" something with precision and rigor.   At least, I hope that some don't really believe the things they purport and they are merely arguing for the sake of arguing.

[mrflibble]

Turtles, all the way down.

With a crunchy layer of elephant in between.

[hamster_nz]

Let me first say that I'm not a member of the flat earth society, and completely beleive that the earth is round.

But as a quite interesting exercise, ask yourself how you would prove by your own direct observation, using only your the human senses that the earth is round. Given how passionately people feel about the subject it is surprising how many can't.

It makes so little impact on day-to-day life I can see why people took the obvious answer for so long!

[Fsck]

Let me first say that I'm not a member of the flat earth society, and completely beleive that the earth is round.

But as a quite interesting exercise, ask yourself how you would prove by your own direct observation, using only your the human senses that the earth is round. Given how passionately people feel about the subject it is surprising how many can't.

It makes so little impact on day-to-day life I can see why people took the obvious answer for so long!

human senses aren't particularly useful for evaluating the world, isn't that why we all have tools?

[Phaedrus]

Let me first say that I'm not a member of the flat earth society, and completely beleive that the earth is round.

But as a quite interesting exercise, ask yourself how you would prove by your own direct observation, using only your the human senses that the earth is round. Given how passionately people feel about the subject it is surprising how many can't.

It makes so little impact on day-to-day life I can see why people took the obvious answer for so long!

Stand on the equator and plant a stick straight vertical. At noon on the longest day of the year the stick should have virtually no shadow. Travel 100 miles due north or south, and perform the same exercise the same day next year. The stick will have a significant shadow to the north (or south). This demonstrates that the earth's surface is curved between those two points relative to the sun. You can use the length of the shadow to calculate the curvature of the earth.

You can also demonstrate that the earth goes around the sun (which flat earthers also deny) by measuring the parallax of nearby stars; although this does require a good telescope.

[Richard Head]

Another tool to prove the existane of a round earth rotating in space is a Foucalt pendulum.
You do unfortunately require a two story building to house it.

[Rerouter]

or better yet, go to the top of a very tall building or mountain overlooking the ocean, it looks curved,

or even better again, pick out a camera lens you know will give a perfectly flat image to the corners, tie it to a balloon and have it stream back an image, before it pops you will see enough to comfortably call the world a spheroid, use a high altitude balloon and you will see so much that your in denial if you still refuse it, and should design a test on the same scale disproving that one,

[G7PSK]

There was an experiment to prove the earth is flat or not carried out some years ago near here, they set up some optical equipment on a drainage dyke near Peterborough between two bridges they proved the earth curved but of course as it was pre Einstein and they thought that light travelled in straight lines  so all their calculations must have been out.