Earth LOOKS flat.
It FEELS flat.
The logical explanation is: the earth is flat!
Right?
#facepalm.
But like, once you get past the crazytalk…
How do we know the Earth IS round?
Welcome back my woke friends, Trace here for
DNews.
If you follow the pervasive yellow journalism
online and elsewhere, you've probably heard
of Rapper B.o.B.'s beef with NASA, science
and specifically Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson,
astrophysicist and science celeb.
In short, some pop culture peeps think the
Earth is Flat.
Proving them wrong is simple, though it took
hundreds of years for science to figure it
out in the first place.
how do we know otherwise?
We know the Earth is round by observing it
closely.
If you watch a ship as it disappears over
the horizon, the bottom vanishes first and
then the top disappears later.
It looks like it's sinking.
That's because the Earth is curved.
Using a stopwatch you can do your own experiment
to prove it.
Watch the sun set over the ocean or a open
plain with a friend.
If you stand, while they lay down, each will
see the sun cross the horizon at a slightly
different time!
how did we first realize the earth was round?
The Greeks first realized this 2500 years
ago, and spent hundreds of years attempting
to explain it.
First, mathematician Pythagoras looked at
the moon and discovered a curve in the line
dividing light from shadow on its surface
-- called the terminator.
A flat moon would have a straight line!
The only explanation?
The moon must be a sphere!
Sometime later, Anaxagoras, while watching
the moon during an eclipse, realized the shadow
covering the moon must be from the Earth!
As that shadow is definitely curved, the Earth
must be round!
And still later in about 350 BC, Aristotle
noted that star constellations, visible in
Greece were hidden beyond the horizon in Egypt.
His conclusion, yet again, was the Earth must
be a sphere, just like the moon!
Sidebar: Notice, humanity knew the Earth was
round 1800 years before 1492 when Columbus
Sailed the Ocean Blue.
Just debunking some grade school crap.
how curved is the earth?
Once these great thinkers realized the Earth
was curved, they wanted to PROVE IT.
A Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes figured
it out.
On the summer solstice, the sun reaches a
peak at the top of the sky.
Eratosthenes went to two distant locations
in Egypt on the Solstice and measured the
angles cast by the shadows in each place.
Then, using some geometry he could calculate
the curvature of the Earth between those places!
From there, he could extrapolate how many
degrees around the circle of the Earth he
had moved -- ultimately, revealing the circumference
and diameter of the EARTH!! Dang.
Thanks to all these ancient humans we know
Earth is just a bit over 40 thousand km around
the poles (about 24,860 miles) (which is supported
by modern observations), and knowing that
we can determine how far the horizon is from
you -- which changes depending on how high
above sea level you are.
The Earth is curved, and we know it.
Why do these people think this?
In the end, the problem is Flat Earthers just
don't trust science.
When the Flat Earth Society was founded in
the mid-1920s, the idea was observation trumps
all.
This is called the Zetetic philosophy.
Many skeptics believe the same.
If the Earth looks flat it must be flat.
Often they cry "Prove me wrong!"
"Only trust your own observations!"
The funny thing about that argument is that
it was observation that showed us the Earth’s
curvature in the first place!
Pythagoras observed that shadow line across
the moon.
Countless people have observed ships sailing
underneath the horizon.
NOT TO MENTION the fact that we’ve gone
to space and observed a very spherical Earth
from above.
And if you don’t believe all those people
for some reason, make your own observation.
Climb a mountain, watch a ship sail away,
or watch the sun set with a friend.
And behold an inarguably spherical Earth.
Your move, B.o.B.
Conspiracy theories are just, the best, aren't
they?
Have you ever wondered why people love 9/11
conspiracies?
Why are we so obsessed with the Illuminati
or which conspiracy theories might be actually
true?
TestTube Plus is the podcast/show for you!
We cover…
Do y'all know anyone that we should make a
video debunking?
Comments.
Do it.
