Earth’s Rotation in Field Artillery Operation Manual

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The “Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery” (TC 3-09.81) is a manual from the US Army explaining the operation of field artillery. From the manual, we know the operators of field artillery are required to account for Earth’s rotation.

Flat-Earthers wrongly claim that an artillery operator never needs to account for Earth’s rotation. In reality, from this operational manual, we know their claim is incorrect.

From the same manual, flat-Earthers cherry-picked words on page 7-1 where it is mentioned “no rotation of the earth.” However, other than “no rotation of the earth,” it was also said that “air temperature 100%,” “air density 100%,” “no wind,” “gun, target and MDP at same altitude,” etc.

The chapter explains how to read the firing table of artillery equipment. The statement “no rotation of the earth” is one of the many standard conditions used in the figures in the firing tables. The conditions in the field will never be identical to the standard conditions. The operators need to adjust the firing parameters according to the temperature, pressure, wind, as well as latitude to account for Earth’s rotation.

Other parts of the document clearly explain the step-by-step instruction that the operator must follow before the round is fired if they want to hit the target, including accounting for Earth’s rotation.

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