Debunking Flat Earth Misconceptions
Van Allen Radiation Belt is a zone of radiation encircling the Earth. To flat-Earthers, Van Allen Radiation Belt is ‘evidence’ of the impossibility of space travel. To the rest of us, the Van Allen Radiation Belt is one of the challenges which is not impossible to overcome.
Continue reading “The Apollo Missions and Van Allen Radiation Belts”
Lake Pontchartrain is a lake in Louisiana, United States. There are power transmission lines about 24.27 km (15 mi) across this lake. They are practically straight, and each tower is uniform and has the same height, making these towers ideal for observing the curvature of the Earth.
They were first popularized by Soundly who presented evidence of Earth’s curvature using a series of photos and videos of the power lines in June 2017. As of now, the towers and other objects on the lake are probably the most popular Earth curvature tourism spot in the world.
Continue reading “Lake Pontchartrain Power Transmission Lines: Evidence of Earth’s Curvature”
Flat-Earthers often commit the fallacy of moving the goalposts. When their claim has been proven wrong, they would revise their claim and demand another evidence that is harder to fulfil. They would do this repeatedly until they present an unfalsifiable claim, a claim that is impossible to prove.
Some flat-Earthers consider crepuscular rays as evidence that the Sun is not far. In their mind, the Sun is only about ±5000 km circling above us. In reality, the actual distance of the Sun is ±150 million km.
Flat-Earthers often commit the fallacy of ‘hasty generalization’. They would draw the conclusion from limited sample that fail to represent the entire population. Sometimes they would even draw the conclusion from a single case, and it becomes the fallacy of ‘lonely fact’.
Furthermore, they would deliberately cherry-pick cases that support their position, and use those to disprove the other cases that are against their position.
Continue reading “Flat-Earth Ideology and The Fallacy of Lonely Fact”
In the northern hemisphere, if we look at the sky to the north, we can observe stars rotate counter-clockwise around a point. This axis of rotation is not visible from observers in the southern hemisphere.
On the other hand, in the southern hemisphere, if we look at the sky to the south, we can observe stars rotate in the opposite direction. Conversely, this axis of rotation is not visible from observers in the northern hemisphere.
This motion of the stars cannot possibly happen in a flat-Earth. The motion of the stars is a proof that the Earth is round and rotates around its axis.
Continue reading “Star Trail: Evidence the Earth is a Sphere and Rotating Around Its Axis”
Another CGI related fallacy regularly committed by flat-Earthers has the general form of:
This is invalid for two reasons:
A logical fallacy commonly committed by the victims of the flat-Earth ideology is CGI related. CGI —or computer graphics imagery— is the use of computers to produce realistic images or videos.
Because this fallacy is very common within the flat-Earth circles, let’s give it the name ‘appeal to CGI’. Its argument has the general form of:
This is a fallacy because it is definitely possible to create a CGI image or video of a real-world object.
Gravity is not the result of a particular shape of an object. It is caused by mass. All objects with mass exert gravity to each other. The larger the mass of an object, the greater the force of gravity.
On Earth, water forms a spherical surface which has the same center as the Earth. It applies to every surface of fluid which is under influence by Earth’s gravity, unaffected by another force. In a 10 cm wide container, the amount of curvature is only 0.0000002 mm. It is the reason the surface appears flat in small containers.
Continue reading “Surface of Water and Communicating Vessels”
“Why don’t we see satellites in photos taken from the ISS?” (or from space in general). That’s a recurring question within the flat-Earth community, usually asked without expecting an answer, assuming that an answer is impossible, and that it is a glaring oversight when the powers that be purposefully made the picture using CGI.
But no, the pictures are real. And satellites are not visible because they are too far spaced apart from each other.
Continue reading “Why Don’t We See Satellites in Photos Taken From The ISS?”
Accounting for the curvature of the Earth is not usually needed for narrow high-rise building projects. Designers only need to ensure the foundation is flat, and the curvature of the Earth becomes non-factor.
For projects that extend over a long distance, like roads, railroads, canals, etc., they are built along the curvature of the Earth, and specifically accounting for the curvature is usually not needed.
But when the project extends on a long distance, as well as extending upwards, then we have no choice but to take the curvature of the Earth into account. One of such projects is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, New York, United States.
Continue reading “The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and The Curvature of The Earth”
‘The Principle’ is a pseudoscientific documentary that promotes geocentrism, that the Earth is stationary and the center of the universe. Despite the fact that the film has almost nothing to do with flat-Earth, some flat-Earthers decide to use this film to bolster their beliefs. Because after all, in the flat-Earth model, the Earth is stationary and the center of the universe, right?
This actually gets more complicated than that. We are dealing with two forms of pseudoscience, that sometimes even goes against each other.
Continue reading “‘The Principle’: A Documentary Without Principle”
Little Piggy is the nickname of a helium balloon launched by IndianaCaver. It reached the altitude of almost 37 km before it finally ruptured and fell to the Earth. Before that, it took several hours of video, and IndianaCaver made these video available on YouTube.
Then, some flat-Earthers cherry-picked bits of the video where the horizon looked flat and presented it as ‘proof’ of flat-Earth. These are widely circulated in various memes and forms, even years after the originals were published.
But, can we use these videos as ‘proof’ of flat-Earth?
Continue reading “The Little Piggy Balloon Footage Proves Earth is a Sphere, not Flat”
The Nikon Coolpix P900 camera is a very popular camera among flat-Earthers because there’s no other compact camera ever made that has such enormous zoom range. It is a unique and a very useful tool in this state of affair.
Someday, some flat-Earthers decided to bring their trusty P900s out and used them to take some pictures of Venus. To their delight, the resulting pictures don’t look like Venus we all used to know. They were too excited that they thought they have discovered an original ‘proof’ of global deception. “This is an irrefutable ‘proof’ that they have been lying to us!” so they say.
But, maybe there’s a simpler, more plausible explanation…
Continue reading “Nikon Coolpix P900 and The Supposedly ‘Real’ Pictures of Venus”
Midnight Sun is a phenomenon where the Sun remains visible at midnight. This phenomenon occurs in the summer months north of Arctic Circle, and south of the Antarctic Circle.
The apparent motion of the Sun in both polar regions is different. In the north polar region, the Sun moves from left to right. On the other hand, in Antarctica, the Sun moves from right to left. There is no explanation other than that Earth is a sphere.
Continue reading “Midnight Sun in Both Polar Regions Proves Spherical Earth”
We know for granted that during an equinox, the Sun rises from the east and sets in the west. Such facts are undisputed and have been verified through centuries of observation.
The flat-Earth model, however, is unable to accommodate this simple fact. And thus, it is not hard to conclude that the flat-Earth model does not represent reality.
The thermosphere is a layer of the Earth’s atmosphere from about 95 km to 600 km. It is named ‘thermosphere’ because its temperature increases with altitude. The temperature in the thermosphere can reach 2500°C. However, air density in the thermosphere is very low to the point that heat conduction practically does not occur. Objects in the thermosphere will feel cold.
Flat-Earthers discovered that the temperature in the thermosphere could reach 2500°C. They are happy to ignore the other information which usually accompanies it: the air density up there is also far lower.
Continue reading “Space Flight and the Temperature in the Thermosphere”
Having the total height of about 830m, Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. It is so tall that we can observe the sunset at the base of the building, then rush to the upper floors and watch the same sunset again for the second time on the same day.
This phenomenon can only happen if the Earth is a sphere. On a higher position, we will observe the sunset later than when we are closer to the ground.
Every time NASA (or anyone else) releases a picture of the Earth from space; flat-earthers would compare it to another image of the Earth. Every photo is going to be different from another, but flat-earthers love to use this fact as a ‘proof’ that these photos are results of image manipulation, and that we are being deceived somehow.
When a photo of spherical Earth is pointed out to flat-earthers, they will dismiss it as CGI in the blink of an eye; even if they haven’t done any analysis at all. They do this because their belief in flat-Earth is not evidence-based, and any evidence contrary to their beliefs needs to be invalidated no matter how.
They are so used to doing it, and sometimes they become confused by it themselves, to the point that they would take the slightest hint of digital manipulation of any picture of the Earth as evidence of the flat Earth.
