People have long known that the Earth is round, and they are finding more and more new ways to show that our world is not flat. And yet, even in 2016, there are quite a few people on the planet who firmly believe that the Earth is not round. These are scary people, they tend to believe in conspiracy theories, and it's hard to argue with them. But they do exist. So is the Flat Earth Society. It becomes funny just thinking about their possible arguments. But the history of our species was interesting and quirky, even firmly established truths were refuted. You don't have to resort to complicated formulas to dispel the flat Earth conspiracy theory.
Just look around and check ten times: the Earth is definitely, inevitably, completely and absolutely not 100% flat.
Today people already know that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful deity, and the phenomena of our satellite are well explained by modern science. But the ancient Greeks had no idea what it was, and in their search for an answer, they made some insightful observations that allowed people to determine the shape of our planet.
Aristotle (who made quite a few observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noted that during lunar eclipses (when the Earth's orbit places the planet exactly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow), the shadow on the lunar surface is circular. This shadow is the Earth, and the shadow cast by it directly indicates the spherical shape of the planet.
Since the Earth rotates (look up the Foucault pendulum experiment if in doubt), the oval shadow that appears during each lunar eclipse indicates not only that the Earth is round, but also not flat.
Ships and horizon
If you've been in port recently, or just strolled along the beach, looking at the horizon, you may have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: approaching ships don't just "emerge" from the horizon (as they would if the world were flat), but rather emerge from the sea. The reason that ships literally “come out of the waves” is that our world is not flat, but round.
Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange. If you look at an orange from a close distance, with your nose to the fruit, you will see how the ant's body slowly rises above the horizon due to the curvature of the orange's surface. If you do this experiment with a long road, the effect will be different: the ant will slowly “materialize” into your field of view, depending on how sharp your vision is.
Change of constellations
This observation was first made by Aristotle, who declared the Earth to be round by observing the change of constellations when crossing the equator.
Returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted that “stars are observed in Egypt and Cyprus that were not seen in the northern regions.” This phenomenon can only be explained by the fact that people look at the stars from a round surface. Aristotle continued and stated that the sphere of the Earth “is of small size, for otherwise the effect of such a slight change of terrain would not have manifested itself so quickly.”
Shadows and sticks
If you stick a stick into the ground, it will provide shade. The shadow moves as time passes (based on this principle, ancient people invented sundials). If the world were flat, two sticks in different places would produce the same shadow.
But this doesn't happen. Because the Earth is round, not flat.
Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth with good accuracy.
The higher you go, the farther you can see
Standing on a flat plateau, you look towards the horizon away from you. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and look through them as far as your eyes can see (using binocular lenses).
Then you climb the nearest tree - the higher the better, the main thing is not to drop your binoculars. And again look, straining your eyes, through binoculars to the horizon.
The higher you climb, the further you will see. Usually we tend to associate this with obstacles on Earth, when the forest is not visible for the trees, and freedom is not visible for the concrete jungle. But if you stand on a perfectly clear plateau, with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you will see much more from above than from the ground.
It's all about the curvature of the Earth, of course, and this wouldn't happen if the Earth were flat.
Flying an airplane
If you've ever flown out of the country, especially somewhere far away, you might have noticed two interesting facts about airplanes and the Earth:
Planes can fly in a relatively straight line for a very long time without falling off the edge of the world. They can also fly around the Earth without stopping.
If you look out the window on a transatlantic flight, most of the time you will see the curvature of the earth on the horizon. The best kind of curvature was on the Concorde, but that plane is long gone. From Virgin Galactic's new plane, the horizon should be completely curved.
Look at other planets!
The Earth is different from others, and that is undeniable. After all, we have life, and we have not yet found planets with life. However, all planets have similar characteristics, and it would be logical to assume that if all planets behave in a certain way or exhibit specific properties - especially if the planets are separated by distance or formed under different circumstances - then our planet is similar.
In other words, if there are so many planets that formed in different places and under different conditions, but have similar properties, most likely our planet will be one. From our observations, it became clear that the planets are round (and since we knew how they formed, we know why they are shaped that way). There's no reason to think our planet won't be the same.
In 1610, Galileo Galilei observed the rotation of the moons of Jupiter. He described them as small planets orbiting a large planet - a description (and observation) that the church did not like because it challenged the geocentric model in which everything revolved around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets (Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus) are spherical and revolve around the Sun.
A flat planet (ours or any other) would be so incredible to observe that it would overturn almost everything we know about the formation and behavior of planets. This will not only change everything we know about the formation of planets, but also about the formation of stars (since our Sun must behave differently to accommodate the flat Earth theory), the speed and movement of cosmic bodies. In short, we don't just suspect that our Earth is round - we know it.
The existence of time zones
In Beijing it is now 12 am, midnight, no sun. It's 12 noon in New York. The sun is at its zenith, although it is difficult to see under the clouds. It's one thirty in the morning in Adelaide, Australia. The sun will not rise very soon.
This could only be explained by the fact that the Earth is round and rotates around its own axis. At a certain point, when the sun is shining on one part of the Earth, it is dark on the other end, and vice versa. This is where time zones come into play.
Another point. If the sun were a "spotlight" (its light shining directly on a specific area) and the world was flat, we would see the sun even if it wasn't shining above us. In much the same way, you can see the light of a spotlight on a theater stage while remaining in the shadows. The only way to create two completely separate time zones, one of which will always be in the dark and the other in the light, is to have a spherical world.
Center of gravity
There's an interesting fact about our mass: it attracts things. The force of attraction (gravity) between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. Simply put, gravity will pull toward the center of mass of objects. To find the center of mass, you need to study the object.
Imagine a sphere. Because of the shape of the sphere, no matter where you stand, there will be the same amount of sphere underneath you. (Imagine an ant walking on a glass ball. From the ant's point of view, the only sign of movement will be the movement of the ant's legs. The shape of the surface will not change at all). The center of mass of a sphere is at the center of the sphere, meaning gravity pulls everything on the surface towards the center of the sphere (straight down), regardless of the object's location.
Let's consider a plane. The center of mass of the plane is at the center, so the force of gravity will pull everything on the surface towards the center of the plane. This means that if you are on the edge of the plane, gravity will pull you towards the center, and not down, as we are used to.
And even in Australia, apples fall from top to bottom, not from side to side.
Photos from space
Over the past 60 years of space exploration, we have launched many satellites, probes, and people into space. Some of them returned, some continue to remain in orbit and transmit beautiful images to Earth. And in all the photographs the Earth (attention) is round.
If your child asks how we know the Earth is round, take the trouble to explain.
This fact probably no longer raises any doubts in anyone’s minds today. Even small preschoolers know that our planet has a spherical shape. But not all the guys know why the Earth is round. Let's try to understand this issue in more detail.
Ancient representations
People did not develop the correct idea of why the Earth is round (now scientifically proven and substantiated) not immediately and not simultaneously. Various peoples who inhabited our planet in ancient times had different theories of its appearance and structure. Here are some of them.
- In ancient India, the Earth was imagined as a plane resting on the backs of three elephants. These giants are on top of a giant snake.
- The Egyptians considered the god Ra to be the incarnation of the Sun, who rushes across the dome of the sky in his chariot. The earth in their minds was also flat.
- In Ancient Babylon there were ideas about land in the form of a huge mountain, in the west of which Babylonia flourished. All around stretched the sea, on which the solid sky rested (and in the heavenly world there were also water and land, only upside down).
Ancient Greece
The Greeks also had very interesting ideas about the structure of the Universe (modern scientists know about them from the poems “Iliad” and “Odyssey”). The earth seemed to them like a disk, reminiscent of a warrior’s shield. The land is washed by the Ocean from all sides. The sun floats across the copper slope of the sky that stretches above the surface. According to the philosopher Thales, the flat Earth floats in a bubble (which looks like a semicircle). The planet was perceived as the center of the Universe, and the city of Delphi was considered the “navel of the Earth.” The rising and setting of the Sun and planets were based on the fact that they move in a circle.
Aristarchus of Samos
Interestingly, in Ancient Greece, the followers of Pythagoras already considered the Earth and other planets to be round. And the outstanding astronomer of that time, Aristarchus, expressed his opinion on the issue of the structure of the World. He was probably the first scientist known today to prove that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun along with all the planets, and not vice versa. This served, according to some scientists, as an impetus for the formation of correct human ideas about the structure of the planets and their movement across the firmament.
Copernicus
The earth is round and it rotates! So, or almost so, he announced with confidence - publicly! - this great scientist, blowing up the entire church and scientific world of that time with his seditious statements. But even before that, scientists, in particular Eratosthenes, argued that our planet has a spherical shape, and even managed to measure its diameter. Therefore, it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question of who proved that the Earth is round. However, let's return to Copernicus. The famous Polish astronomer lived and worked during the Renaissance. With his observations, he marked the beginning of a scientific revolution. His work devoted to substantiating the heliocentric scheme of the structure of the Universe lasted more than 40 years, until his death in 1543. It is interesting that Copernicus’s book “On the Rotation of the Celestial Spheres” (1543) gives an estimate of the sizes of the planets and the Sun itself, the distances between objects, which are quite close to modern scientific data.
Why is the Earth round?
Be that as it may, modern science largely relies on the above-mentioned research of the Polish astronomer, who was many centuries ahead of his time. And yet, why is the Earth round, and not square or flat, for example? Why did all the known planets of the solar system, their satellites and the sun itself turn out to be round? There is a very specific physical explanation for this fact. The thing is that there is a constant rotation in the Universe. The earth rotates around its axis. The Moon is around the Earth. Our planet and other planets travel in certain orbits around a star (the Sun), which, in turn, is also subject to rotation. Even huge galaxies move along their own trajectories, rotating.
And the force of gravity and rotation acts on all sides of the surface of any planet simultaneously, as a result giving them approximately the same distance from the imaginary center (in a global sense). This is why the Earth is round. For children, you can do an imaginary experiment. Imagine that our planet has some other shape. With increased rotation, the force of gravity will be so great that even a cube can, after some time, turn into an ellipse or a ball.
Sphere or geoid?
Of course, the orbits of the planets are not perfectly circular. Rather, they resemble elongated ellipses. By the way, the shape of our Earth is not a perfect sphere, but a flattened ellipsoid (also called a geoid). And modern data on space exploration show that on the surface of our blue planet there are huge depressions (in the Indian region - minus one hundred meters) and bulges (in the Iceland region - up to plus one hundred meters above the surface).
It is hardly possible to fully reveal the incomprehensible secrets of the universe. And even what at first glance seems to be an immutable truth, in some cases can turn out to be very controversial. for the sake of political, economic and moral-ethical interests no longer causes such surprise, because the concept of alternative history is gaining more and more adherents every day. And even those who recently believed in fairy tales about the existence of Peter I, today are no longer so confident in supporting their beliefs.
What if it's not just history that's distorted? Modern geography, geodesy and other sciences have elevated the idea that the Earth is round to the rank of an axiom, however, this theory also has its opponents. At first glance, the idea of a flat Earth can be perceived as a joke, but its adherents are providing more and more convincing evidence in favor of their theory, which looks quite logical and justified. Is this so, or is science not lying in this case? Who knows…
Flat Earth Theory: Basic Concepts
The essence of this theory is revealed by its very name. According to the assumptions of flat-earthers, the globe is a round disk, the center of which is the North Pole. But in principle, the South Pole is not on this map - instead of it there is a high ice wall that encircles the territory of the Earth. What is behind this wall is a mystery. Some suggest that behind it there is only ice and permafrost, others believe that there is a parallel life of other inhabitants of the planet hidden there, and still others believe that the wall serves as a fence behind which there is absolutely nothing. A map that clearly reflects the structure of a flat Earth is called an azimuthal map.
The diameter of the planet is 40,000 kilometers. Above this huge disk, like a dome, rise the constellations, the Sun and the Moon. And so that the day goes on as usual, and day gives way to night, it is not the planet itself that rotates, but the dome located directly above it. That is why the constellations move during the night, the bright sun is replaced by a mysterious and cold moon, and sunrise and sunset regularly alternate.
And since the Sun is constantly moving, the usual ideas about the solar system have no right to exist. In the Flat Earth concept, the solar system is not considered in principle, since the rotation of the Sun is carried out at a breakneck speed, and the planets simply could not fly behind it and rotate around their own axis. The gravitational force of the planets also serves as a weighty argument. According to modern scientists, the Earth ranks third among the planets located around the Sun. But according to the laws of physics, the force of gravity is directly related to mass, which means that the smaller the size of the planet, the closer it should be to the Sun. After carrying out simple mathematical calculations, you can understand that the Earth should be not in third, but in sixth place. Then our world would be shrouded in permafrost, because the atmosphere simply physically would not be able to warm up enough to comfortably support life.
But if everything works exactly as the adherents of the Flat Earth theory see it, what about space flights, numerous photographs of the Earth taken from outer space, data about other planets and other information that clearly demonstrates the structure of the universe. According to flat-earthers, all this is nothing more than a fiction, a staged act, and a deception on a huge scale. The illusion created by the Freemasons makes it possible to hide the truth from the population. One of the proofs of this assumption is a photograph of Apollo 11, in which the Americans allegedly flew to the Moon. With a detailed magnification, you can see that the spacecraft is made of “available materials” - foil, planks, oilcloth, cardboard, etc. In fact, this is just a set designed for filming the astronauts, who, by the way, did not even bother to take off their jewelry (bracelets and rings), on which the engraved letter G can be seen inside a compass and square - a symbol of the Masonic movement.
What about pictures of Mars? The unreal and mysterious beauty of this mysterious planet, according to adherents of the Flat Earth theory, is nothing more than photo filters, the play of light and shadows, classical computer programs that any “advanced” schoolchild can work with. If you remove the Photoshop effects from these pictures, you will get very beautiful, but still very real landscapes, taken in remote corners of the Earth, untouched by human hands.
A little history, or Where does the flat Earth theory come from?
At first glance, it may seem that the theory about the flat shape of our planet is nothing more than a fashionable trend, of which there are now many on the Internet. However, this is not at all true: looking through the prism of history, you can track how opinions about the shape of the Earth have changed. Mention of this theory was found in the ancient mythology of Egypt and Babylon, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, and Scandinavian epic. And even the ancient philosophers, whose teachings are considered historical heritage, including Leucippus and his student Democritus, were firmly convinced that the Earth was flat. The same idea was adhered to in the oldest manuscript of the Book of Enoch, found at Qumran. However, over time, these beliefs gave way to astronomical knowledge, and the idea of a Flat Earth fell into oblivion.
In the Middle Ages, the question of the shape of the Earth again became debated. One of the striking examples of this idea was “Christian Topography”, written by Cosmas Indicopleus in 535-547. In it, the planet is presented in the form of a rectangular plane, on top of which there is a dome: “Some people, hiding behind the name of Christians, claim, along with pagan philosophers, that the Sky has a spherical shape. No doubt these people are deceived by the eclipses of the Sun and Moon." This work, translated, became widespread in Rus', because at that time it was a unique encyclopedia of medieval knowledge, which there was no reason not to believe.
One of the clear examples of the theory was an engraving published in the book “Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology”, published by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion in 1888. It depicts a pilgrim who has reached the edge of the Earth and looks out from under the dome towards new worlds. The caption for the image reads: “A medieval missionary says he found the point where the sky touches the Earth.”
How did the Flat Earth Society come about?
In the 19th century, adherents of the described concept united into a group - the Flat Earth Society - headed by the English scientist Samuel Rowbotham. For several decades, he conducted all kinds of experiments, experiments, studies to confirm his theory and, importantly, found a lot of evidence. Using the pseudonym Parallax, he wrote “Zetetic Astronomy,” in which he thoroughly and clearly outlined all his findings and results refuting the spherical shape of the planet. Rowbotham's initially small work was reprinted several times, becoming increasingly large-scale and evidence-based literature, because it was constantly supplemented by students of the Society. Until his death, Samuel Rowbotham defended his theory, giving numerous lectures and seminars around the world.
Adherents of Rowbotham's theory subsequently united into the Universal Zetetic Society, which found its adherents in all corners of the planet. Since 1956, this organization, led by Samuel Shenton, again became known as the Flat Earth Society, but with the significant prefix “International”. When Shenton saw photographs of the globe from orbit, he did not doubt his convictions for a moment: “It is easy to see how photographs of this kind can fool an ignorant person.”
Since 1971, the head of the organization has been Charles Johnson. He launched a major campaign to promote his ideas, distributing leaflets, publishing brochures and booklets in which he advocated the flat Earth model. Thanks to such activity, during his leadership the number of supporters of the theory increased several times.
Arguments for the Flat Earth Theory
To make an informed decision about the shape of our planet, you need to consider both sides of the argument to see which makes the most sense and consistency. So, what do flat earthers say about their theory?
1.Earth's rotation speed.
Scientific data says that the Earth rotates around its axis at a speed of about half a kilometer per second. It’s hard to even imagine such a fast object! There are a few simple experiments in favor of flat earthers, such as jumping. Everyone knows that when a person jumps, he lands in the same place. But what about rotation? After all, in those split seconds that he was in the jump, the planet had to move a considerable distance, and the landing site would have become another point. The same result is obtained by firing a cannon into the sky. In addition, if you shoot to the east (against the direction of rotation), the cannonball should fly half as far as normal, and if you shoot to the west, twice as much. However, this does not happen. And pilots flying over the Earth have never recorded how it rotates, although who, if not them, should be able to see the change in the position of the planet from above.
2.Perfectly flat horizon.
Look into the distance. Take a good look, not losing sight of the slightest detail. What do you see? The ideally smooth edge of the horizon in the area where it is clearly visible - fields, meadows, sea surface - cannot deceive. After all, in a free area the view spans several kilometers in the distance, so why are they perfectly level? According to adherents of the theory, the answer is obvious - the Earth is flat! In addition, tall objects (for example, towers, lighthouses, mountain peaks) would simply not be visible, because the spherical surface would hide them from an attentive eye, since the horizon line would be significantly higher. But this does not happen, and you can admire the mountains from a very long distance, amounting to more than one kilometer.
3.Air travel routes.
Many flights, especially long-distance ones, at first glance seem illogical from the point of view of the spherical shape of the Earth. Looking at the globe, one might wonder why pilots choose such a seemingly illogical route and inconvenient refueling points. However, there is no mystery or irrationalism in this: if you compare these routes with a flat map, it becomes clear that the route is laid out perfectly.
4. Star drawing.
If all objects in the Universe are in constant motion, then why are the stars in the sky located exactly the same both today and several centuries ago? After all, in theory, the star pattern should change, if not every day, then certainly once a week. However, this does not happen. The thing is that stars are just holograms on the celestial dome that cannot change, move relative to each other, much less fall. And the famous meteor shower, which all the romantics of the world eagerly await to make a wish, is a holographic effect.
5. Yellow color of the Sun.
Scientific laws explain in some detail why the sky is blue and the Sun is yellow. According to official data, ultraviolet light, passing through the atmosphere, is scattered into spectra, one of which colors the sky. However, this does not explain in any way why some of the rays concentrated around the Sun do not decay, because then it should be blue-blue. Isn't it the case that the Sun is below the dome-sky, which limits space. Rotating around the Earth, it alternately illuminates the territory, so the light hours regularly replace each other.
6. Space flight is a hoax.
None of the flat-earthers have seen outer space with their own eyes, which means that one can argue its existence until one is hoarse. The photographs are fake, the videos are all special effects, and the flights into space are fantastic stories. Convinced adherents of this theory even organized several investigative expeditions to search for photographic sites “on the Moon.” And when the astronauts were asked to swear on the Holy Scriptures that they had been on the Moon, they all showed aggression and avoided answering.
7. Free flow of rivers.
According to the law of communicating vessels, the network of reservoirs enveloping the Earth simply could not exist on a spherical planet in the form in which we see it today. However, the rivers flow to the west, east, north and south in almost equal quantities, and their depth and fullness are in no way related to geographical location. Such characteristics are only possible if the Earth is flat.
8. Technicians' view.
One of the weighty arguments in favor of their theory is the universal conspiracy of engineers, technicians and other individuals who are in one way or another connected with work in vast spaces. For example, surveyors do not take into account the curvature of the Earth when designing buildings and structures. But in this case, the structure made according to this project simply could not withstand the total load and collapsed. However, this does not happen, and the buildings have stood idle for decades. There is only one conclusion: they know that the Earth is actually flat, but they keep this secret from the population. The same applies to airplane pilots who, taking off from a spherical surface, no longer adjust their flight path until landing. How? After all, under such conditions the plane would fly into outer space. And if you look at it from the point of view of a flat Earth, everything falls into place.
This evidence is the most common that the Flat Earth Society uses to refute the generally accepted theory. In order to judge their loyalty, one must also consider the beliefs of the so-called “sharovists” who adhere to a scientific point of view.
Why is the Earth a ball? Arguments against a flat earth
The concept that the scientific community adheres to has many justifications in its favor, some of which look quite convincing. What do the Sharover believers talk about in support of their theory?
1. The moon and its eclipse.
Even if we do not take into account photographs that prove the existence of the Moon as a satellite of our planet, the shadow cast by the Earth, gradually reaching a lunar eclipse, directly indicates its sphericity. Even Aristotle, who supported the spherical nature of the planet, considered the cast shadow as an oval, which directly contradicted the theory of the flat shape of the Earth.
2.Change of constellations.
This argument has also been considered since the time of Aristotle. Traveling around the world, he recorded the position of the stars in the sky and the visibility of each of them. So, being at the equator, constellations were revealed to him that were not visible at other latitudes. And the further the scientist was from the equator, the fewer familiar stars he saw, which were replaced by others. This effect could only be explained by the fact that a person is looking at the sky from a spherical surface, otherwise the location would not have such a strong effect on the visibility of the stars.
3.Time Zones.
And although Polskozemeltsy claim that the change of time of day occurs due to the rotation of the Sun, sharovers are sure that it is the Earth that rotates around its axis. That is why different countries have different times, and when, for example, it is deep night in America, in China the sun is shining and the day is in full swing.
4. Force of gravity.
Another proof of a spherical planet is gravity - the force of attraction between objects. According to the laws of physics, it acts relative to the center of mass. But when an apple falls, it lands from top to bottom, and not at an angle to the center, and a person, walking along the surface of the Earth, feels an attraction to the bottom, and not to the side, closer to the center of the “disk”. That is why we can judge that under it every time there is the center of the Earth, from which maximum gravity comes, and this means that the Earth has a spherical shape. However, flat-earthers reject this evidence, because they believe that gravity is just the result of the planet moving upward with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s2.
5.Visibility of objects from above.
If you climb a mountain, a tall tree or a lighthouse, looking at the horizon through binoculars, you will notice that the visibility distance increases in direct proportion to the height at which a person is located. Of course, visible obstacles can interfere with the purity of the experiment, but in a field or meadow this effect is most noticeable. But if the Earth were flat, the height of the observation deck would have no effect on the visibility of objects on the horizon. This is only possible if the planet is spherical.
6. Ship on the horizon.
When sailing, the ship does not immediately disappear on a perfectly flat surface of the sea. First of all, its hull is lost from sight, and only after that the sails disappear behind the horizon. The same thing is observed when it approaches the shore: the sails are immediately visible, and only then the ship itself. This directly proves that, despite the apparent straightness of the horizon, it is curved by the spherical shape of the Earth.
7.Sundial.
The sundial effect is calculated based on the shadow cast by the Sun at different times. By sticking a stick into the ground, you can observe how its shadow gradually changes its shape. And if the world were a plane, the position of the stick would not affect the shape of the shadow, and at different points it would be identical. However, even a seemingly insignificant distance of several tens of kilometers between two experimental rods gives different results, and the shadows differ from each other by at least a few tenths of a millimeter. This principle was used even before our era when calculating the circumference of the Earth, which was carried out by Eratosthenes.
8. Documentary facts.
And although flat-earthers claim that photographs from satellites and space flights are a hoax, sharers are firmly convinced of their existence. Numerous photographs of our planet obtained from outer space, flights to the Moon and exploration of other planets are a scientific heritage that humanity has achieved over hundreds of years of experimentation and development. True, considerable funds are invested in these studies, and their effectiveness is confirmed only by photographs, but this is the other side of the coin.
Flat Earth in the context of contemporary art
No matter how controversial the theory that denies the generally accepted shape of our planet may be, it has repeatedly surfaced in the works of science fiction writers, film directors and writers. It is enough to recall the well-known “Chronicles of Narnia” by Clive Lewis to understand that this idea attracts a wide audience. Narnia cosmology presents the idea of the plane of the Earth, beyond the boundaries of which there is paradise - Aslan. The heroes go there, following the routes of an ancient map reminiscent of a medieval one.
The English science fiction writer Terry Pratchett devoted a whole series of works to the concept with the predictable title Discworld. In his opinion, based on ancient Indian myths, the disc-shaped planet is supported by four elephants, and they, in turn, stand on a centuries-old turtle. And what about Pirates of the Caribbean, beloved by millions of spectators? Captain Jack Sparrow's team was able to reach the end of the planet, where a bottomless waterfall seethed.
Domestic writers did not ignore this concept either. Thus, the story “Monk at the End of the Earth” by Sergei Sinyak describes an expedition to the heavenly dome, after which its participants were subjected to repression by the state. However, the results of the expedition were undeniable: space flight is nothing more than a fiction based on a distortion of the picture of the universe.
Afterword
What to believe in, what concept to adhere to is everyone’s personal choice. It is more convenient for some to believe that the Earth is a ball, while others are also unshakably convinced that our planet is flat. One way or another, going up into space to clearly verify the correctness of one of these movements is not possible for most people, so we will have to use what we have - our eyes, logic and common sense. It is enough to close the textbooks, open the satellite map and drive a considerable distance along it, checking the mileage and trajectory with official data. Simple practical experiments will allow you to understand where reality ends and hoax begins.
It is best to end this debate with the words of the wise Dalai Lama: “In any case, all this is very insignificant, isn’t it? The basis of the Teaching is; what they say about the structure of life, about the nature of suffering, about the nature of the mind. These are the basics of the teaching. This is what is most important; something that is directly related to our lives. Whether the world is square or round does not matter much as long as there is prosperity and peace in it.”
Hello dear friends and blog readers. Ruslan Miftakhov is in touch. Lately I have been haunted by one topic: is the earth really structured the way we were told in school?
If you ask any person passing by, is the earth round or flat? Almost everyone will say without hesitation that the earth is a sphere, someone else will add in the form of an ellipse. And maybe one in a hundred will say jokingly - the earth is flat.
Or maybe everything we were told about the earth, we just believe in it as God without evidence.
Let's think together about what they are hiding from us, whether it is really spherical and what is happening around us in general.
Let me say right away that I am not a supporter of flat-earthers, but flat-earthers put forward their own theory, thereby breaking stereotypes about the sphericity of the planet. And forcing us to think with our own heads, and not stupidly believe in everything that is imposed on us by the human programming center (read school).
Let us remember from history that previously everyone was convinced that the earth was flat. Then humanity was convinced that the earth is spherical, that the planet rotates around its axis and around the sun. And to this day we all unquestioningly believe in this, without wondering whether it really is so.
If there is no proof, then it is just a guess. How could Copernicus prove in the Middle Ages that the earth is spherical? How? Have you flown into space and looked from above?
Or maybe there really is no space. Why hasn’t the space program developed since the flight to the moon in the last century? What is hidden behind this? Maybe it's all fake? And there was simply no flight to the moon?
Yes, you can troll me about my lack of education, the fact that I did not study well at school, and so on. But think about this, are you sure that in the programming centers of humanity called school, reliable information was poured into our brains, and not that which was beneficial to the superior race?
Are you wondering how many times larger Russia is than Africa? You will be surprised when you watch this video.
For example, I was convinced that most of the history in the school curriculum is false, or they simply do not tell the truth or outright lie. So maybe the whole truth about our planet is not being revealed to us?
And since in adulthood all the vessels in a person’s head are filled with knowledge, whether false or not, he is skeptical about new information, rejecting it as immunity. Try to free your vessels a little from the old one and fill in the new information.
Are you ready for new information? Then look further, you might be shocked...
A giant mine from another civilization
The most interesting thing in the video begins at the 12th minute, telling that all the rocks, canyons, and gorges on our planet are nothing more than giant quarries for mining minerals for another civilization, since 95% of the production disappears into nowhere.
The essence of the video is that our Earth is not a planet, it is a giant quarry in which the entire periodic table is mined in the most barbaric way.
Truth from the movie John Carter
After watching the video about the quarry, then watch the movie John Carter if you haven’t already. Movie from the fantasy category of 2012, as they say in every fairy tale there is some truth. I read somewhere that it failed at the box office. Or maybe there is a reason for this?
Below I have posted an excerpt from the film.
I was especially impressed by the conversation with the thorn that all planets have the same fate - overpopulation and destruction as such.
Well, what is your goal? - asked John Carter.
He answered - but it doesn’t exist, we are not haunted by the specter of mortality like you, we are immortal. We played these games when this planet (Mars) did not yet exist and we will play it after yours (Earth) disappears.
But we are not the ones who bring the planets to destruction, captain, we control them, we feed on them, if you like. But the same thing happens on every planet... population growth, division in society, widespread wars.
And at this time the planet is devastated and quietly fading away.
Remember what's been going on with us lately? The world's population has exceeded 7 billion, there is division in society between the poor and the very rich, and constant wars.
And there is no doubt that it is being devastated, just from Russia how much is being extracted and taken away in an unknown direction. But who and where is unknown, and it is unlikely that we will find out.
And how much timber they put in our Siberia is simply appalling. Although this is not a forest, and we don’t have trees, these are all bushes compared to what... however, watch the video below.
There are no forests on earth
Watch this video and you will be shocked that all these mountains, which we are accustomed to taking for trunk mountains, are not mountains at all, but... the stumps of large trees.
I used to be amazed at the shapes of some mountains and suspected that they were probably artificially created. But it didn’t even occur to me that this was the base of a tree.
Waterfalls from the mountains, where does so much water come from?
As a continuation of the previous video, watch the video about waterfalls. Decide for yourself how plausible this is, I’m not imposing anything on you, I’m just giving food for thought.
Life under the dome
Let's return to the topic of flat earth. In general, I wanted to publish this article back in September 2017, but I considered this topic nonsense, and it remained gathering dust in my drafts. But having collected some arguments, I returned and supplemented the article with information that I thought was interesting. And the article gained the right to life.
Back in the fall of 2017, when meeting a friend, a conversation came up, did you see a video on YouTube about the fact that the earth is flat?
I say: I saw it, but I don’t quite believe it. And this is what he answered me...
He remembered one film starring Jim Carrey. The plot is that the main character lived for 30 years in the largest film studio in the form of an island under a dome.
All around was normal life, people went to work and back, drove cars, day gave way to night, there were rains, nothing strange in general, except for one thing...
There were all actors around, except for that one man named Truman.
Without suspecting anything, for many years he thought that everything around him was true and did not doubt it. Until one girl couldn’t stand it and told him the truth, which shocked him a little.
Afterwards, he found more and more evidence that everything around him was false and decided to leave the island. But they prevented him from doing this in every possible way, and then one night he escapes.
However, you can watch this film yourself, it’s called The Truman Show. Oddly enough, the film is from 1998, but I didn’t even know about this film if a friend hadn’t told me about it.
And so I began to understand what he was driving at.
Have you ever thought that everything around us is an illusion, a deception that we accept as the truth. Once upon a time, everyone believed that the earth was flat and stood on three elephants, and elephants on a turtle.
Now this seems nonsense, doesn’t it? And we believe that the earth is spherical and revolves around the sun. Is this really true? Maybe this is all a matrix and we live in this program and are being watched from the outside.
Or maybe we all live under such a dome and the earth is not round at all?
Why is it that when we look at the sky at night, we see stars. And pictures from space show that the sky is black and there are no stars. Who to believe? Your eyes? Or maybe there is a dome on top, and the stars are just a hologram.
Well, you’re probably thinking now that I’m crazy and making things up here. Then tell me, where is it really? But there is no truth. We live our lives here in our own little world and entertain the viewer named God.
No, of course the earth is spherical, spinning around its axis and around the sun. There is a universe where there are many stars, but no one knows what is there next.
Have you ever wondered if there are other planets like ours in the universe?
I will say this, when the overall picture is built and you understand how it all works, your soul simply becomes calmer from the awareness and understanding of the rules of the game in this world.
Who thinks about this, please write in the comments. Be sure to share this article with your friends by clicking on the special social media buttons below.
I was with you, Ruslan Miftakhov
0:39 23/08/20170 👁 782
The Flat Earth movement has gained extraordinary momentum this year. Schoolchildren on Youtube tell each other that we live on a plane, and it is no longer clear whether they are joking or believing their words. The photographs are not convincing: they can easily be explained by a worldwide conspiracy. The time has come to take the child by the hand and make ironclad arguments in favor of the earthly sphere.
If Gagarin is not an authority for your child, and all the pictures with, in his opinion, are fakes, you will have to be patient and prove the sphericity, using a minimum of technical means - just like the ancient Greeks did. This process will be long, but extremely instructive.
1. We prove that the Earth is a disk or a ball
Let's start by deciding on the outlines of the native . Is it shaped like a suitcase or is there a turtle and elephants down there? There is a very simple way to understand that the Earth is a disk or a sphere. To do this, just wait for a total lunar eclipse (in Europe, the closest one can be observed on July 27, 2018; they occur every year. Travel with your child to where the sky will definitely be clear on that day, and watch how the round shadow of the Earth slowly covers the Moon. Before This demonstrates how the shape of a shadow depends on the shadow of an object - show a wolf or an elk with the shadows of hands on the wall. If the shadow is round, then the body that casts it is round.
After this, all that remains is to understand whether the earth has the shape of a disk or the shape of a ball.
2. Choose between a disk and a sphere
To answer the question of whether the Earth is flat or spherical, we will need: to get out of the city, a ball and an ant (beetle, ladybug or cockroach - your choice).
First, we need to find a tall, free-standing structure on flat terrain (for example, a power line pylon) and go from there. Just like a ship at sea, the support will not disappear from sight immediately, but gradually - first the “legs”, then the middle part and, finally, the top with the wires.
Now let's interpret the observation results. If we were dealing with a tall tower on a plane, then, moving away, it would become smaller and smaller, but, even remaining barely noticeable, it would be completely visible. On the surface of the sphere, objects gradually disappear from view.
We take a ball and put an insect on it. We bring the ball very, very close to the eyes so that the insect is half behind the “horizon” - the far visible edge of the ball. Only part of the animal’s body will be visible, just as only part of the tower is visible from afar. Now we can confidently conclude that we live on the surface of the earth (jokes aside).
3. Once again about the ball
Another great way to make sure the earth is round is to go out into the field at dawn. Take your watch with you and face the brightest edge of the sky. As soon as the edge (or - it doesn’t matter) appears over the horizon, lie down on the Earth and note the time. Look in the same direction. For a few seconds the star will disappear behind the horizon again. Why? Because you changed your viewing angle, and for a short time the Sun (or Moon) was hidden from you by the convex surface of the Earth.
The same can be done at sunset or watching the moon set, but only in the reverse order: first watch while lying down, and then while standing.
4. Determine the size of the ball
For the first time, the circumference of the equator was calculated by the librarian of the Library of Alexandria, Eratosthenes of Cyrene. The ancient sage compared the deviation of the Sun from the zenith on the same day of the year in two cities located at a distance of 800 kilometers from each other - Alexandria and Siena.
It is easy to catch the sun at its zenith: at this moment its rays fall even on the bottom of deep pits (Eratosthenes was guided by wells), and objects do not cast shadows. On the same day, the Sun cast sheer rays on Alexandria, but not on Sienna. It deviated from the zenith by 7.2°. Seven degrees from 360 is two percent. We multiply 800 by 50 and get 40 thousand (kilometers): this is the length of the Equator, this is confirmed by modern high-precision measurements.
Repeating Eratosthenes' experiment is quite simple, but you will have to enlist the help of friends in another city. Wait for the moment when the Sun is at its zenith (you can slack off and look on the Internet, you can navigate by a sundial - a stick stuck into the Earth. When the shadow is the shortest, then the Sun is closest to the zenith). Above the middle zone, the Sun is never at its zenith, but this does not matter. It is important at the moment when the shadow from your stick reaches its minimum, call your friends in a city located quite far from you - from Moscow, for example, to St. Petersburg, and ask them to measure the length of their shadow (and the height of the stick). Calculate the value of the acute angle between the stick and an imaginary straight line from the end of the stick to the end of the shadow in your place and in a distant city. Next - pure arithmetic: it should be about 40 thousand kilometers.
5. Once again measure the size of the ball
Let's return to experiments with clocks and sunrises (sunsets). We measured time for a reason: knowing it and your own height, you can solve the problem about the radius of the globe.
First, let's find the angle by which the Earth turned in the interval between the time you saw the edge of the rising Sun or Moon at dawn while standing and lying down. To do this, solve a simple proportion. If the Earth rotates 360° in 24 hours, what angle did it rotate during the time you recorded? Calculate and call it angle α.
Imagine that it was not you who fell and got up. Instead, the sunrise was observed by two people: Ivan 1 and Ivan 2, at such a distance from each other that the first saw the Sun later than the other by exactly the same time T. Two radii R to Ivan 1 and Ivan 2 form an isosceles triangle with angle α.
Complete the radius to Ivan 2 with a segment equal to your height h, and connect its end to the point where Ivan 1 stands. We get a right triangle with a hypotenuse R+h and a known acute angle. A little trigonometry and we calculate the radius of the Earth.