Where's the Curve? = Big Science's huge FAIL

LOL, ok... I have already read about it and there are plenty documentaries I have seen that promote your ideas and it's all pseudo science...

 

I have no idea how you even came up with this math..

 

Well, I saw the curvature pretty clearly. Heck, I've seen it from the top of a tall building here on the coast. It's very obvious that the earth is a sphere. Doesn't take a rocket scientist, it just takes not being a total moron.

 

Time zones are an artificial construct created so that people could communicate when they go from coast to coast. Basically speaking, before the invention of Greenwich mean time, every city had it's own time. It was based on noon being when the sun was directly overhead. The problem is, due to the earth being round, as you move in longitude (going east or west) with a constant clock, your clock time from your home town would deviate from the local clock time. For example, I live in Pensacola. My "noon" when the sun is directly overhead is 11:30 am. Lets say pre time zones, I miraculously had an accurate clock. I'm going to travel to Tallahassee, where the solar noon is at 12:20 EST (or 11:20 CST). If I set my clock to 12:00 = solar noon in Pensacola, when I get to Tallahassee, my watch will be 10 minutes off compared to their solar time. To get around that problem, they arbitrarily divided up the earth into 24 time zones, with Greenwich being the reference point. Has nothing at all to do with the tilt of the earth. Has to do with the rotation of the earth on it's axis. The tilt causes seasons.

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He found it in some quack's book or website.

 

The missile goes to slow, it falls into the earth. The missile goes to fast, it flies off into space. The missile flies just right, voila! ORBIT. Calculate your curve by velocity and distance from the center of the earth. Elementary.

 

how come if the Earth ain't round, I can fly a plane in a straight line and eventually come back to the exact same point?

 

I want to know what happens when someone flies over the edge of the so-called flat Earth. That must really be a sight.

 

its a simple fact that if a plane flies in ANY direction long enough, they will eventualy come right back to where they started.

that proves the Earth is round.

 

That's a rule of thumb for the horizon drop, its not the real formula, but for short distances (<200 miles) its very good.

The rule of thumb is horizon drop in inches = 8*(distance in miles squared), just as he has it.

It comes from assuming the earth is a sphere (its not really, but for short distances its a good approximation), the drop in the horizon is:

drop in ft = R(1 - cos(theta))
R=earth radius in ft (roughly 21 million ft)
theta = (distance in feet)/R.

(1 - cos(theta)) = 2*sin(theta/2)*sin(theta/2), the power series expansion of that is (theta squared)/2, put that back into the earlier equation

drop = R(1 - cos(theta)) = R*2*sin(theta/2)*sin(theta/2) = R(theta squared)/2

since theta = (distance in ft)/R -> drop in ft = (distance in ft squared)/(2R),

change the distance units from ft to miles, and the drop from ft to inches -> drop in inches = [12*(distance in miles squared)*(5280 ft/mile)^2 ]/2R

12*(5280 ft/mile)^2 ]/2R = 7.99

drop in inches = 8 * (distance in miles squared)

 

If they fly in a straight line, they will fly off into space. A straight line has only one point of tangency with the earth.

 

I, like so many others, have seen the curvature of the earth at 30,000 feet... I'm not sure how you could not...

YouTube is a quagmire of stupid animal tricks and hoaxes... which I think is one in the same.

 

What does that mean?

You can't

Pilots make adjustments for the curvature of the Earth.

If you flew a "straight line" you would gain altitude and "eventually" end up in space (if your plane could take the stress and you had co2)...

 

Well, time zones are "artificial" to an extent being they're a construct of man, however they're only possible (better yet reasonable) due to the tilt of the Earth...

If the Earth wasn't tilted we would have time zones - they would just be different..

If the Earth wasn't tilted then the sun would rise and set at different times in different places... Alaska for example would have day and night - I suppose that was my point..

 

Well, not taking into account for topography ....The Earth also isn't a perfect sphere because we have a moon....

 

Check your sources. It's supposedly 23.4.

 

The earliest known references to these "historical" figures are from the 1600s.

That's a fact. Pseudoscience has nothing to do with that fact.

I don't base my scientific beliefs on the fictional claims of fictional characters. Sorry.

 

It takes a special kind of moron to be able to convince themselves of things they cannot see, test, or prove in any way. In fact, that's why I say science is based on the exact same kind of blind faith which drives all religions.

 

Nope. Got it from Wikipedia.

It's Big Science's official math.

And it debunks itself.

 

It's because your not using Monge Parameterization.

 

Actually, that's the (simplified) formula for computing geometric curvature. Apparent curvature is less, because of atmospheric refraction. The fully correct geometric equation is

C = 5280 * R * (sec(D)-1)

where C is curvature in feet, R is your local radius of curvature in miles (averages 3958.76 at sea level), and D is the distance in miles. For distances less than a few hundred miles, the simplified formula is adequate for most purposes.

No, because you've neglected atmospheric refraction, which adds an effect of about 5/6 under typical daytime conditions. Thus the apparent drop at 10 miles would be 55.6 feet. And yes, you can see that routinely at sea, if you examine the visibility of masts and sails above the horizon; although you will need binoculars or a telescope to see it. During the age of sail, a ship was said to be "hull up" when its hull (and not just its masts and rigging) was visible above the horizon. Such niceties have been lost in the age of air travel.

You couldn't see ME leaning away from you from a distance of 50 feet. Why should you expect to be able to perceive a building leaning away from you?

So? If you include the effects of standard refraction, a building 1000 feet high has a horizon distance of 43 miles, while an observer with an eye height of 5 feet has a horizon distance of 3 miles. So that's 45 miles right there, with standard refraction. But under a temperature inversion, visibility distances can be hugely increased -- and near-surface temperature inversions happen pretty much every afternoon, when the incoming solar radiation is no longer greater than outgoing longwave and the nocturnal boundary layer forms. So a Michigander just has to wait for a really good one. I'm utterly unsurprised it happens a few times a year.

What they're seeing is the actual buildings, refracted as expected through a stronger-than-average temperature inversion in the nocturnal boundary layer.

That would only be true if the Earth were airless.

Nope, A building leaning away from you would still appear perpendicular to the horizon.

False. See perdidochas' answer for refutation.

Also false. Even snipers compensate for Corialis effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX7dcl_ERNs

 

Sorry, equation above should have read:

C = 5280 * R * (sec(D/R)-1)

The ratio D/R is of course in radians.

 

You're also forgetting a lot of stuff like topography.... These numbers would apply if the Earth was totally at sea level....

I do buy these numbers, because growing up not too far from Lake Michigan, so if these numbers weren't accurate I should be able to see across the lake, now, I'm about 30-40 miles north of Chicago and can't see the Sears Tower at a beach on Lake Michigan, yet if I go up about 100 feet I can (on a clear day/night)....

I lived perhaps 2-3 blocks from lake Michigan on the 6th floor of a building and could see Chicago, it looked very small but I could see it - I was also on a hill, I was probably about 500 feet above sea level....

 

I also want to add that these numbers don't compensate for the gravity of the Moon.. So the "curvature" of the Earth will really fluctuate depending on where you're at and at what time of day or night.

 

This is a pretty simple one to resolve. Go outside in North America (or anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere) and take a picture of the moon. Fly to Australia (or anywhere south of the Equator) and take another picture. If you're on a flat plain, the moon will appear the same from anywhere on that plain. If you're on a sphere, the image will be inverted from the other image. That cannot happen on a flat plain.

I have a co-worker who just left the US for home in Australia. I asked him to snap a couple moon shots just so I have my own pictures to go from. Until then... http://mymoonspace.com/blog/?eid=285

Source: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/ou...he-northern-and-southern-hemispheres-beginner

 

Why would the moon be inverted?

I know south of the equator their toilets flush in the opposite direction, but how is the Moon inverted?

Perhaps I'm just having trouble understanding this idea, I understand what you're saying but I don't know how that would make the Moon look any different...