Mr Skeptic Posted March 26, 2010 Posted March 26, 2010 I'd rather try to explain quantum mechanics to a chicken than talk to a flat earther. They are so deluded that the only way to get anything into their brain is with an ice pick Most of them are playing Devil's advocate to practice their argumentation skills. If you're not careful they might take your ice pick and peck apart your argument.
mooeypoo Posted March 26, 2010 Author Posted March 26, 2010 Most of them are playing Devil's advocate to practice their argumentation skills. If you're not careful they might take your ice pick and peck apart your argument. I saw that too, but isn't it a futile exercise? Argue something that actually *might* be vague, but this?
Mr Skeptic Posted March 26, 2010 Posted March 26, 2010 Well if they can win the argument they know it is entirely due to their argumentation skills, rather than from "being right". There's a certain beauty in being able to get someone to admit they only really believe something as obvious and significant as the earth being round cause that's what all the smart folks are saying.
mississippichem Posted March 27, 2010 Posted March 27, 2010 So I guess they also assume a geocentric universe, seeing as how we have seasons and all. The ghosts of Copernicus and Galileo will haunt them forever! I like the term "universal down force" its witty and brings into question our silly notion of down. Good one Sisyphus
Severian Posted March 27, 2010 Posted March 27, 2010 I like the term "universal down force" its witty and brings into question our silly notion of down. If there was a "uniform down force" then down wouldn't be silly since it would be defined by the direction of the force.
Phazite Posted March 31, 2010 Posted March 31, 2010 Do flat earthers even believe in gravity? What if they think it's not masses attracting, but just a universal "down" force? Or maybe the Earth is just perpetually accelerating uniformly up? I have spent some time lurking there in the past. (Eventually I was convinced that some, but not all of the flat earth proponents, weren't actually proponents.) I remember reading the view that dark energy or some other unknown force was continuously accelerating the flat earth upwards. One particular counter argument was the force of gravity not being uniform at various altitudes, and the answer to this was something like, "Have you tested this yourself?" And I just posted after realizing there was a second page.
forufes Posted May 21, 2010 Posted May 21, 2010 From the looks of that link, it seems that most of the flat earthers don't believe that the earth is flat, but are being devil's advocate for fun. It is a good logical exercise, to see whether the evidence can be explained while maintaining that the earth is flat. hmm.. scientific lawyers.. but hey, at least no criminal is turned loose:D
Imaginary Number Posted October 17, 2010 Posted October 17, 2010 The flat earth society still exists? Now that is a shame.
cabinintheforest Posted November 3, 2010 Posted November 3, 2010 (edited) ---- Edited November 4, 2010 by cabinintheforest
HerpetologyFangirl Posted November 9, 2010 Posted November 9, 2010 (edited) I'd rather try to explain quantum mechanics to a chicken than talk to a flat earther. They are so deluded that the only way to get anything into their brain is with an ice pick LOL! Of doom! I can just picture someone sitting in a yard full of chickens scratching in the dirt, waxing lyrical about quantum mechanics, explaining mathematical equations which would probably make my head explode. By the way, nice Hellsing avatar. I'm an otaku too. It's so unfair, several of the posts on this thread made me burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter. Please, someone slap me the next time I browse a thread like this whilst in the Library. XD Edited November 9, 2010 by HerpetologyFangirl
Samm Posted December 11, 2010 Posted December 11, 2010 Do flat earthers even believe in gravity? What if they think it's not masses attracting, but just a universal "down" force? Or maybe the Earth is just perpetually accelerating uniformly up? I think they support the latter. They'll say, the Earth accelerates upwards at a rate of 9.8m/s2. Now this is ridiculous considering that within about 31 million seconds, the Earth will be travelling at light speed. That equates to about a year, if I've done the maths right. I'm fairly certain that, given that the horizon is only 30 miles away or so, most flat earthers have a different explanation for horizons than "that's where the Earth ends." I think they dismiss it as an optical illusion.
lemur Posted December 11, 2010 Posted December 11, 2010 I have done my best to go as far as I can with the idea of a flat Earth. The best I can get is that light bends in a way that causes the Earth to appear spherical from high altitudes. It may also be the case that due to the magnetic field, explorers tend to trace the same routes and miss new routes into unexplored regions. This could be due to the magnetic field giving the illusion of a sphere while the actual Earth is flat. The spherical appearance of Earth from high altitude would resonate with the magnetic sphericism because light and magnetism are related. There may be a special path through antarctica or the Himalayas or somewhere else that leads to undiscovered land that extends infinitely. Sphericism may be ridiculed one day in the not-so-distant future! 1
Samm Posted December 11, 2010 Posted December 11, 2010 I have done my best to go as far as I can with the idea of a flat Earth. The best I can get is that light bends in a way that causes the Earth to appear spherical from high altitudes. It may also be the case that due to the magnetic field, explorers tend to trace the same routes and miss new routes into unexplored regions. This could be due to the magnetic field giving the illusion of a sphere while the actual Earth is flat. The spherical appearance of Earth from high altitude would resonate with the magnetic sphericism because light and magnetism are related. There may be a special path through antarctica or the Himalayas or somewhere else that leads to undiscovered land that extends infinitely. Sphericism may be ridiculed one day in the not-so-distant future! The question is, how do you know the earth is flat, if that's the case?
swansont Posted December 11, 2010 Posted December 11, 2010 The spherical appearance of Earth from high altitude would resonate with the magnetic sphericism because light and magnetism are related. But this is science, and so what we do is test this idea. We find that neither electric nor magnetic fields do this to photons.
lemur Posted December 11, 2010 Posted December 11, 2010 The question is, how do you know the earth is flat, if that's the case? But this is science, and so what we do is test this idea. We find that neither electric nor magnetic fields do this to photons. Look, I don't really think the Earth is flat. What I do with an idea like this is to "see how far I can get with it," as I mentioned in my earlier post. I'm perfectly aware that there are a million valid science-based reasons that can disprove that the Earth is flat, so when you guys jump in trying to prove me wrong I can't understand that. OBVIOUSLY you can prove me wrong if I claim the Earth is flat, so why do it? Having said that, how would you know that magnetism doesn't affect light in this way if all the tests performed were done within the magnetic field that causes curved lines to appear straight?
Samm Posted December 12, 2010 Posted December 12, 2010 (edited) Look, I don't really think the Earth is flat. What I do with an idea like this is to "see how far I can get with it," as I mentioned in my earlier post. I'm perfectly aware that there are a million valid science-based reasons that can disprove that the Earth is flat, so when you guys jump in trying to prove me wrong I can't understand that. OBVIOUSLY you can prove me wrong if I claim the Earth is flat, so why do it? Yeah, I know, I'm just saying that if that's the case the only grounds you can claim for the Earth being flat seem to be fallacious. But anyway, it's enjoyable thinking about the number of natural laws that would have to be violated/modified to accommodate a flat earth. Having said that, how would you know that magnetism doesn't affect light in this way if all the tests performed were done within the magnetic field that causes curved lines to appear straight? I don't imagine you would, unless you managed to step outside the magnetic field. Edited December 12, 2010 by Samm
lemur Posted December 12, 2010 Posted December 12, 2010 I don't imagine you would, unless you managed to step outside the magnetic field. Well, if the magnetic field contained light emissions, first causing the (flat) Earth to appear curved, then spherical, it would appear to completely disappear by the time you actually escaped it. This could be confused with achieving a very large distance, if you assumed that the spherism was caused by Earth's actual shape instead of the magnetic bending of the light at increasing altitude. If (flat) Earth had multiple magnetic fields, you could get stuck retracing the same routes around on section of it using a compass, while other people in other sections/regions could have their own magnetic field causing them to traverse the same routes around their "sphere." The question would be how to find a route between two distinct magnetic regions.
Samm Posted December 12, 2010 Posted December 12, 2010 Well, if the magnetic field contained light emissions, first causing the (flat) Earth to appear curved, then spherical, it would appear to completely disappear by the time you actually escaped it. This could be confused with achieving a very large distance, if you assumed that the spherism was caused by Earth's actual shape instead of the magnetic bending of the light at increasing altitude. If (flat) Earth had multiple magnetic fields, you could get stuck retracing the same routes around on section of it using a compass, while other people in other sections/regions could have their own magnetic field causing them to traverse the same routes around their "sphere." The question would be how to find a route between two distinct magnetic regions. Lets say you do experiments based on light, assuming it travels in straight lines on the flat Earth. When you exit the magnetic field the same experiments would give different results, and that would be how to tell if the magnetic field was bending the light. Then you'd know that something was a little weird. In theory, you may be able to back-calculate, based on a coefficient of bendiness, the amount the light bends and hence explore the regions that were previously though inaccessible. I ask if the magnetic field is responsible for the Earth appearing spherical, why does it get stronger the further you are away from it? Spherical > Curved.
lemur Posted December 12, 2010 Posted December 12, 2010 Lets say you do experiments based on light, assuming it travels in straight lines on the flat Earth. When you exit the magnetic field the same experiments would give different results, and that would be how to tell if the magnetic field was bending the light. Then you'd know that something was a little weird. In theory, you may be able to back-calculate, based on a coefficient of bendiness, the amount the light bends and hence explore the regions that were previously though inaccessible. Fun discussion. I don't know how you would be able to control for the magnetic field and know when it was ending. If Earth's magnetic field created a general margin of error in measuring magnetism within it, we would assume that the equations we had observed for magnetism were independent of the surrounding magnetic field when they were, in fact, not. So, maybe no one had ever transcended Earth's magnetic field. Maybe astronauts have only reached increasing distances within it. I ask if the magnetic field is responsible for the Earth appearing spherical, why does it get stronger the further you are away from it? Spherical > Curved. Hmmm, are you saying that "curved" is different than "spherical" at a distance? Are you saying that the curvature couldn't appear as a horizon with "empty space" surrounding that horizon? If Earth was flat, and it was the magnetic field making it appear curved and ultimately spherical, could "space" just be the stretched-out horizon between the distant ground/ocean and sky?
HerpetologyFangirl Posted December 30, 2010 Posted December 30, 2010 O.o Damn... My mind is utterly boggled... No wonder I failed my first-year Physics class... O.o
Luminance Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 Initially, I thought it was a cult but guessed I was wrong. It's merely a flat space for flat trolling.
dnt4gett Posted October 15, 2011 Posted October 15, 2011 i also thinks like sisphosy and my question is also of this kind. Do flat earthers even believe in gravity? What if they think it's not masses attracting, but just a universal "down" force?or something else?
Suxamethonium Posted January 22, 2012 Posted January 22, 2012 Hmmm, I can understand why looking at or seeing the earth as round alone seems inconclusive when you can see all sorts of weird effects in space caused by things such as black holes... however, the fact that you can fly around the earth in either direction and reach your destination should render as conclusive evidence.
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