• Question: whats your opinion on flat earthers?

    Asked by anon-198992 to Alex on 10 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Alexander Allen

      Alexander Allen answered on 10 Mar 2019:

      What a question! Well this has a couple of thoughts attached.

      There are some of people that like to “fan the flames” around scientists to pretend they believe that the earth is flat but they don’t really. This is one that we don’t really have to discuss because these are just people who are fans of an argument.

      The flat earth theory is one that I find so difficult to buy. You don’t even need a telescope to see that the sun and moon are round. Our local family of planets are all round (you only need binoculars to make this out!) Everything in space is spherical because gravity causes things to build up equally in all directions. It’s a nice simple shape that just works… Why would the Earth be any different. What possible mechanism would cause a flat earth to form… where would it be.

      So scientifically I am clueless as to how people can think that it is…

      The other arguments are more bizarre. The idea that it’s some great governmental conspiracy. Literally every flight you take is staged. The earth is surrounded by a wall.

      I’ve more questions! If you walk to the edge of the earth can you fall off? If so, where is the gravity coming from? Is there a downward direction in space.

      What about sunsets?… The light from the sun gets more red – broadly speaking this is due to there being more atmosphere that you have to look through that scatters other lights but this is not the case with a flat Earth…

      My opinion is one of mild cluelessness. I don’t understand how people can think that and the wonder about shear cost to any government that tried to pretend it was true…

      The flat Earth makes no sense to me especially as to a lot of cultures, the Earth was known to be spherical… The Ancient Greeks knew it… A fellow called Eratosthenes even made a (reasonable) calculation on how big the Earth was.

      Overall – some people are too easily convinced that some faceless group is working against them to hide the truth… I really don’t think this is the case and working in science I have met no one that would entertain the ideas of a flat earth… It is fun to think about how wrong the flat-earth model is, though.

Comments

  • Photo: Natasha

    Natasha commented on :

    The whole Flat Earth thing is actually pretty amazing. It really shows the power of the internet, and society’s love of a great and entertaining conspiracy theory! But it makes me pretty worried too- there’s a really scary trend in the modern world, that people are starting to distrust experts and believe the most entertaining story. And to be honest, scientists are partly to blame- scientists have traditionally kept themselves to themselves, used long words that people find difficult to understand, and haven’t been good at finding entertaining ways of engaging with people! I’m a big believer in trying to engage with people, to find humour in science, to use things like cartoons and fun graphics to get across difficult ideas. When people ask me “how do you know the earth isn’t flat?” its like being asked “how do you know the sky isn’t blue?” We see it all around us everyday, it seems so clearly wrong- but scientists shouldn’t assume that everyone understands that and we should make real efforts to connect with people, understand why they believe something, and find easy ways to explain what science tells us. Here are just some of the many reasons the Earth can’t be flat:
    – The Earth can’t be flat, because it has a core made of iron at it’s centre. This gives us our magnetic field, and helps to create things like the Northern Lights! The northern lights would not be possible on a flat earth.
    – When earthquakes happen, they travel through the Earth’s spherical shape, and travel at different speeds when they hit different types of rock inside the Earth. We can understand this by using seismometers (machines that measure earthquakes) spread around the globe, and timing where and when they happen and how big they are in different places.
    -The earth can’t be flat because the Humber Bridge in the UK was made so that the supporting struts are farther apart at the top than they are at the bottom to take account for the curvature of the Earth! (and the bridge hasn’t fallen down because of this yet!!)
    -The Earth can’t be flat because night and day are possible at the same time, and the change is gradual between all countries. (in a flat earth theory where is Australia? On the flip side? Where’s the divide?)
    -The most obvious reason why the Earth must be round is because we’ve seen it with our own eyes. Scientists in the International Space station go around our planet all the time, around and around. Astronauts have taken photographs of Earth from all angles. Satellites do as well.
    Hopefully the whole flat Earth thing will just be a phase that gradually goes away and is forgotten, but I think it can teach scientists a lot about how we need to connect more with the general public and explain our knowledge in straightforward ways!