Side by side test of flat earth vs globe model at a state park near Tulsa

A buddy of mine is deep into flat earth theory. He kept going on about how you can see too far on a clear day for the globe to be real. So I drove us out to Keystone Lake last Saturday with a cheap telescope. We set up on a hill and looked at a water tower about 9 miles away. According to his math, the bottom 15 feet should have been hidden by curvature. We could see the whole tower right down to the base. He got real quiet. I didn't say much, just packed up the scope. Has anyone else ever done a real world test like that and changed someone's mind even a little?

4 comments

4 Comments

mila_reed26d ago

oh man I saw a video on youtube last week that was exactly about this. Some surveyor guy did a test across a lake and he kept saying how the math for curvature just doesn't match what you actually see. I mean I'm not gonna pretend I understand all the formulas but it stuck with me because he showed his work and everything. The thing about those flat earth tests is you gotta be super careful about refraction and how light bends through different air temperatures. Like on a hot day over water that mirage effect can make things visible that should be hidden. But your buddy's water tower test sounds pretty solid if you both confirmed the distance and height. I've never actually done one myself but I've read enough to know that people on both sides cherry pick their evidence real bad. It's kind of refreshing to hear someone actually went out and tried to prove their friend wrong in a real way instead of just arguing online.

leep3325d ago

Did you ever catch that old YouTube video where a guy filmed a ship disappearing hull first over the horizon?

rosebennett10d agoTop Commenter

Right? That video gave me total chills the first time I saw it.

leep3310d ago

That video is actually a pretty good example of how people see what they want to see. I remember watching it a few years ago and thinking the same thing, that the way the ship disappears looks exactly like what you'd expect from a curved surface. But then you get into the whole refraction argument and it gets muddy fast. The problem is nobody can agree on how much refraction is actually happening in any given video, so you end up with both sides calling it proof. I think the only real way to settle it is to do what your buddy did and go measure something yourself with known distances and heights.