It is the flat Earthlings who have to refute the roundness of the Earth, as current evidence indicates that the planet is round. rice field. Airplanes fly between all points on the map and the distances are well known. There are about 5,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, taking pictures every day that show that the Earth is round. However, many flat-Earth theorists claim that these images are all fake. But if you can’t trust the evidence provided by others, the argument is no longer scientific. Imagine an orange in front of you. Flatsists say that what you see is not credible and that oranges are flat.

We have known that the Earth is round for over 2,000 years, long before satellites and the first circumnavigation of the globe. While there is much mathematical evidence that the Greeks calculated thanks to their knowledge of geometry and navigation, here is a simple and easily verifiable explanation of why it is impossible for the earth to be flat. We present five arguments.

beginning: We all know that the higher you go, the farther you can see. This would not be the case if the earth was flat. Because even the ocean can be seen all the way to the ends of the earth without any relief. With a powerful telescope, you can see from New York to Madrid. However, due to the curvature of the Earth’s surface, that is not possible. This has been known since ancient times and is why the lighthouse is placed on top of the tower so that it can be seen from afar. Conversely, if you are in port and see a ship arriving, you will first see the mast (the highest part of the ship), then the sail, and finally the hull.

number two: Sunrise and sunset times vary around the world. Come to think of it, this is not the case on a flat earth. Also, related to the previous point, the time at which the sun sets at each location also depends on how high you look at the horizon. Islamic astronomers have studied this very well. Almost everywhere in the world, sunset time tables are available online so people know exactly when to fast for Ramadan. A search for Dubai reveals that at the 2,717-foot tall Burj Khalifa building, the world’s tallest, the sun sets three minutes later on the top floor than on the bottom. This doesn’t happen on flat planets either.

Third: On a flat, non-rotating earth, water flows the same everywhere directly towards the center of the sink. But it’s not. Emptying a sink (especially a large round pool) creates a vortex. This is thanks to the Coriolis effect, which can only be explained by the Earth’s rotation. Flat-Earth theorists might argue that a flat-Earth could also rotate, and this could generate vortices like the one we see. The problem is that the pool vortex he rotates in opposite directions in two different hemispheres (storms and anticyclones too). For that to happen on a flat earth would require two opposing rotating poles, each affecting half of the earth.

the 4th: Movement of the night sky. This discussion is similar to the previous discussion. In the Northern Hemisphere, the entire night sky rotates counterclockwise around the Polar Star, while in the Southern Hemisphere, everything rotates in the opposite direction around the Southern Cross. To do so on a flat earth would require two celestial spheres, one in each hemisphere, rotating in opposite directions.

Fifth: The duration of long-distance travel depends on whether you travel east or west. This fact cannot be explained on a flat earth. Below are very different examples, but both involve a spherical earth rotating on its own axis. A fairly common example is that a flight from Madrid to New York takes longer than a flight from New York to Madrid. The latter is aided by an eastward jet stream originating from the Earth’s rotation. Another argument is based on the orbital navigator’s paradox, that going around the world doesn’t take the same amount of time to go west as it does to go east. In this case, it doesn’t matter how long it takes to go around. Moving east would take him a day, as Phileas Fogg did in Jules Verne’s novel. Around the world in 80 daystraveling west, loses it, like Elcano and his crew at the end of the first circumnavigation. It cannot be explained on a flat earth.