What is Flat earth: Definition and 13 Discussions

The flat Earth model is an archaic conception of Earth's shape as a plane or disk. Many ancient cultures subscribed to a flat Earth cosmography, including Greece until the classical period (323 BC), the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period (31 BC), India until the Gupta period (early centuries AD), and China until the 17th century.
The idea of a spherical Earth appeared in ancient Greek philosophy with Pythagoras (6th century BC), although most pre-Socratics (6th–5th century BC) retained the flat Earth model. In the early 4th century BC Plato wrote about a spherical Earth, and by about 330 BC his former student, Aristotle, had provided strong empirical evidence for this. Knowledge of the Earth's global shape then gradually began to spread beyond the Hellenistic world.Despite the scientific fact of Earth's sphericity, pseudoscientific flat Earth conspiracy theories are espoused by modern flat Earth societies and, increasingly, by unaffiliated individuals using social media.

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  1. D

    B Allegedly "debunking" the Cavendish Experiment

    A flatearther sent this to me a few months ago. Dude actually thought this... "project" would convince me. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories at all, but my knowledge of science is very, very modest, so I can't personally scrutinize it properly. Would anyone be kind enough to help? EDIT...
  2. P

    What is the maximum depth to which a P-wave ray can travel?

    I've created an excel spreadsheet with the given model in addition to calculating radius of the layer by subtracting depth from 6371. I've calculated Zf. I've also found what I think is vs by doing alpha * (radius column/6371), but that could be wrong. I know I need to find where 20/6371 =...
  3. diogenesNY

    UK Guardian: Flat Earth Ocean Cruise

    The Guardian - Adam Gabbatt @adamgabbatt Thu 10 Jan 2019 01.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 10 Jan 2019 11.02 EST A group of people who believe the Earth is flat have announced their “biggest, boldest, best adventure yet”: a Flat Earth cruise scheduled for 2020. Article continues...
  4. jedishrfu

    Why does flat Earth belief still exist?

    From Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/why-does-flat-earth-belief-still-exist/
  5. accelerandom

    Fun experiments to disprove Flat Earth

    Hi everyone, I work at a small high school that does one-on-one teaching with students who often have some kind of attention related learning difficulty or have trouble in a large classroom. The physics and chemistry courses I have been teaching have very inadequate lab sections and we have very...
  6. P

    When does gravity take over surface tension?

    I want to demonstrate to flat earthers that water does indeed stick to a ball. If we want to do a scale model of the earth, at which radius will gravity overcome the surface tension?
  7. davenn

    Saturday Giggle --- Flat Earth Society

    hahaha Dave
  8. H

    B Is the Earth Flat? Rapper vs. Astrophysicist Battle on SoundCloud

    Not a joke successful rapper refutes ball earth; https://m.soundcloud.com/bobatl/bob-flatline-feat-neil-tysonThe push back from Neil DT nephew;
  9. R

    Infinite Plane Telescope's View of Faraway Person

    If I were on an infinitely flat plane and had an infinitely powerful telescope, could i see another person through that telescope standing on that same plane billions of miles away? is it true that the horizon would never block the telescopes view of the other person even though he is billions...
  10. D

    How does the Flat Earth Society defy modern day physics?

    Homework Statement Hey guys, I was just wondering how do the beliefs of the Flat Earth Society defy against modern day physics? I'm doing a discussion board post for my physics class. I know they strictly do not believe in gravity but what else do they do against? For example about Newton's...
  11. G

    Sound intensity on a flat earth

    Sound intensity on a "flat earth" Homework Statement Consider a flat Earth with an atmosphere that descreases in density as altitude increases such that rho = rho0e-h/H where rho nought is the density of air at zero altitude and H is a constant known as the "scale height". Assume the bulk...
  12. M

    Why Did People Believe the Earth Was Flat?

    Why did people think the Earth was flat?
  13. L

    Is the Flat Earth Society a Joke?

    Ohh is this a joke? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_Society http://theflatEarth'society.org/forum// They even use physics theories to "prove" that Earth is flat. Comments? -link
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