Fun experiments to disprove Flat Earth

[sysprog]

Please don't hurt your head over it.

 

[fishspawned]

I am producing a series of 'debates' between myself and my physics 12 students. I feel strongly that their ability to logically conceptualize their ideas and debate them is an important par of the class. Therefore i will argue against groups of four who must argue against a flat earth, moon hoax theories, and other more generic pseudo scientific topics. I will always take the 'pro' side of the quackery. so part of preparation for my own argument is to build up my argument that the Earth is flat. it has involved myself going through a huge range of flat Earth videos. it has been mind numbing.

most of the flat Earth debates have been almost entirely around an argumentation by presenting attacks on a heliocentric solar system and round Earth concept, rather than PROVING the flat Earth one. it avoids suggesting how a flat Earth conceptual model actually accounts for all of the phenomena we observe. Many flat earthers will suggest that gravity itself is not a real thing quite readily without suggesting how alternate theories work BETTER. and this is key - and something all students should internalize. This is not about disproving something. it is about offering an alternate model that will work better than the one already proposed.

so for example, the idea of building a flat Earth model [as suggested earlier in this thread] and asking "OK, do the shadows that the model predicts actually jive with real life observations?"
this is a fantastic idea, which allows for some really fun possibilities. you could have students in different schools around the globe simultaneously measure [well as long as they have sunlight, anyway] and determine the angles they have found. those angles can be used to determine if near proximity sun actually is predicted, or if they suggest parallel lines from a spherical surface. a littel geometry is needed - but fun to play with

 

[Mr Level]

Two more ideas:

Focault pendulum - shows it's the Earth that rotates and not the stars

Direct measurement via surveying. This looks tricky - the Earth curves at about 8 inches per mile. If you had two towers 20 miles apart you could show that each one is 15 feet lower than the other.

A 20 mile distance equals a 266 feet drop in curvature.
https://dizzib.github.io/earth/curve-calc/?d0=20&h0=0&unit=imperial

 

[Vanadium 50]

That is a completely different answer to a completely different question.

 

[YoungPhysicist]

Maybe clips of hurricanes.
Hurricanes won't spin in different directions in different hemispheres if the Earth is flat.

 

[FactChecker]

It would be more fun to offer a $million reward for the person who finds the edge and watch them go around and around. What a GREAT reality/comedy show that would be!

 

[OmCheeto]

It would be more fun to offer a $million reward for the person who finds the edge and watch them go around and around. What a GREAT reality/comedy show that would be!

Brilliant!
Reminds me of the prize James Randi was offering the "psychics".

Prior to Randi's retirement, JREF sponsored the One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, which offered a prize of one million dollars US to eligible applicants who could demonstrate evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event under test conditions agreed to by both parties. [ref]​

I have to admit, that every time I see a news article that puts a skewer into their flat Earth ideas, it makes me laugh.
I also entertain myself by trying to imagine what new excuse they will come up with.

For instance, last week someone claimed to have been the first to make a solo trip across Antarctica.
The flat earthers claim that's where the edge of the world is, and that there is a big wall there.
That guy could have made a million dollars just by taking ONE PHOTOGRAPH.
But did he? NO!
Foolish person.

ps. Obviously, NASA paid him two million dollars, not to take a picture of it.

 

[Skeptic Tom]

Take them for a day trip to the beach, or large body of water, say about 10kilometers wide. Get them to look through a good pair of binoculars and ask them if they can see the waves washing up on the shore on the other side. It cannot be done because the curvature of the Earth gets in the way.