Earth is not flat. This story was originally published on Smarter Than That in 2. We are republishing a lightly edited version on Popular Science in light of recent interest in the subject. Humanity has known Earth is round for a few millenia, and Ive been meaning to show more methods that prove the world is not flat. Ive had a few ideas on how to do that, but recently got an interesting incentive, when Phil Plait, The Bad Astronomer, wrote about a recently published BBC article about The Flat Earth society. Most recently, rapper B. B. went on a Twitter rant on the topic. Phil claims its ridiculous to even bother rebutting the Flat Earth Societyand I tend to agree. But the history of our species intellectual pursuit is important and interesting. You dont need to denounce all science and knowledge and believe in a kooky conspiracy theory to enjoy some historical factoids about humanitys quest for space. On we go, to the top 1. Earth is unequivocally, absolutely, positively, 1. The Moon. Now that humanity knows quite positively that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful god, the phenomena that accompany it from its monthly cycles to lunar eclipses are well explained. It was quite a mystery to the ancient Greeks, though, and in their quest for knowledge, they came up with a few insightful observations that helped humanity figure out the shape of our planet. Aristotle who made quite a lot of observations about the spherical nature of the Earth noticed that during lunar eclipses when the Earths orbit places it directly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow in the process, the shadow on the Moons surface is round. This shadow is the planets, and its a great clue about the spherical shape of the Earth. Since the earth is rotating see the Foucault Pendulum experiment for a definite proof, if you are doubtful, the consistent oval shadow it produces in each and every lunar eclipse proves that the earth is not only round but sphericalabsolutely, utterly, beyond a shadow of a doubt not flat. Ships and the horizon. Reportready results. Minitabs newly redesigned session window delivers beautiful, presentationready output. See Whats New. We have redirected you to an equivalent page on your local site where you can see local pricing and promotions and purchase online. Stay on our U. S. Scrivener for macOS and Windows is an Awardwinning writing software for novelists, scriptwriters, academics or anyone working on long texts requiring research and. Leader in Responsive Web Design Tools and HTML Software. Try our HTML Editor, innovative Responsive Email Designer or Responsive Prototyping Software today. PortraitPro is the worlds bestselling retouching software. Fast and intuitive, PortraitPro edits your portrait photos for beautiful results. Camtasias video editor has everything you need to make amazing videos. Add effects, music, and more. Software available on Windows and Mac. Download todayA First, read About Fedora. You can also read the Fedora Project FAQ, if you want. Now, Ill give you a summary Fedora is a Linux distribution from Red Hat that. Yesterday, we saw some amazing closeups of Jupiters crazy, stormy atmosphere. Very soon, well be able to see the planet with our own eyes thanks to a brief. If youve been next to a port lately, or just strolled down a beach and stared off vacantly into the horizon, you might have noticed a very interesting phenomenon Approaching ships do not just appear out of the horizon like they should have if the world was flat, but rather seem to emerge from beneath the sea. Butyou sayships do not submerge and rise up again as they approach our view except in Pirates of the Caribbean, but we are hereby assuming that was a fictitious movie series. Sites-TTSGroupE-commerceMaster/default/dw733c990b/images/large/1004829_IT00504_006.jpg' alt='I Can See You Software' title='I Can See You Software' />The reason ships appear as if they emerge from the waves is because the world is not flat Its round. Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange, into your field of view. If you look at the orange head on, you will see the ants body slowly rising up from the horizon because of the curvature of the orange. If you would do that experiment with the ant approaching along a long road rather than a round object, the effect would change The ant would slowly materialize into view depending on how sharp your vision is. Varying star constellations. This observation was originally made by Aristotle 3. BCE, who declared the Earth was round judging from the different constellations one sees while moving away from the equator. After returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted, There are stars seen in Egypt andCyprus which are not seen in the northerly regions. This phenomenon can only be explained if humans were viewing the stars from a round surface, Aristotle continued, claiming that the sphere of the Earth is of no great size, for otherwise the effect of so slight a change of place would not be quickly apparent. De caelo, 2. The farther you go from the equator, the farther the known constellations go towards the horizon, to be replaced by different stars. This would not have happened if the world was flat 4. Shadows and sticks. If you stick a stick in the sticky ground, it will produce a shadow. The shadow moves as time passes which is the principle for ancient Shadow Clocks. If the world had been flat, then two sticks in different locations would produce the same shadow But they dont. This is because the Earth is round, and not flat Eratosthenes 2. BCE used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth quite accurately. To see this demonstrated, refer to my experiment video about Eratosthenes and the circumference of the Earth. Seeing farther from higher. Standing on a flat plateau, you look ahead toward the horizon. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and stare through them, as far as your eyes with the help of the binocular lenses can see. Next, climb up the closest treethe higher the better, just be careful not to drop those binoculars and break their lenses. Then look again, strain your eyes, and stare through the binoculars out to the horizon. The higher up you climb, the farther you will see. How To Install Floor Pans In Mustang. Im-A-Software-Engineer-Not-A-Magician-But-I-Can-See-Why-You-Might-Be-Confused-Mug.png' alt='I Can See You Software' title='I Can See You Software' />Usually, we tend to relate this to Earthly obstacleslike the fact we have houses or other trees obstructing our vision on the ground, and climbing upwards we have a clear viewbut thats not the true reason. Even if you stood on a completely clear plateau with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you would see much farther from the greater height than you would on the ground. This phenomenon is caused by the curvature of the Earth as well, and would not happen if the Earth was flat 6. Ride a plane. If youve ever taken a trip out of the country, specifically long distance trips, you could notice two interesting facts about planes and the Earth Planes can travel in a relatively straight line for a very long time and not fall off any edges. They can also circle the Earth without stopping. If you look out the window on a trans Atlantic flight, you can, most of the times, see the curvature of the Earth on the horizon. The best view of the curvature used to be on the Concorde, but that planes long gone. I Can See You Software' title='I Can See You Software' />I cant wait to see the pictures from the new plane by Virgin Galacticthe horizon should look absolutely curved, as it actually is from a distance. Look at other planets. The Earth is different from other planets, that much is true. After all, we have life, and we havent found any other planets with life yet. However, there are certain characteristics all planets have, and it will be quite logical to assume that if all planets behave a certain way, or show certain characteristicsspecifically if those planets are in different places or were created under different circumstancesour planet is the same. In other words If so many planets that were created in different locations and under different circumstances show the same property, its likely that our own planet has the same property as well. All of our observations show that other planets are spherical and since we know how theyre created, its also obvious why they take this shape. Unless we have a very good reason to think otherwise which we dont, our planet is very likely the same. In 1. 61. 0, Galileo Galilei observed the moons of Jupiter rotating around it. He described them as small planets orbiting a larger planeta description and observation that was very difficult for the church to accept, as it challenged a geocentric model where everything was supposed to revolve around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus was observed too are all spherical, and all orbit the sun.