Yesterday i was on wikipedia and came across an absurd diagram.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_circumference
This diagram is wrong ... in so many ways.
First,
the horizon doesn't dip. The horizon is always at eye level no matter your elevation.
Here you can see the horizon straight out from the window of a plane.
Second,
the tallest mountain is nothing compared to the radius of the earth (if it is a ball)
The earth is:
40,000 km circumference (apx. and of course it depends which way you measure, but not important really for this)
6366 km radius
The tallest mountain, Mt Everest
8,848.86 m elevation to the top of the snow. (notice that is meters, not kilometers)
8.8 / 6366
or 1/723 th of the radius. (divide the line marked 'r' into 723 parts)
Thus Mt. Everest's height is smaller than the circle at B in that diagram.
and if you try to draw this diagram to scale, you cannot tell the difference between lines AB and CB
The angle alpha is so small it couldn't be measured
Third,
you cannot measure the height of the mountain unless you know the radius of the earth.
Without more advanced equipment al-Biruni would have had to use trigonometry to calculate the height of the mountain.
But, in doing so, you have to calculate how far down the earth curves over that distance. So, how do you come up with this number in an accurate enough of a way so you can do the next step?
Really, this becomes a circular problem that cannot easily be solved.
Yes, you can solve it, but the diagram becomes a lot more complicated, and the measurements have to be far more exact.
Conclusion
Soooo, this is just a piece of tripe placed on wikipedia to make it seem people of old measured the size of the earth. (and it is a ball)
We do not know how big the earth is or it's shape.
Examples:
People noticed that there is more earth distance below the equator than there should be, thus, is earth pear shaped??!!
(the miles between known longitudes are larger than the number you would get off a globe, by a lot)
If you try to use a globe map to go around the horn of South Africa, you will fail and run smack into the coast. (the most shipwrecks in any place on earth) You go down, you go over so many nautical miles, you go up... and smack into the coast.
Even NASA doesn't know what the diameter of the earth is:
Diagram from wikipedia. Other images from the internets
Truth! But many spend much time and energy arguing about it. On the ball earth question, I'm agnostic ...but haven't we been misled about so many other things?
For many the "flat earth" is THEIR red pill moment. Once you see that the earth is not a ball, then so many other lies crumble. So, of course so many people argue about it.
And on the other side "Those silly people of old believed the world was flat, we are smarter than them" is the lie that allows them to think they are smarter. So it must be defended. So argument ensues.
It is similar to steel beams do not melt in kerosene or paper fires... argument ensues.
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I said the sun doesn't go over the horizon.
There are videos of the sun going away, not down. (extremely dry conditions, no clouds)
Something is happening that we do not know with eclipses.
There are pictures where there is the sun, being eclipsed, and over there is the moon.
Also, a light far away, and a light blocking thing nearby does not produce the halo we see at a full eclipse.
That only happens if the light blocking thing is close to the light source.
Also, have you seen the "lunar wave"?
It is a possibility that we do not actually see the moon, we see a reflection of it in the water, (of the firmament) so to say
To sum up, i cannot believe in the ball earth theory any more. Too many unexplained phenomena.
And why does NASA (Never a Straight Answer) have to lie all the time?