The ” Flat Earth Society ” is an association, founded in England, which supports the idea that the Earth is flat. Over the years, she gathered many supporters, called the “plates”. Jeff, a 36-year-old photographer, and engineer, used a seemingly bizarre system to show these flat-earners that the logic they’ve always relied on to say the Earth is flat is wrong.
#1
image credit: uselesspickles/imgur
The man used a basketball and his camera lens to simulate the curvature of the Earth. The man then imagined that there was a small person above the surface of the ball. From the tiny creature’s perspective alone, there’s no doubt that the surface it lives on is flat, as we can see in the image Jeff recreated. Looking at the surface from an outside perspective, however, we realize – in the case of the basketball – that the surface is round. Jeff’s message to flat earthers is clear: they only look at the Earth from the horizon.
#2
image credit: uselesspickles/imgur
Jeff’s experiment does not prove that the Earth is round, but that the surface of a sphere can appear flat. Flat Earthers believe that a flat horizon is a clear demonstration that the Earth’s surface is flat, but Jeff proves that a flat horizon is not conclusive proof of the Earth’s shape. Jeff, to corroborate his experience, compares the surface of the balloon to that of the Earth, thanks to proportional calculations which allow comparisons to be made:
The final result. The cropped image of the basketball “horizon” is probably about 2.75mm wide.
The ball is an “official size” basketball from a company called “Baden”. Their website states that the circumference of their “official size” balls is 749.3 mm (29.5 inches).
The circumference of the Earth is approximately 40,075 km. So this basketball “horizon” is equivalent to the amount of curvature you would see looking 147 km from Earth’s horizon.
In summary, those who look at the basketball and the Earth considering only the horizon line are right: both surfaces appear flat. But to determine the true nature of a situation or a planet, this point of view alone is not enough.
source used: uselesspickles/imgur