# Flat Earth Theory -vs- Round Earth Theory **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 21, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864 "2013-01-21T03:08:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/61 "2013-01-28T00:53:57Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Did you just do what I [think](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch%C3%A9_Turtle_and_Dum_Dum) you did? 😛 Heh. I wish. I’m not that well-rounded. Get it? Well-r… never mind. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/62 "2013-01-28T01:01:27Z")
> [@Dante\_1111](#): > > … If only conclusive evidence of Global Climate Change were as easy to acquire! Well, if the earth was flat, we could not call it “global” climate change, now could we? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/63 "2013-01-28T01:48:23Z")
So, is the flat Earth circular or, as the Chinese once believed, square? [doctrine-fighting and schism within the Flat Earth Society ensues] ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/64 "2013-01-28T07:11:17Z")
Barely remember a story where someone showed a prominent flat earther a photo of the Earth, obviously a sphere. They guy said something along the lines of “I can see how someone with an untrained eye could think it was a sphere.” ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2013, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/65 "2013-01-28T07:14:09Z")
Guess I should have googled first. It was a guy named Samuel Shenton and the quote was, "“It’s easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864/66 "2013-01-29T00:02:04Z")
> [@I\_Know\_Nothing](#): > > Guess I should have googled first. > > It was a guy named Samuel Shenton and the quote was, "“It’s easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye.” Well, sure! The camera is easy to fool, and so is the human eye. There is a trick of scale, by putting one person in the foreground and another person in the background, which can be used to create the illusion of the first guy being a “giant.” It was used in a 1920’s movie version of Dante’s Inferno (and was reprised on Xena, when we met Prometheus in chains.) There’s also the trick of taking a photo on a stage that diminishes in size. The old “Time Tunnel” visual effect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flat-earth-theory-vs-round-earth-theory/647864.md?page=3)