This guy is just the sort of person that ought to be duct taped to a lawn chair and be aided in slipping the earthly bonds by several large weather balloons.
You mean all four corners.
I see what you did there.
GaryM
I’ve seen the videos from experiments like that. (This one, for example.) They’re amazing both for what they show and for how little these experiments cost.
Whoa! Wait! I guess I should have actually read the article but…
He plans to be IN the rocket?
No wonder they call him “Mad”!
Yeah! Didn’t some guy do that in a lawn chair and 4 helium-filled weather balloons?
That reminds me: the 2017 Darwin Award nominations should be coming out soon…
–G!
Lawnchair Larry used 45 weather balloons in 1982.
A decade later he croaked himself.
Dunno - I’ve seen flat-earthers claim that the curvature in those experiments is just fisheye lens effect (I mean, it clearly isn’t, but you can’t convince these people with evidence)
Reformist Flat Earthers acknowledge that the Earth might be a little bit round and advocate for flattening it.
So, if Mad’ Mike’s rocket fails and he crashes, will he make a new crater or use the one that’s already there?
Okay, now I gotta know: What do flat-earthers think is on the back side? They can’t seriously believe it’s “turtles all the way down”? Do they think there’s something “all the way down”? An infinite iceberg? An alternate universe? Do they think it’s possible for anybody to go there and see? Which way does gravity pull down there?
At a guess, he is hopping to see how much money and attention he can grab with the stunt.
Not sure, but I recall one of the main groups calling the other “Controlled Opposition” (it may even be a mutual accusation), meaning they are not really flatards, sorry, I mean flat-earthers, but shills, agent-provocateurs and generally puppets of them. You know, them, that vague and nefarious group with an as yet unexplained motivation to convince people that the Earth is round.
Are you familiar with the Total Reality Vortex on Frogstar World B, where Zaphod barely avoided being turned into a vegetable because of some sleight of hand by Zarniwoop?
The Total Reality Vortex fills your mind with the absolute enormity of the universe and places your existence in its context, resulting in a crushing malaise as you realize that you are less important than a random Tau. All this powered by a single cupcake (which Zaphod ate after his encounter).
To the FECTs, there is no other side. The Earth-pizza is the largest single object in existence. Above us a few hundred miles is the dome of the firmament, upon which there reside a bunch of LED-type sparkly things that we have mistaken for stars, planets and other space illusions. To them, this little bubble is all there is, because what is embodied in the Total Reality Vortex is so unthinkably terrifying that those ideas cannot possibly be right. Except, maybe for the cupcake.
So, what is the flat Earth resting on? That question makes no sense. This pizza and its sparkly cover is the entirety of existence. The Earth is not somewhere, it is the sum of where.
That there is such thinking even now makes me sad.
IIRC, Zarniwoop had installed a 1:1 scale model of the universe in his office, ostensibly for the purpose of facilitating his field research on behalf of the publishers of the Hitchhikers Guide, but actually so he could arrange for Zaphod to be captured and consigned to the Vortex while technically within that Universe. This was why he insisted that Zaphod et al exit the building through his office window. When Zaphod was thrust into the Vortex, he discovered that, the Universe having been emplaced for his own benefit, he was the most important thing in it.
LSLGuy (airline pilot) wrote that there is still ambiguity at 50,000’, but that his perception is about 65/35 in favor of curvature.
A steam-powered rocket? Is he into steampunk too? I hope he’s going to be wearing a top hat and gloves.
His demo seems to be a bit over the edge, but I think it will fall flat.
My understanding is that one group uses “Flat earth” as a metaphor for questioning what you are told, taking nothing on trust, and re-examining your basic assumptions. They don’t really think the Earth is flat, but they are willing to consider the possibility that it might be. The other group literally believes in a flat Earth.
Actually, there are people who argue that it’s square, because of expressions about “the four corners of the Earth”. Maybe the debate is square vs rectangle?
Too technical, the ones I met claimed it was images being projected onto either windows (if in a plane or copter) or goggles (if parachuting).
Most likely a high grade hydrogen peroxide rocket, the H2O2 passes through a catalyst mesh, usually Platinum AFAIK, and decomposes into steam at high temperature.
He already built his rocket? He should have waited for the Black Friday sale at ACME.