Those few were really outliers. The vast majority believed that the dry parts of the earth were a partially submerged ball of dirt floating in a large sphere of water – hence the miracle of god’s creation.
That’s according to The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution by David Wootton.
There’s a book I haven’t found by Russell called Inventing the Flat Earth which argues that 19th century people who were mocking Christianity came up with the idea that people in the middle ages believed the world was flat – and you know the old saw about a lie being halfway around the world before the truth gets its shoes on.
Let’s say, I’m in Ireland (which I am) on the South coast or Ireland at the Old Head of Kinsale, with a clear line to France, Wales & the UK, I’d like to mention, that I’m also raised by standing on a high cliff.
By your flatard-logic I should be able to see France, Wales and England - the thing is, I see nothing but water…choppy water with boats in it… I’ve used binoculars - same result… water! … a stargazer telescope - still only water!!!
I should also see the whole East Coast of North & South America from the Mizen Head, but… again… ONLY water!!!
Last time I took the ferry from Dover to Calais I was unable to see France from the Dover and just if you’re wondering: seeing the UK from France was also not possible.
I’ve never seen this phenomenon for myself, although I have spent a good deal of time at the seashore. It seems like one of those phenomena that exist mainly in textbooks, and is not at all obvious in real-world conditions.
I’ve seen video of it, but it was obviously made through a telephoto lens. You can find it on Youtube, of course. The thing is, the boat has to be several kilometers away for the effect to be obvious, so binocs or telescope are pretty much required.
I have seen FECT videos of boats viewed using a very high power telephoto. Weird things happen in these situations, primarily because the videos can prettymuch only be made on clear days, so the sun will be driving water vapor off the surface. They get odd inverted double images and other mirage-like effects. Even with magnification, the refraction index of the wet surface air makes it very difficult to observe the horizon descent.
I found the answer to one of my questions (“Is the earth itself falling?”): Universal acceleration.
Basically the theory is that the earth is not only not falling, but is in fact accelerating upwards at 10ms^-2
It’s ironic: the belief in a Flat Earth basically only persists because of a desire to ignore any information that seems to conflict with one’s own eyes and intuition.
And yet you end up having to swallow more and more ridiculous and counter-intuitive ideas.
In this case, you either say everything is shooting through space, together, at many times the speed of light, or you accept some of special relativity, just so you can set a maximum speed (while still maintaining the rest of it is part of the conspiracy).
The psychologists say that the tendency to want to believe in flat earth is simplicity. They have’t thought deeply… about how satellite technology works. How is the dish that is aimed upward work if the satellite isn’t up there ?
About why you see see iridium flares. About how they get ISS to track across the sky on cue every time.
Perhaps they don’t really believe in it fully yet, having some idea that the conventional ideas are right but they like the idea and hope someone else that also believes the idea can prove it better.
I did run across a rather interesting first-hand view of FECT psychology.
*While flat earthers seem to trust and support scientific methods, what they don’t trust is scientists and the established relationships between “power” and “knowledge”. This relationship between power and knowledge has long been theorized by sociologists. By exploring this relationship, we can begin to understand why there is a swelling resurgence of flat earthers. … The level of discussion however often did not revolve around the models on offer but on broader issues of attitudes towards existing structures of knowledge, and the institutions that supported and presented these models.
… (The distrustful) viewpoint is somewhat typified by the work of Michel Foucault, a famous and heavily influential 20th-century philosopher who made a career of studying those on the fringes of society …*
Now there is a familiar name. A swinger if ever there was one.
At the time Foucault was writing on the topic, the control of power and knowledge had moved away from religious institutions, who previously held a very singular hold over knowledge and morality, and was instead beginning to move towards a network of scientific institutions, media monopolies, legal courts, and bureaucratized governments. Foucault argued that these institutions work to maintain their claims to legitimacy by controlling knowledge.
The rest of the article suggests that the power/knowledge dynamic may be starting to, uh, swing the other way. And, ironically, the internets may be playing a significant role in undermining measured intellect.
Yeah. Big boats help too - those gigantic cruise liners, RO-RO supercargoes, aircraft carriers… (what can I say, Brest is a busy port :o).
It also works with submarines but there’s a trick there.
Here is my question for flatearthers
If sunrise/set and moonrise/set are just perspective, then
Why can you see only half of a circle cut by the horizon?
Why is it not infintesimally small at rising/setting?