179. If the Earth were a spinning sphere westbound flights would reach their destination quicker than eastbound flights

"If the Earth were constantly spinning Eastwards 1000mph then airplane flight durations going Eastwards vs. Westwards should be significantly different. If the average commercial airliner travels 500mph, it follows that Westbound equatorial flights should reach their destination at approximately thrice the speed as their Eastbound return flights. In reality, however, the differences in East/Westbound flight durations usually amount to a matter of minutes, and nothing near what would occur on a 1000mph spinning ball Earth."

This is just another repeat of proofs 21, 22 and 23.   Dubay still does not understand relative motion

It is true that east and westbound flights typically take different amounts of time, but this is not directly to do with the rotation of the Earth, and flights are faster eastward rather than westward.  

This is due to the jet stream.  The jet stream is a very high altitude wind which always blows from the West to the East. The planes moving at a constant air speed thus go faster in the West-East direction when they are moving with the wind than in the opposite direction.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

However, the Earth's rotation does play a part because the behaviour of the Jet Stream affected by the Coriolis effect.

• https://www.weather.gov/jetstream/jet
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream

Flat earthers accept the existence of the Jet Stream, but on a stationary Earth there is no mechanism that can explain how the Jet Stream forms.   As with so many things flat earthers are quick to disbelieve but reluctant to come up with consistent and credible alternatives based on evidence and hard calculation.  If they ever did put their theories to the test in this way they would quickly see them fall apart.

< Prev     171-180    Next >