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Showing posts with the label The Earth's curvature has never been measured

64. An experiment using poles and string appeared to show a ship travelling horizontally which could not happen if the Earth was a sphere

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“Quoting “Earth Not a Globe!” by Samuel Rowbotham, “It is known that the horizon at sea, whatever distance it may extend to the right and left of the observer on land, always appears as a straight line. The following experiment has been tried in various parts of the country. At Brighton, on a rising ground near the race course, two poles were fixed in the earth six yards apart, and directly opposite the sea. Between these poles a line was tightly stretched parallel to the horizon. From the center of the line the view embraced not less than 20 miles on each side making a distance of 40 miles. A vessel was observed sailing directly westwards; the line cut the rigging a little above the bulwarks, which it did for several hours or until the vessel had sailed the whole distance of 40 miles. The ship coming into view from the east would have to ascend an inclined plane for 20 miles until it arrived at the center of the arc, whence it would have to descend for the same distance. The square of...

63. An experiment involving flags lined up on on a shoreline to prove that the Earth is flat

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“ In a second  experiment Dr. Rowbotham affixed flags 5 feet high along the shoreline, one at every mile marker. Then using his telescope mounted at 5 feet just behind the first flag looked over the tops of all 6 flags which lined up in a perfectly straight line. If the Earth were a ball 25,000 miles in circumference the flags should have progressively dipped down after the first establishing line of sight, the second would have descended 8 inches, 32 inches for the third, 6 feet for the fourth, 10 feet 8 inches for the fifth, and 16 feet 8 inches for the sixth.” If true this would indeed indicate that the Earth was flat, however this is an experimental result that no-one has been able to reproduce, and in my opinion Samuel Rowbotham was just falsifying the account. Dubay has a fondness for citing 200 year old experiments and opinions.  Knowledge by its nature advances with time, and Dubay's lack of more up to date corroborating experiments undermines the credibility of...

62. The Bedford Levels experiment proved things did not disappear over the horizon as they would on a spherical Earth

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“Samuel Rowbotham’s experiments at the Old Bedford Level proved conclusively the canal’s water to be completely flat over a 6 mile stretch. First he stood in the canal with his telescope held 8 inches above the surface of the water, then his friend in a boat with a 5 foot tall flag sailed the 6 miles away. If Earth were a ball 25,000 miles in circumference the 6 mile stretch of water should have comprised an arc exactly 6 feet high in the middle, so the entire boat and flag should have ultimately disappeared, when in fact the entire boat and flag remained visible at the same height for the entire journey.” The results of this experiment by Samuel Rowbotham in 1838 did indeed suggest a flat Earth, however Dubay fails to mention that subsequent experiments showed that the original experiment was flawed and that the Earth was in fact curved and that objects did disappear over the horizon. The reason that the flag could be seen well beyond the horizon was because of refraction. ...