A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Solving The Sun Below The Clouds Problem

I think it is appropriate that the toughest problem the flat-earth 'truthers' face, is the one we tackle last in our Rough Guide series. In fact if I may be so bold to suggest, if you solve this particular riddle, not only will you win an instant Nobel Prize and be on the cover of Time magazine. It will probably somehow answer all our previous questions and they'll just give you an extra 10 Nobel Prizes anyway.

This problem has kept me up at night, because I want to believe you I do. Imagine how exciting it would be to find out that we don't just think we're special, we are special!

I would love to find out that the only place in the entire universe, where the laws of physics and science in general are not constant, is our little corner, of our humble little solar system.

However before I can commit my belief, I need you to explain exactly what it is that I saw on my trip to Madrid last month. That is to say, what I saw while I was in an aeroplane around 30,000 feet in the air.

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

So as I mentioned, I went to Madrid last month (it was very nice, thanks for asking), and just as we were approaching our destination, I looked out of the window and saw something that really puts the kibosh on the flat earth theory.

You see, we happened to be coming into Madrid at around sunset, we were roughly 30,000 feet in the air, and the sun appeared to be below us, underneath the cloud layer.

Let that sink in, we were only a few miles up in the air, yet the sun was below us!!

Wha- Wait... What socrcery!!

Oh hang on, if you are an ignorant glober, this may not be so surprising to you. You may say to me, that the sun wasn't really below me, it was actually on the horizon and because the earth was turning away from the sun, it appeared to be below you.

Hmm, okay, I might answer, that sounds plausible, because the alternative is, it was actually below me, but then of course, that would mean that the sun was less than a few miles in diameter, which of course it isn't.

Maybe the people on the ground were seeing a different sunset? Perhaps there are two suns, one you see from the ground and one you see when you're in an aeroplane?

Nnnnoooo, that doesn't seem right . . .

Aha! I've got it, even though I didn't notice the switch, the windows were actually the most advance kind of monitor known to man, and they were simply playing a video in order to perpetuate the glober myth; they're sooooo desperate!!

Hmm, ok, that seems plausible that an airline and its employees would somehow be part of an impossible-to-uphold-conspiracy theory . . .

But let's just say for one ridiculous moment that the phenomenon is real, we - and when I say we, I mean you, have to come up with a really good explanation for that, one which we can test. Because, I have to level with you, this is a toughie.

I saw with my own eyes, the sun shinning upwards through the clouds, it was definitely below us. I even double checked by looking up at the darkening sky, and yup, no sun.

Anticipation And Experimentation

Seriously guys, this is the one I'm looking forward to most, because as far as I can tell, there is no way for the sun ever to be below us on a flat earth model. Unless of course it is passing underneath us, which we then go back to the; why isn't it night for everyone at the same time? argument.

So if the sun is 32,000 miles above the earth, and it stays at that height, because we are both accelerating 'up' together at 9.8 m/s^2, then how did I see the sun below me?

I guess the easy answer is; I didn't, I made a mistake, and I hallucinated it, however there are a lot of pictures online of the same effect, and of course, any flat earther who believed these images were faked, could easily book a trip on a commercial plane or even in a light aircraft around sunset, and actually open the window to make sure they weren't being tricked, and then simply observe the sun below them.

OK guys, if you can do this, they won't just give you Nobel Prizes, they'll make ones up just for you. They'll probably make a prize to give to future forward thinkers like yourself!

OK, so that's it for the series; I hope I've given you enough ammunition to either prove the theory, or just give up on the whole ludicrous idea. If you do the former and go onto win all those prizes, then I salute you. If you do the latter, then that's fine as well, you don't even have to tell anyone, in fact it's probably better if you don't, just simply let it go.

It's actually quite easy, when you realise there's not that much to hold onto in the first place . . .

Further reading:

Sunsets From A Plane: Google Image Search

Why is the sky blue? Why are sunsets red?: - The Optical Society

Further Viewing

Video Proof Of Round Earth -

Image citation:

Tom Barrett for Unsplash

Related musings:

A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Tackling The Sun Problem

A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Much Ado About Gravity

A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Eclipsing Logic

A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Sub Solar Seasoning

A Flat Earther's Rough Guide To Winning A Nobel Prize - Overcoming Rayleigh: Why Is The Sky Blue?

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THAT'S ALL FOLKS! I HAVE LAID OUT IN THIS SERIES THE MOST FUNDEMENTAL PROOFS THAT OUR WORLD IS ROUND. THEY ARE AS FAR AS WE CAN TELL, COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE TO DISPROVE, HOWEVER I LEAVE ONE PERCENT OF ONE PERCENT OF MY REASONING TO BELIEVE THAT PERHAPS THEY CAN BE DISPROVED.

IN WHICH CASE, MY TONGUE-IN-CHEEK QUIPS ABOUT WINNING NOBEL PRIZES WILL ACTUALLY TURN OUT TO BE PROPHETIC MUTTERINGS, BECAUSE YOU WILL WIN NOBELS IF YOU CAN EXPLAIN JUST ONE THING THAT I HAVE LAID OUT IN THESE ARTICLES.

IF YOU FEEL YOU CAN, OR HAVE ANY OTHER COMMENTS, THEN AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!

Cryptogee