Proving the Curvature of the Earth Yourself with Nothing But a Ladder

I've been writing at length about the meteoric rise in the numbers of people who have begun believing in a flat earth again, after it's been debunked for a thousand years. But the flat earth community do bring up some good points, and they are bringing conversation to the forefront about having science that can be seen for oneself.

Image credit: Pixabay

While these people have gone over the deep even, and take this to the most extreme position possible by believing that:

• The last thousand years of science never actually occurred (or it was entirely fabricated)
• They are smarter than Einstein, Newton, and Tesla
• They have discovered secrets of the universe no one ever pondered before in all of humanity
• They have uncovered the largest and longest conspiracy theory in the world
• That no science is valid unless they can test it themselves

All while they are using computers with silicone chips and nanotechnology I'm sure they understand completely! Additonally, they gained all of this special knowledge just from watching a couple of YouTube videos! What an alluring cult that is.

In any case, I've been bringing that discussing into some of these articles debunking their own claims using their own rules, that you have to be able to observe and test it yourself. So, we discussed earlier about one easy way you can prove the earth is not flat, and provide strong evidence of a very large far away sun that is consistent with the heliocentric theory simply by Using a Solar Filter to Take a Solar Time Lapse to Disprove the Whole Flat Earth Argument.

Another Observable Way to Prove the Earth is Round

Here's another way you can observe for yourself that the earth is, indeed, curved away from you in all directions. It's something that you've already done thousands of times, you don't need any special equipment for, and can be done for free (in most cases). Just go somewhere with an unobstructed view of the horizon and go up! Any height will do, but the higher you go, the more dramatically and easily you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. So, going up to the top of a building or a hillside is probably better than just using a ladder, but you get the point.

The Horizon is 360 Degrees All Around You

Distance to the horizon is a well-known and well-accepted scientific phenomenon, but I'll describe what that means. The horizon is basically that round shape that allows you to see the same amount in all directions when you look around you with the edges of the round shape coming all the way around and meeting back where you started, like in the GiF below.

OK, it didn't make it all the way to the 360 degree mark in the gif, but you can watch the video at the link below
Image credit: 360 degree view of horizon

Now, flat earthers claim that this horizon is flat, and since it seems flat, they conclude that they have just done 'science' and proved the earth is flat through that observation alone! But if the horizon were not curved, how would it meet back where it started when you spin in a 360 degree circle?

This is just more proof that the horizon is curved, but as we point out in our articles, Can You Really Trust Your Senses? and If the Earth is a Sphere, Why Does it Seem So Flat? our senses often trick us, and we need to back up our observations with science before tossing out more than a thousand years of scientific inquiry on a single observation.

What Else Can We See for Ourselves

What is very important about the distance to the horizon, and that proves the earth is curved, is that you can see further if you go higher. In fact, not only can you see further when you go higher, but you can actually predict and measure the increased distance to the horizon based on mathematics that use the radius of the earth. Here is the math formula for distance to the horizon, and a Distance to the Horizon Calculator.

Image Credit: Wikipedia (image is in the creative commons)

If you wanted to roughly check this for yourself, you can go up to a height with an unobstructed horizon, take a look around, then go up higher and watch as your field of vision gets wider and more things become visible to you. You are quite literally seeing the curvature of the earth when you make this observation.

Why Does the Distance We Can See Get Larger?

This increased distance to the horizon as we go higher occurs because we live on a sphere. On a sphere, we are limited in our sight to only a certain distance as the ground 'falls' away from our sight and we are not able to see over the horizon. As we go up higher, we are able to see more of the ground that was curved away from us when we were lower.

Image Credit: The True Face of the Earth.

As such, our field of view gets longer and wider, always in a circular pattern 360 degrees around us (assuming no obstructions). What you are observing is the actual result of seeing part of the earth that was previously denied to you because you could not see over the curvature of the earth.

That simply can not happen on a flat earth since there is no reason for anything to be hidden except by environmental conditions or tall things obstructing your view. For instance, Florida is the flattest state in the United States, and as such, if we were on a flat earth, you should be able to see several hundred miles from the top of a skyscraper, with your view only being limited by the environmental conditions and obstructions. But that does not happen, and in reality your view is limited by the curvature of the earth. We know this because we can observe it, predict it, and measure the distance we can see increasing as we go higher in elevation.

Image credit: mine

Flat earthers often object to this, since the distance to the horizon is an observed phenomenon they cannot deny, and so they make up an 'ad hoc' explanation as to why they can see further when they go up higher, claiming it's 'perspective'. Unfortunately, that is not how perspective works. Perspective is when things get so far away that they are too small to see. Going up higher does not magically bring far away objects closer to you.

Bridges at different elevations
Image credit: Pixabay

Perspective simply makes things LOOK as if they are getting lower, but they are not actually lower in reality. Instead, they are getting further away. The objects are not too low to see, they are too small to see. It's just nonsense to think that going higher will reveal something that is too small to see. As with many of their arguments, it's an ad hoc fabrication with no supporting evidence, created so that they have an explanation for natural phenomenon that do not make sense on a flat earth.

Additionally, solid observable evidence that this is true is that we can see the sun on the horizon as it sets. Since flat earthers claim the sun is 3000-5000 miles away, this is absolute proof that it's not perspective that allows us to see further, and that the atmosphere is not blocking what we can see, but simply that when we go higher, we can see further because things that were previously over the horizon become visible to us due to our height.

If the earth were flat, we should be able to see thousands of miles, and seeing the sun at sunset on a beach proves this.

One of the mantras of flat earthers is, "Where is the curvature" as if we should all be able to see the curvature of the immense sphere under our feet. As we pointed out in our article, If We Live on a Sphere, Why Does It Seem So Flat?, that it's simply irrational and unrealistic to be able to see the actual curvature of the ball looking out at the horizon. The earth is simply too big.

However, what you can see, that is the curvature itself, is the horizon going 360 degrees all around you, and the distance to the horizon increasing. As much as flat earthers will yell and scream that is not the curvature, the phenomenon you are seeing when your distance to the horizon increases is actually you peeking just a tiny bit over the curvature of the earth itself. So, when they ask where's the curvature, just show them the increased distance to the horizon. This phenomenon is:

• Observable
• Measurable
• Repeatable
• Falsifiable
• and better yet, predictable using spheroidal math

Flat earthers demand observability (by them), measurability, repeatability, and falsifiability, they don't mention predictability, however, that is a litmus test of good scientific inquiry. Yet flat earther still reject that this is evidence for a flat earth, claiming that going up on a ladder somehow reduces a significant amount of atmospheric distortion, but providing no evidence as to how 10 feet, or even 50 feet reduces this significantly enough to allow you to see further at the exact distance predicted by spheroidal math! I think that anyone rational would see this as strong evidence of a spheroidal earth, and evidence against a flat earth. I'll let you decide.

I hope you enjoyed this educational tidbit and that you upvote, resteem, and comment below so as to support science based debunkings of the recent rise in the flat earth phenomenon.