Tag: Sphere

Flerfers

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For some reason some people still believe in a flat earth theory. I try not to argue with them, but some times they come up with such deranged arguments I have to answer back!

Excuse this diatribe I replied with after reading several hundred words of what I called drivel. Perhaps I was too rude. I would like to talk to the correspondent in a balanced way, but I want to pull my hair out!

Here’s what I wrote : Sir you are not explaining science, but using psudo science. Unless I completely misunderstood your unsubstantiated arguments. For instance why is an oblate spheroidal earth unimaginable to you. Why, when planets are visible and are clearly globes, and rotate so you can see their full surfaces, can you not accept the earth is a globe too. If the sun was local it would diminish in size as it moved closer to the horizon. The same with the moon. And in an eclipse why doesn’t the local moon shrink and not completely cover the sun in some circumstances? Maybe your world view is different to mine, and we can agree to disagree, but I can find many more things that are worth talking about, like the state of the world today. I think flerfbots are just trying to distract from wars and politics.

Ice wall?

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For some reason I’ve joined a Facebook page where people debate whether the Earth is flat or a sphere. In the last couple of weeks I’ve read some very odd speculations about how the Sun must be close to the earth and the ocean is held on the earth by an ice wall that is attached to it’s circumference.

I was interested because the author Terry Pratchett set his comic fantasy Discworld series on a similar structure. It sits atop four elephants which ride on the shell of the world turtle, the great a’tuin. To be honest his ideas are more sensible than the flat earthers!

It’s a funny and confusing page, although people do get into arguments. The scientific facts about the globe are repeated over and over again, but they are disputed and often completely contradicted by videos that are nonsensical, with descriptions that are very odd indeed.

Why do I read it? Because it makes more sense than what’s happening in the USA at the moment!

How does this work?

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I found this upstairs earlier so I put some batteries in and then watched the sparks flitting round the inside of the sphere. Hubby says it must have a partial vacuum inside it and the colour is possibly caused by Argon?

Does anyone know how it works….

Anyway it made for some interesting photos. But really I’d like to know if it proves any physics theories?

On the table….

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Today’s Stoke-on-Trent urban sketchers challenge was what was on your table..

Luckily the cat got on the table as I approached it. Otherwise it’s just books and a box and a carved wooden sphere. The n gauge railway layout my hubby has is out of view. Too difficult to paint! Sketching with a Cotman watercolour set I treated myself to for my birthday last month.

I haven’t painted with watercolours for months. I liked the free flowing colours. Less restrictive than acrylics. Although I did let paint bleed into some parts I dabbed it off with a bit of tissue. I found drawing out with the brush instead of a pencil much easier. I hate having drawn lines in pictures. The other thing was leaving areas white. It’s good to leave negative space and not completely cover the paper. This is turning into an interesting sketchbook. The prompts really make me think.

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How to tell the earth is a sphere…

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So how can you tell the Earth is a sphere? The ancient Greeks worked it out ( I don’t remember the name of the person who did).

The experiment was to put a stick in the sand at or near the equator, so it would have a tiny shadow directly underneath the it at mid day as the Sun was directly overhead.

If you place a stick upright, at 90° to the Eaths surface either North or South of the equator, the stick casts a shadow at mid day. (Look at the hands of a clock the hands move round in the same way). Say the equator is 3pm and the Sun is overhead, you would get no shadow, then as you go further away from the stick at the equator you get increasing angles (see diagram). Eventually at the poles the shadows would be at their longest.

So how can you tell its a sphere? The angles add up. You can calculate the curvature of the planet from these simple experiments. The ancient Greeks got very close to calculating the circumference of the Earth. Their calculations were only a small percentage out on their measurement.