The flat earth thesis is unipolar -- a magnetic north at the center and an outer ice wall. So, yes, traversing the north pole would be possible but, in the flat earth model, the south pole is essentially unfindable.
OK. That makes sense. Traversing the north pole is not impossible in a flat-earth world.
I'm not sure I understand the geometry of a flat earth. Does this sound like the right model, in your view?
- The earth is flat and circular like a vinyl record.
- It's finite with an edge.
- North is in the center.
- South is at the edge in all directions (360 degrees).
- Moving north means moving toward the center.
- Moving south means moving away from the center, toward the edge.
- Moving west means traveling clockwise in a circle around the North center.
- Moving east means traveling counterclockwise in a circle around the North center.
That much I can understand. But where is the sun? And how does the sun move?
Would it be correct to say that the sun is somewhere above the vinyl record? At least during the day. That would explain how the sun shines down on the earth, and how we see it above us in the sky.
But in that case, if the sun is above the vinyl record, the sun will shine down on the whole world all at once. It will be daytime everywhere on the planet at the same time. I could put a gummy bear on vinyl record, as a stand-in for some human being. And we could always draw a straight line of sight between the gummy bear and the sun, if the sun is somewhere above the vinyl record during daylight hours.
That would have been plausible prior to the invention of the telegram, telephone, or wifi. Primitive man could easily assume that daytime was daytime everywhere in the world at once, and night was night everywhere in the world at once.
But, Rob, you have traveled all over the world. And you do conference calls all the time. You know that daytime in Tokyo is night elsewhere. So this flat earth model with a sun shining down on the whole vinyl disc is incompatible with your own daily experience.
Another thing that confuses me: What is a sunset or sunrise? In a flat earth model, how does that work?
Do we imagine the sun being above the vinyl disc during the day and beneath the vinyl disc during the night? So the sun moves in a circle above and below the vinyl disc, crossing beneath the edge at sunset and rising above the edge at night?
If that is how the flat earth model works, then I'm confused. If the sun passes from above to below the plane of the vinyl record during sunset, and from below to above the plane of the vinyl record during sunrise, then where does that occur? It's happening at some particular point beyond the edge of the disc. Where exactly?
Based on the flat-earth map you showed in the last post, Africa is on the left; South america is at the top; North America is on the right; and Australia is at the bottom. This is just arbitrary, since left / right / top / bottom have no real meaning. But it will help us get oriented regarding this sunset / sunrise question.
Let's say the sun dips beneath the edge of the flat disc earth on the LEFT and rises above the edge on the RIGHT. That means someone in Africa (which is on the left) would see a sunset happen directly South (toward the edge) and a sunrise directly North (toward the center). Meanwhile someone in North America (which is on the right) would see a sunset happen directly North (toward the center) and a sunrise directly South (toward the edge).
Yet how is that consistent with the daily experience of human beings everywhere in the world? We see the sun rise in the East and set in the West. In a flat-earth world, it seems there is no possible motion of the sun that could result in that observable fact.
In the north of Norway in the summer, the sun never sets. It just dips its toe in the water and rises again. It's a common sight. I've personally seen it. But I have no clue how that would be explained in a flat-earth world.
And the seasons?
I would challenge anybody to build a kindergarten model of a flat-earth world that can explain basic day-to-day facts like sunrise and sunset, the seasons, lack of any sunset, or time zones. It's not just a false theory. It's an incoherent theory. Geometrically impossible.
