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Flat Earth


Mr. Gibson

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Guest Farnsbarns

I should recount the story of my father and a period in time during the 60s when he wanted to get out of the RAF. He was told that one way was to stand for parliament. He duly did, and of course, being as pedantic and silly as me he chose to stand for the flat earth society. Sadly, having gone through all that he found out they'd changed the rules a year before and that he would have had to have won to get out, perhaps he should have picked a mainstream party.

 

Anywho, some time later he was telling this to his mate who said he could get him out if he wanted out so my dad agreed to do what he said, meet a staff doctor a few days later. The staff doctor asked him if he really wanted out and when my dad said yes he handed him a form and asked him to sign it. Dad commented that the form was blank. The doctor said just sign it and you'll be out.

 

Dad did sign it and was discharged a week later. He never did find out what got written above his signature.

 

Here's a question. It was the 60s, what do you think the doctor filled in above the signature? I have my own theory.

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Guest Farnsbarns

Lol.. the earth is round for the same reason a bubble or water droplet is naturally round... Gravity...

 

Ah, but the earth isn't round. It's an oblate spheroid, explain that then?

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Ah, but the earth isn't round. It's an oblate spheroid, explain that then?

BUT in thinking it about it more..

 

That's also probably to do with gravity.. The orbital path of the planet (apparently) is not straight so the non perfect sphere is probably due to being between the sun and another planet at the time it was formed so the gravitational forces were not equal from the top, middle and bottom... or something along those lines.. apparently the earth itself doesn't actually spin on the poles but more on the side.

 

But I wanst there at that time so cant say for sure :)

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Accompany me to Portsmouth. Bring some binoculars. We'll watch the ships go over the horizon and disappear from the bottom up rather than keep shrinking until they're not visible. Done.

They're sinking, you simpleton.

 

Pip.

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Guest Farnsbarns

BUT in thinking it about it more..

 

That's also probably to do with gravity.. The orbital path of the planet (apparently) is not straight so the non perfect sphere is probably due to being between the sun and another planet at the time it was formed so the gravitational forces were not equal from the top, middle and bottom... or something along those lines.. apparently the earth itself doesn't actually spin on the poles but more on the side.

 

But I wanst there at that time so cant say for sure :)

 

That's a smart answer. What if I said the larger dimension was bang on the equator but because of the wobble you mentioned the equator isn't always pointing at the sun, hence the seasons?

 

And don't forget, the effect on the earth due to the sun's gravity is uniform. It's in orbit and all of it is being pulled straight towards the sun, the front (half facing the sun at that time) and the back (facing away, aka, night time)

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That's a smart answer. What if I said the larger dimension was bang on the equator but because of the wobble you mentioned the equator isn't always pointing at the sun, hence the seasons?

 

And don't forget, the effect on the earth due to the sun's gravity is uniform. It's in orbit and all of it is being pulled straight towards the sun, the front (half facing the sun at that time) and the back (facing away, aka, night time)

 

Now explain Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. [biggrin]

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That's a smart answer. What if I said the larger dimension was bang on the equator but because of the wobble you mentioned the equator isn't always pointing at the sun, hence the seasons?

 

And don't forget, the effect on the earth due to the sun's gravity is uniform. It's in orbit and all of it is being pulled straight towards the sun, the front (half facing the sun at that time) and the back (facing away, aka, night time)

Yeah this is all school boy stuff really... Things I read about or saw on some documentary and mostly forgot years ago .... [rolleyes]

 

Its all getting a bit serious now... Wheres the crazy hats?

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Now explain Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. [biggrin]

 

It was his concept album with a distinct Copernican influence.

 

The 12" remix "Conservation Of Angular Momentum" had a considerable impact on everybody I believe....... [biggrin]

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...the earth is round for the same reason a bubble or water droplet is naturally round... Gravity...

No it isn't; it's due to surface tension.

A droplet of water outside of gravitational forces (deep space, for instance) would still be spherical.

 

Carry On!

 

Pip.

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No it isn't; it's due to surface tension.

A droplet of water outside of gravitational forces (deep space, for instance) would still be spherical.

 

Carry On!

 

Pip.

Ahh but I thought surface tension was what holds the bubble or droplet together..

 

Not the actual reason that they are round...

 

This is what the net says

 

Everything in nature tends to stability by reducing its entropy (randomness/chaos). Circle, Disk and Sphere (1D, 2D and 3D) are the most stable shapes in their respective dimensions. Hence all naturally occurring objects are round.

Edges in shapes like square and rectangle are subjected to sheer stress and hence their stability decreases. Over the course of time, it becomes round (or oval).

 

Gravity is also responsible for the round shape of celestial objects. Gravity is also a force (which moulds things to round shape just like you can mould clay lump to round shape by the force of hand).

Moreover in the absence of gravity or any other shaping force to act on, the objects tend to occupy maximum area or volume possible. And circle has maximum area of all shapes for given dimensions and same is for disk and sphere.

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Is the Earth flat?

 

No, but the Universe is. That is, space is "flat" in all directions, as observed back to 380,000 years after the big bang. Which is pretty remarkable, since "empty" space apparently contains some small residual amount of "dark energy," and since there is SO MUCH space in the Universe, the dark energy tallies up to about 70% of the total mass/energy in the Universe!

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Guest Farnsbarns

Ahh but I thought surface tension was what holds the bubble or droplet together..

 

Not the actual reason that they are round...

 

This is what the net says

 

Everything in nature tends to stability by reducing its entropy (randomness/chaos). Circle, Disk and Sphere (1D, 2D and 3D) are the most stable shapes in their respective dimensions. Hence all naturally occurring objects are round.

Edges in shapes like square and rectangle are subjected to sheer stress and hence their stability decreases. Over the course of time, it becomes round (or oval).

 

Gravity is also responsible for the round shape of celestial objects. Gravity is also a force (which moulds things to round shape just like you can mould clay lump to round shape by the force of hand).

Moreover in the absence of gravity or any other shaping force to act on, the objects tend to occupy maximum area or volume possible. And circle has maximum area of all shapes for given dimensions and same is for disk and sphere.

 

The net is wrong on that count. It says all naturally occuring objects are round. Of course they're not. Take you and me. I'm somewhat round but not entirely where by comparison you're far less round. In fact, the vast majority of naturally occuring objects are not round.

 

Pippy is right, the reason water droplets are round is due to surface tension exerting a uniform force.

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