Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!amdahl!ames!ll-xn!husc6!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!madd From: madd@bu-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: talk.religion.newage,alt.flame Subject: Re: The flat earth Message-ID: <17127@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Mon, 7-Dec-87 20:59:07 EST Article-I.D.: bu-cs.17127 Posted: Mon Dec 7 20:59:07 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 12-Dec-87 15:34:20 EST References: <9578@shemp.UCLA.EDU> <590@cos.COM> <4084@bellcore.bellcore.com> Reply-To: madd@buita.UUCP (Jim Frost) Distribution: na Organization: Boston University Distributed Systems Group Lines: 37 Keywords: platygaeanism,creationism,astroloy Xref: hoptoad talk.religion.newage:2017 alt.flame:889 In article <4084@bellcore.bellcore.com> vonn@wind.UUCP (Vonn Marsch) writes: >O.K., so the earth is round. All this stuff about a flat earth is bull. >You win. We, who gave the theory a try, who went around for a day or so >thinking "what if it was flat?" wasted our time and aren't you smart >for dismissing the idea out of hand. Yup, I musta' been *crazy* to >challenge modern scientific thought; I'll never do it again. As well, >I might as well not even think about whether the ideas of Astology, ESP, >Atlantis, Crystals, Witchcraft are valid; that's the kind of stuff >that only little kids and crazy people think about. About the flat earth stuff: It's easy to show the earth is spherical and also to find it's diameter. All you have to do is take the angle of the sun to the earth in relation to two lines (preferably perpendicular). Like, angle of sun to earth along longitudinal and latitudinal lines (ie north-south and east-west). Do this at three points widely separated (same hemisphere) at the same time on the same day and look at the data you get. The discrepancies in the data will give you the angles necessary to project to the center of the earth. The geometry and math is simple so it is left as an excercise to the reader. I won't get into all the other things. It's true that it can be good to question accepted scientific fact but in some cases you have to be reasonable. It's EASY to show the earth is not flat. Just try the above and see. Honestly, I'd love to hear a flat earth description that describes the seasonal angular differences between the sun and the earth and retrograde motion of the planets. I think it would be interesting to listen to. Cheers, jim frost madd@bu-it.bu.edu