Talk:Modern flat Earth beliefs

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Modern flat Earth beliefs article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2: 31 days

Alternative views Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Alternative views, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of significant alternative views in every field, from the sciences to the humanities. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion.Alternative viewsWikipedia:WikiProject Alternative viewsTemplate:WikiProject Alternative viewsAlternative views
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Skepticism Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skepticism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science, pseudoscience, pseudohistory and skepticism related articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkepticismWikipedia:WikiProject SkepticismTemplate:WikiProject SkepticismSkepticism
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article has been mentioned by a media organization:

Alexis Kleinman, Maxwell Strachan (14 January 2015). "The 49 Most Entertaining Wikipedia Entries Ever Created". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 8 March 2015.

The following Wikipedia contributors may be personally or professionally connected to the subject of this article. Relevant policies and guidelines may include conflict of interest, autobiography, and neutral point of view.

WakingJohn (talk · contribs) This user has contributed to the article. This user has declared a connection.
Apples grow on pines (talk · contribs) This user has contributed to the article.
Danielshenton (talk · contribs) This user has contributed to the article. This user has declared a connection.

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to pseudoscience and fringe science, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

Galileo and Flat Earth

Apologize in advance for my lack of education, and please correct me if i am wrong, but it seems to me the most effective way to counter the anti-white propaganda of flat earth theory, is to simply duplicate history and describe the experiment that Galileo used to prove the curvature of the earth.

As I understand it, Galileo's experiment was to compare the length of two columns of equal height, set in the earth, miles apart from each other, at a specific time of day. The length of the shadows were significantly different, and Galileo's conclusion was that the only explanation for this differnce in shadow length was that the earth was curved, as a flat earth would have resulted in both shadows being the same length.

This is an easy thought experiment intelligent people can imagine, and would go a long way towards illustrating the intellectual deficiencies of those who are incapable of imagining this simple proof.

The Article would be improved if it mentioned Galileo and his proof.2603:8081:3A00:414A:81A5:363F:2B7:1512 (talk) 14:27, 13 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand the reference about the Flat Earth "Theory" being anti-white?

This, and any Wikipedia page, is not to come up with new ideas about how to prove/disprove anything. The point is to write about what has been done. I'm certain this experiment has been done since, and if there is a suitable place in this article, or a different Flat Earth one, someone (or you) could write about it referencing suitable reliable sources. Capturts (talk) 04:25, 19 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, flat-earthers correctly point out that the difference in the angle of shadows at two latitudes is equally well explained by a near sun. (But they cannot derive a consistent altitude for the sun as seen from any three latitudes.) —Tamfang (talk) 07:10, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think this experiment might be incorrectly attributed to Galileo, who was involved in the controversy about whether the Earth goes around the Sun (e.g. based on his discovery of the moons of Jupiter), not whether it was round. Perhaps you are thinking of the experiment of Eratosthenes to determine the size of the Earth? That is described at History of geodesy; astronomers noticed this phenomenon many centuries before Galileo. -- Beland (talk) 17:35, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

with a flat earth and a local sun, the outcome of erasthothenes would be the same. curiousfortruth.weebly.com 2001:1C06:1EC1:9F00:9C74:BC43:ED86:3C5F (talk) 08:58, 23 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that is correct but it was not about proving that the Earth is round, but about measuring it. See also Tamfang’s comment on May 3, above. @ Sjö (talk) 13:07, 23 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Should the lead include that this is a conspiracy theory?

I was reading the article and I noticed that the source supporting the claim that the flat Earth argument is a conspiracy theory is a news article from 2016. Since then, there are several academic studies demonstrating that it is indeed a conspiracy theory. I added them to the reference in the intro. However, my question is that, perhaps, the lead should describe the FE as a conspiracy theory, given that this is how most sources classify it. MexFin (talk) 14:01, 17 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This has since been added to the intro, noting that is a recent development. -- Beland (talk) 00:23, 24 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This paragraph is not clear

Behind the Curve illustrated how flat Earth believers rely on poorly-verified claims. Mark Sargent claimed to have watched flightaware.com for a very long time to check if any flights traveled between continents in the Southern Hemisphere, which in his disc model would be much further apart than they are on the globe. He stated that he saw no such flights, and took this as evidence for the disc model. Caltech astrophysicist Hannalore Gerling-Dunsmore went to the site and immediately found flights that contradicted Sargent's claims.[95][96]

Sargent was not finding long flights which should have been present in his theory of a stretched out southern hemisphere. Or did he? Not clear what he claims and why this would support his view. Thank you for your work. Florir121 (talk) 08:16, 22 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This has since been removed. -- Beland (talk) 00:25, 24 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 25 November 2024

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

top believers in the netherlands are Klaas-jan peter johanes de II Jan pieter Jansen Edna Peterson Audrey kleijne Klaas jan willem Smit Whyalwaysme2 (talk) 08:49, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. '''[[User:CanonNi]]''' (talk • contribs) 08:59, 25 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Page crashes

This page crashes on my iPad Mini. It may be due to the rotating picture. rouenpucelle (talk) 02:10, 30 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]