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as the shape of the geoid, the mean sea level of the world ocean; or; as the shape of Earth's land surface as it rises above and falls below the sea. As the science of geodesy measured Earth more accurately, the shape of the geoid was first found not to be a perfect sphere but to approximate an oblate spheroid, a specific type of ellipsoid.
Ignoring the other concerns, some flat Earth conjecturists explain the observed surface "gravity" by proposing that the flat Earth is constantly accelerating upwards. [13] Such a conjecture would also leave open for explanation the tides seen in Earth's oceans, which are conventionally explained by the gravity exerted by the Sun and Moon.
Pseudoscientific beliefs in a flat Earth are promoted by a number of organizations and individuals. The claims of modern flat Earth proponents are not based on scientific knowledge and are contrary to over two millennia of scientific consensus based on multiple confirming lines of evidence that Earth is roughly spherical. [3]
However, the conspiracy theory claiming the Earth is just a flat disc hanging in space is nothing new. The Economist found that there has been a resurgence of the belief since 2013, as shown in ...
The famous "Flat Earth" Flammarion engraving originates with Flammarion's 1888 L'atmosphère: météorologie populaire (p. 163). The myth of the flat Earth, or the flat-Earth error, is a modern historical misconception that European scholars and educated people during the Middle Ages believed the Earth to be flat. [1] [2]
Although mainstream Chinese science until the 17th century held the view that Earth was flat, square, and enveloped by the celestial sphere, this idea was criticized by the Jin-dynasty scholar Yu Xi (fl. 307–345), who suggested that Earth could be either square or round, in accordance with the shape of the heavens. [98]
Science has long been the target of conspiracy theories, some of which have persisted for centuries. A man who remains convinced that the Earth is flat intends to prove it once and for all, and an ...
On small scales space appears flat – as does the surface of the Earth if one looks at a small area. On large scales however, space is bent by the gravitational effect of matter. Since relativity indicates that matter and energy are equivalent , this effect is also produced by the presence of energy (such as light and other electromagnetic ...