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I finally stopped laughing at flat earth folks and actually listened to one at a BBQ in Reno
My neighbor Dave invited me to his backyard cookout last month, and his brother in law kept going on about how NASA fakes everything with CGI. I used to just roll my eyes at that stuff, but this guy pulled out a laser level and showed me how the horizon stayed flat across Lake Tahoe from 12 miles away, which honestly messed with my head for a couple days. I still think he's wrong, but I can't shake the feeling that I don't actually know how that measurement works. Has anyone here actually tried to debunk that specific test, or is it just me who doesn't get the math?
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nina1476d ago
That "12 miles away" part is the thing that trips people up. The earth curves about 8 inches per mile squared, so over 12 miles the drop should be roughly 96 feet. But that math assumes you're measuring from the surface straight down at the far point. If the laser is sitting a few feet off the ground and you're looking at a target that's also a few feet up, you're slicing through the curve at an angle, not dropping straight down from it. You'd also need to account for refraction, since air bends light over water and can make things look flatter than they are, especially on a warm day at Tahoe.
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