This Flat Earther Boldly Claimed He Could Prove His Theory, And Then His Experiment Confirmed The Earth Is Round
Conspiracy theories can be...interesting...but some have been disproven so heavily that it's hard to even find fun in the idea. Like, for example, the theory that the Earth is flat instead of round.
I've seen many justifications online about why the Earth may be flat (and maybe that says more about the amount of time I spend on Reddit). Some say planes fly straight, and therefore the Earth must be a flat line — which has been debunked by pilots who say they have to constantly change their speed and altitude to adhere to the planet's curve.
Or others simply deny that astronauts have been to space or projected cameras into space that show the Earth's true shape — an idea that also has a hoard of evidence available to show it's misguided thinking.
Now, a clip from Netflix's 2018 documentary Behind the Curve, which follows the minds of "flat Earthers" — a growing group of people who believe the Earth is flat — has resurfaced and is going viral.
In the clip, a man proposes that he's going to conduct an experiment that will undeniably prove the Earth is, in fact, flat. He sets up a camera on one side of boards with holes cut out of them and has a friend hold a light on the other side of the boards, about 51 feet from the camera. "If you're seeing through this hole, through the next hole, and seeing the light at the back board, 17 feet off the water, the Earth is flat," he says.
However, "If he's holding it up at 23 feet high and we're seeing the light, well that's because the Earth is curved. So I should only be able to see [the light] when it's at 17 feet."
Though I can imagine you know how this will end, let's walk through the order of events anyway. The guy's friend stands at his post and raises the light to 17 feet in height. And, well...no one can see it.
After a few confused stutters, the guy asks his friend to hold the light up at 23 feet. And guess what?
To which our budding scientist says, "Interesting...that's interesting."
After the clip went viral, most reactions consisted of people being shocked that this guy refused to believe his own eyes. But a few golden commenters shared some quirky reasons why the Earth can't be flat:
"Someone deprogrammed his buddy by explaining that if the Earth was flat, the edge would be commercialized to make money. It'd be a tourist trap like Disney World. The guy believed in corporate greed more," u/arcspectre17 shared.
"How do people get away with believing the Earth is flat without ever seeing the edge of the Earth? We have pictures of everything else, including the actual Earth in ball form. But no pictures of the EDGE. Whyyyy?" an anonymous commenter posed.
"If the Earth is fucking flat, and you have a powerful telescope, why can’t you see any part of mount Everest from a skyscraper or another mountain?" u/CCrypto1224 questioned.
