How can you prove that the earth's not flat?

Question

My phyiscs teacher wants us to make an experiment to prove that the earth is round, and he'll try to disprove it. He already said the one about the toilets flushing backwards in different hemispheres so i need a different one.

Answer 1

Your teacher is wrong about the "toilets flushing backwards" story. That's an urban myth. The Coriolis force caused by the Earth's rotation is far too weak to affect toilets, kitchen sinks, or bathtub drains. However, hurricanes and cyclones do rotate in the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere because they are large enough to be affected.

To prove the Earth is not flat, build a Focault pendulum. This was first done hundreds of years ago.

Answer 2

it really is a puzzle all precise. As you're saying you've proved the Earth is flat because it really is continuously illuminated, yet in case you employ Google Earth and flow in any direction you'll come back to the position you all started. to satisfy both between the above observations I recommend that the Earth is a hollow sphere and we stay on the interior. Illumination comes from the centre of the void, even with the undeniable fact that it is not available to foretell the thickness of the encompassing remember, it may be countless. on the different hand it cound be a uniform thickness with selection lifeforms living on their facet; i ask your self in the journey that they have got Google Earth too?

Answer 3

Wait until sunset, then telephone a friend in a city a few time zones away. Ask them if the sun is also setting there at that precise moment. If it is not setting, then the sun sets at different times for different observers on the Earth, which can't happen if the Earth is flat.

Answer 4

It can be proved.A scientist held himself in a parachute for around an year.wen he landed ,he landed on the same spot.This is because he was still in the earth's atmosphere.If he would have held himself outside the earth's atmosphere, he would have landed at a different spot.V must always consider a person's movement relative to the earth.

Answer 5

Its not difficult even if you are not on the moon looking at it.
However if you assume tha the earth makes a shadow you should be able to see the earth's shadow on the moon= Its circular.
The experirment is called "experiment by looking."
however if you try to see how the Univesrse is physisits will tell you its flat . the Universe is flat but the earth is round.

Answer 6

The best experiment i ever heard is a very old one which started people wondering if the earth was truly flat.

You simply stand on the shore line and watch a ship come in over the horizon. First you will see only the top of the ship, then the deck and finally the hull and then the entire ship will come into view.

This could only happen if the ship is coming over a "hill" - or if the ocean is "bending" around the horizon.

Answer 7

When airliners go on flights from the states to Europe or Asia they fly an arc not a straight line. If the earth was flat, the shortest distance between two points would be straight line. But, since the earth is a sphere, the shortest distance between two points is an arc (you can't fly an airplane underground).

Answer 8

If the world is flat, you should see across the ocean and see tall objects of the other side. Since you can't, the earth is not flat.

Answer 9

how about this:

there are for seasons, and light for differnt amounts each time, because of gravity, the earth spins around the sun and heats up different parts of the earth at differnt times.

the doppler effect can also help prove the rotation:

"The use of the Doppler effect for light in astronomy depends on the fact that the spectra of stars are not continuous. They show absorption lines at well defined frequencies that are correlated with the energies required to excite electrons in various elements from one level to another. The Doppler effect is recognizable in the fact that the absorption lines are not always at the frequencies that are obtained from the spectrum of a stationary light source. Since blue light has a higher frequency than red light, the spectral lines from an approaching astronomical light source show a blueshift and those of receding sources show a redshift."


I mean if he doesn't use astronomy than maybe he's not that smart?

but using this to get other ppl to do your homework is cheap. just my opinion.

Answer 10

Use a binocular to watch a ship slowly 'sinking' below the horizon as it sails farther and farther out to sea & then watch it come back. The ship certainly didn't fall off the edge of the earth.