how can you prove that the world is not flat?

Answer 1

If you were to get into an airplane and fly in one direction, you would eventually end up where you started from. This would not be possible if the world were flat. The curvature of Earth can be seen with an unobstructed view of the horizon or when reaching higher altitudes.The curvature may also be observed at sea when the top of a ship travelling away from you is the last thing visible. If you don't trust satellite or space shuttle images you can still trust your own eyes.

Answer 2

This has to be done on a clear, sunny day.

Get a friend with a car, and also two magnetic compasses and two cell phones. Send your friend to some location about 30 miles away to find a flagpole. Now you find a flagpole near where you are.

Sit around until about noon, when the shadow of your flagpole is pointing due north. Call your friend and ask for the direction of the shadow of the other flagpole. You will find the shadows are pointing a few degrees differently because of the curvature of the earth.

The flagpole where you are standing and the one 30 miles away are pointing out into space at different angles because they are stuck into a spherical planet. If it were possible for the earth to be flat, which is actually impossible, then the shadows would all point the same direction at a given time.

You can do the same experiment with two deep wells about 30-50 miles apart. When the sun is shining straight down one hole, it will be at an angle to the other hole. This approximates the way the Greek mathematician Democritus presented the first scientific proof of the earth's diameter in about 400 BCE.

Answer 3

For a given volume, the shape that has the smallest surface area (thus it is the most efficient space possible) is a sphere.

Therefore, the mass of the Earth will be packed into the most efficient space possible, which is a sphere, not a flat surface.

A flat surface would also have "sharp" edges; if travelling across it you would instantly move 90 degrees. As this never happens during circumnavigation, the Earth must not be flat.

No model of a Flat Earth correctly recreates what we know as "seasons", times of the year when the days are shorter (or longer) because we are further away (or closer) to the Sun.

Answer 4

If the Earth is flat, why doesn't the water in the ocean's fall off the edge? Proving the Earth isn't flat is as simple as telling someone to keep sailing toward the horizon until they find the edge of the Earth. They'll never find it.

Answer 5

The shadow of the Earth on the moon during a partial eclipse is curved (part of a circle).
Boats disappear over the horizon hull first, so the boat must be sailing over a "hill" in the surface (indicating the ocean is curved).
Sticks stuck into the ground cast slanted shadows the farther from the equator you move (indicating the ground is curved).

Answer 6

If it was flat, then we would not need communication satellites to relay signals around the planet. All we would have to do is put a transmitter on top of Mt. Everest and it would then have line of sight to all points on the flat surface.
As it is, being round, transmission signals from the ground go out and the surface dips out from under their path, shooting over locations that are subsequently "under" their path. [Of course I am ignoring some types of tranmissions which bounce themselves off of the atmosphere.] So, we bounce them up to satellites and they get relayed over the horizon and around the globe.

Answer 7

Start walking and see what happens! If you fall off and just keep falling then it is flat, but if there is always something (land or water) under foot eventually then you know it is not flat!

Answer 8

You missed the lunar eclipse. That's how the mayans figured it out. You have to wait another 6 months.

Answer 9

Um...Try showing pictures taken of Earth from satalites and space shuttles!

Answer 10

Because when I look at ships moving away from me I can see them disappearing.