Hello dear friends and blog readers. Ruslan Miftakhov is in touch. Lately I have been haunted by one topic: is the earth really structured the way we were told in school?

If you ask any person passing by, is the earth round or flat? Almost everyone will say without hesitation that the earth is a sphere, someone else will add in the form of an ellipse. And maybe one in a hundred will say jokingly - the earth is flat.

Or maybe everything we were told about the earth, we just believe in it as God without evidence.

Let's think together about what they are hiding from us, whether it is really spherical and what is happening around us in general.

Let me say right away that I am not a supporter of flat-earthers, but flat-earthers put forward their own theory, thereby breaking stereotypes about the sphericity of the planet. And forcing us to think with our own heads, and not stupidly believe in everything that is imposed on us by the human programming center (read school).

Let us remember from history that previously everyone was convinced that the earth was flat. Then humanity was convinced that the earth is spherical, that the planet rotates around its axis and around the sun. And to this day we all unquestioningly believe in this, without wondering whether it really is so.

If there is no proof, then it is just a guess. How could Copernicus prove in the Middle Ages that the earth is spherical? How? Have you flown into space and looked from above?

Or maybe there really is no space. Why hasn’t the space program developed since the flight to the moon in the last century? What is hidden behind this? Maybe it's all fake? And there was simply no flight to the moon?

Yes, you can troll me about my lack of education, the fact that I did not study well at school, and so on. But think about this, are you sure that in the programming centers of humanity called school, reliable information was poured into our brains, and not that which was beneficial to the superior race?

Are you wondering how many times larger Russia is than Africa? You will be surprised when you watch this video.

For example, I was convinced that the story in school curriculum the majority lie, or simply do not tell the truth or outright lie. So maybe the whole truth about our planet is not being revealed to us?

And since in mature age a person has all the vessels in his head filled with knowledge, whether false or not, then to new information he is skeptical, rejecting it as immunity. Try to free your vessels a little from the old one and fill in the new information.

Are you ready for new information? Then look further, you might be shocked...

A giant mine from another civilization

The most interesting thing in the video begins at the 12th minute, telling that all the rocks, canyons, and gorges on our planet are nothing more than giant quarries for mining minerals for another civilization, since 95% of the production disappears into nowhere.

The essence of the video is that our Earth is not a planet, it is a giant quarry in which the entire periodic table is mined in the most barbaric way.

Truth from the movie John Carter

After watching the video about the quarry, then watch the movie John Carter if you haven’t already. Movie from the fantasy category of 2012, as they say in every fairy tale there is some truth. I read somewhere that it failed at the box office. Or maybe there is a reason for this?

Below I have posted an excerpt from the film.

I was especially impressed by the conversation with the thorn that all planets have the same fate - overpopulation and destruction as such.

Well, what is your goal? - asked John Carter.

He answered - but it doesn’t exist, we are not haunted by the specter of mortality like you, we are immortal. We played these games when this planet (Mars) did not yet exist and we will play it after yours (Earth) disappears.

But we are not the ones who bring the planets to destruction, captain, we control them, we feed on them, if you like. But the same thing happens on every planet... population growth, division in society, widespread wars.

And at this time the planet is devastated and quietly fading away.

Remember what's been going on with us lately? The world's population has exceeded 7 billion, there is division in society between the poor and the very rich, and constant wars.

And there is no doubt that it is being devastated, just from Russia how much is being extracted and taken away in an unknown direction. But who and where is unknown, and it is unlikely that we will find out.

And how much timber they put in our Siberia is simply appalling. Although this is not a forest, and we don’t have trees, these are all bushes compared to what... however, watch the video below.

There are no forests on earth

Watch this video and you will be shocked that all these mountains, which we are accustomed to taking for trunk mountains, are not mountains at all, but... the stumps of large trees.

I used to be amazed at the shapes of some mountains and suspected that they were probably artificially created. But it didn’t even occur to me that this was the base of a tree.

Waterfalls from the mountains, where does so much water come from?

As a continuation of the previous video, watch the video about waterfalls. Decide for yourself how plausible this is, I’m not imposing anything on you, I’m just giving food for thought.

Life under the dome

Let's return to the topic of flat earth. In general, I wanted to publish this article back in September 2017, but I considered this topic nonsense, and it remained gathering dust in my drafts. But having collected some arguments, I returned and supplemented the article with information that I thought was interesting. And the article gained the right to life.

Back in the fall of 2017, when meeting a friend, a conversation came up, did you see a video on YouTube about the fact that the earth is flat?

I say: I saw it, but I don’t quite believe it. And this is what he answered me...

He remembered one film where he starred in leading role Jim carrey. The plot is that main character for 30 years he lived in the largest film studio in the form of an island under a dome.

All around was normal life, people went to work and back, drove cars, day gave way to night, there were rains, nothing strange in general, except for one thing...

There were all actors around, except for that one man named Truman.

Without suspecting anything, for many years he thought that everything around him was true and did not doubt it. Until one girl couldn’t stand it and told him the truth, which shocked him a little.

Afterwards, he found more and more evidence that everything around him was false and decided to leave the island. But they prevented him from doing this in every possible way, and then one night he escapes.

However, you can watch this film yourself, it’s called The Truman Show. Oddly enough, the film is from 1998, but I didn’t even know about this film if a friend hadn’t told me about it.

And so I began to understand what he was driving at.

Have you ever thought that everything around us is an illusion, a deception that we accept as the truth. Once upon a time, everyone believed that the earth was flat and stood on three elephants, and elephants on a turtle.

Now this seems nonsense, doesn’t it? And we believe that the earth is spherical and revolves around the sun. Is this really true? Maybe this is all a matrix and we live in this program and are being watched from the outside.

Or maybe we all live under such a dome and the earth is not round at all?

Why is it that when we look at the sky at night, we see stars. And pictures from space show that the sky is black and there are no stars. Who to believe? Your eyes? Or maybe there is a dome on top, and the stars are just a hologram.

Well, you’re probably thinking now that I’m crazy and making things up here. Then tell me, where is it really? But there is no truth. We live our lives here in our own little world and entertain the viewer named God.

No, of course the earth is spherical, spinning around its axis and around the sun. There is a universe where there are many stars, but no one knows what is there next.

Have you ever wondered if there are other planets like ours in the universe?

I will say this, when the overall picture is built and you understand how it all works, your soul simply becomes calmer from the awareness and understanding of the rules of the game in this world.

Who thinks about this, write down in the comments. Be sure to share this article with your friends by clicking the special buttons social networks at the bottom.

I was with you, Ruslan Miftakhov

In the middle of the last century, these people united in the Flat Earth Society and have now generated so much evidence for their theory that they have even appeared on the pages of respected publications like the BBC and The Guardian. We talk about the strangest conspiracy theory of our time.

What kind of people are these?

If we do not take into account the ancient ideas about the structure of the world and all the “scientific” calculations of those times, the first person who made a major contribution to the emergence of the Flat Earth Society was Samuel Rowbotham. This is an English inventor who lived in the 19th century. In addition to inventions, Samuel spent his life disproving the heliocentric theory of the structure of the Universe and proving that our planet is actually a flat pancake.

During his life, Samuel developed several important “evidences” and gained fans who, after the death of the inventor, continued his brave work. Fans founded their own communities (among them the Ecumenical Zetetic Society and churches), and somehow nurtured Rowbotham's "flat" ideas until the middle of the 20th century. In 1956, the Universal Zetetic Society was reborn as the International Flat Earth Society under the patronage and presidency of the American Samuel Shenton.

In those days, the community's ideas were spread through leaflets, newsletters, magazines (the first dated 1931, and the rest were published after 1977) and word of mouth, but the society's audience grew steadily. The Internet has made tools for disseminating the ideas of society accessible - websites, forums, publications in online publications, our own encyclopedias and Wikipedia pages.

As science develops, discoveries space programs and the first extraterrestrial successes of mankind, the Society had to deny more and more things and find flaws in material evidence. According to followers of the flat Earth idea, NASA is lying, there was no landing on the Moon, all photographs of the Earth from space are fabricated (by the location of some details in the photographs, in particular shadows, this can be easily proven, members of the society believe), airplane pilots are in cahoots with physicists, and the idea of ​​an ellipsoidal Earth exists only to fool people and waste taxpayers' money on other dubious things.

What's the point?

The main ideas of society are:

• The earth is flat as a pancake and has a diameter of 40,000 kilometers.
• The diameter of the Sun is 50 kilometers, it is located at an altitude of several hundred kilometers (and not 150 million) above the Earth and moves along a complex trajectory (the trajectory can be seen in last video in this article) over the planet.
• The stars also move above the Earth, somewhere behind the Sun, along their own complex trajectories.
• There are no two turtles and three whales, no one holds the Earth in space. There is no gravity either, the disk simply flies upward at a speed of 9.8 m/s. The sun and stars, presumably, do this with her.
• At the center of the flat Earth is North Pole, continents and oceans are around it. All this is surrounded by a dense wall of ice (alas, without flame). Therefore, it is impossible to fall over the edge of the earth and therefore water does not flow over it. And the South Pole does not exist at all. Airplane pilots lie by spending more time in the air than required when they can fly a short route between continents of different hemispheres. By the way, this picture of the world is the logo of the community.

Flat Earth Society

Logo

The society sees its mission as promoting and initiating discussion about the flat Earth theory, and offers its forums as a platform for encouraging free thinking and discussion, where “free thinkers” could “bravely and intelligently” confront supporters of the globe.

The ideas of the Flat Earth Society are received with a bang by some religious people, since, unlike the classical theory, they do not contradict the scriptures and do not require deep knowledge of physics. More precisely, rather the opposite - they require serious ignorance in scientific matters.

The society already has its own official website and pages on social networks ( Facebook And Twitter ), as well as a gallery at Flickr. Judging by the site, the guys who run the organization have an excellent sense of humor, style and proportion, and they are great at bringing out all the inner demons of the followers of this “free-thinking”, because on the thorny path of proof, the followers of the society famously cross divine theories with naked physics Baba Mani's level and god-level mathematics.

A caravan of delightful arguments

Over the years of the society's existence, plenty of “evidence” has accumulated. Some of the society activists even produced a two-hour proof film in which as many as 200 arguments are presented. Those who are strong in spirit and know English can learn it completely.

Conventionally, they can be divided into two groups: funny and similar to the truth, and those that make the hair on end not only of physicists. The official website of the society and unofficial forums of followers in English, Russian and other languages ​​are teeming with evidence. We've selected a few of the most egregious ones, but we're not sure if everyone on this list is part of the official theory and not just fan speculation.

1. If the Earth were not flat, then taking off along a certain trajectory, planes would rise higher and higher above the Earth and eventually fall into space. The most amazing thing about this theory is that, according to society, all pilots are in cahoots with NASA and the company. However, that is not why conspiracy theories exist to provide logical arguments.
2. If the Earth were round, bridges would be built to adjust for bending (in fact, long bridges are built to adjust for it, but most bridges, due to their small size, simply do not need this).
3. The earth cannot be round because the horizon is always level and at eye level. On a round planet it should always be below eye level (presumably due to the rounding).
4. There are places on the planet, for example, the city of Genoa in Italy, from which in good weather you can see islands at a distance of 80–125 miles (130–200 km), which, according to society, is impossible in a round Earth.
5. On routes between southern Africa and South America or the southern countries of Oceania and Africa, planes usually fly very north, to big cities and from them - again to the south, which is completely illogical from the point of view of the globe, but fits perfectly into the theory of a flat Earth (and to hell with economic considerations and features of the relief and climate).
6. If the Sun were as far from the Earth as astronomers say, then hot climatic conditions, which contains most of the African continent, and the extremely cold Antarctica next door would be impossible. After all, from the Sahara to Antarctica is a stone’s throw by planetary standards, and the temperatures there are completely different.
7. If the Earth were an ellipsoid, then the North and South Poles would have similar temperature regimes, the seasons would change in the same way, there would be a similar solar cycle, the flora and fauna would be more similar to each other. In fact, the average annual temperature at the South Pole is -50 degrees Celsius, at the North Pole - -15 degrees Celsius. In summer it’s even relatively “warm” by the standards of one of the coldest places on Earth. According to society, this is all because the North Pole is in the center of the planet and receives much more sun. And the ice and permafrost, encircling our flat planet, according to a conspiracy of scientists, are passed off as the South Pole.
8. There is no fixed most “western,” “eastern,” or “southern” point on the planet. There is only the northern one - at the pole. This is all because there is no west, east and south, and “north” is located strictly in the center of the planet.
9. Magellan did not prove that the Earth is round, because, according to his description of the route, it is very difficult to travel on a round Earth, moving straight all the time, and return to one point. But on a flat plane it’s easy. It's just a circle around the North Pole!
10. It's not just because of the blocks of ice that you can't fall off the edge of the Earth. Between the earth and the sky lies the event horizon, so to someone watching a person on the edge of the flat earth, it will seem as if he has been standing there forever. In general, this place is a space-time anomaly where physical laws do not work or work differently.

How to join the community

If you are impressed by these arguments and would like to take part in a lively discussion about the shape of the Earth, this can easily be done on the Internet. Dozens of forums are returned by search engines for the query “Flat Earth Society.”

There are currently 555 associated members on the society’s official website (for comparison: the organization’s Facebook page has more than 50,000 followers, and 4,000 on Twitter). To become one of them, you need to leave a request on the website (by this link), it's free. The second option is to become a friend of the society, and "friendship" will cost $12. After successful registration and payment of the “friendly” commission, you will be sent by regular mail an identification card, a certificate signed personally by the president of the organization, and a bag of all sorts of branded joy - stickers, refrigerator magnets, etc.

So is it really flat?

Video blogger Vsauce, who regularly dives into such depths of science that not every video of his can be understood at first viewing, wondered what would happen if our planet really were flat. What would happen to gravity, to objects that fell on the edge of the Earth or were close to it, and why, in the end, from the point of view of physics, the existence of a flat planet is impossible - look in his video.

However, for the average member of the Flat Earth Society, the phrase that in space conditions no large physical object can not be a ball is an empty phrase, since the society denies both all cosmic theories and gravity. If we take as a basis the idea that the Earth is a big pancake that moves upward at a speed of 9.8 m/s, then we can assume that our entire existence will end at the moment when our giant pancake crashes into another one at full speed pancake, which may well move at a different speed. And then our whole wonderful, cloudless life will end in one big “wake.” Between us lie tiny stars and the hot ball of the Sun. No giant meteorites and Bruce Willis on a rescue mission, no romance. Burns, suffocation and crushing. It seems that fans of the flat Earth theory should show themselves in cinema.

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“Vasechkin, prove to us that the Earth is round.” - “But I didn’t say that.”
Today we find it easy to laugh at dialogue from a popular children's film. And once upon a time, the shape of planet Earth was the subject of fierce discussions between scientists and was even a bargaining chip in human destinies. For every piece of evidence from supporters of the “round” theory, there were many refutations. Today this issue has been removed from the agenda. Photographs taken from space confirm: the Earth resembles a ball, an orange, a tennis ball, although not perfectly smooth in contour. If Vasechkin had been a diligent student, he would have easily proven this...

How ideas about the shape of the Earth have changed

In the days before our era, science, if it could be considered such, was based on myths, legends and simple observations. The huge starry sky above our heads gave rise to many different fantasies about the structure of the Universe, the astronomical objects inhabiting it, their appearance and forms of interaction.

Later, religion made its contribution to ideas about what our planet looks like, what it rests on and why it rotates. The Creator has his own laws of the universe, so the arguments given by scientists were often questioned or refuted, and the authors of the hypotheses themselves were persecuted.

Versions about whales, elephants and a giant turtle holding a large flat disk called planet Earth seem naive today. However they for a long time were considered the only true ones.

The Greeks had a rather original theory about the shape of the Earth. The flat cosmic body is supposedly located under the cap of the celestial hemisphere and is connected to the stars by invisible threads. And the moon and the sun are not objects of the Universe, but divine creations.

Modern hypotheses regarding the flat configuration of the planet were also very peculiar. In order to defend this version, even the so-called Flat Earth Society appeared. Assumptions about a round shape were completely rejected, and the theory itself was presented in the eyes of its opponents as a conspiracy and a set of pseudoscientific fabrications.

Proponents of the flat earth form argued that:

• The Earth is a flattened disk with a diameter of 40 thousand kilometers centered near the North Pole.
• The sun, moon and stars do not move around the planet, but seem to hang above its surface.
• The South Pole does not exist. Antarctica is an ice wall located along the contour of the planetary disk.
• The sun, with a diameter of 51 kilometers, is located above the Earth at a distance of about 5 thousand kilometers and illuminates it like a powerful spotlight.

But the main arguments for the inconsistency of the “round” theory were the statements that man did not fly into space, did not land on the Moon, everything space photos The Earth is a falsification, scientific institutions are in cahoots with the governments of pseudo-space powers, and all the inhabitants of the planet are part of a large secret experiment.

It is clear that such statements cannot be taken seriously, because such “evidence” has nothing to do with science.

The most famous theories that the Earth is round

Let's go back to the history of early times. Doubts regarding the fact that the Earth has a flat surface did not leave scientists. If this is so, they reasoned, the celestial bodies should be in the same visibility zone, and the time of day should be the same in all corners of the planet.

However, the sun is on different belts and latitudes continued to rise and set at different periods, and the stars, shining brightly at one point, were invisible at another. All this proved that the Earth has any surface shape except flat.

In the 5th-6th century BC, Pythagoras recounted in detail in his work the impressions of one sailor from traveling around Mediterranean Sea. It was a real diary of observations, which the scientist carefully analyzed. It was on the basis of these stories that the scientist suggested that the earth might resemble a large ball.

In the 4th century BC, Aristotle spoke in favor of a spherical shape. He cited three, now classic, proofs:

1. When an eclipse occurs on the Moon, which is located next to the Earth, the shadow cast from our planet has an arc-shaped outline. This can only happen if the object the light hits is a ball.
2. Ships leaving for the sea do not “dissolve” gradually as they move away, but seem to fall into the water, approaching the horizon.
3. The stars that people love to look at can be admired in one part of the Earth, but remain invisible in another.

The fact that our planet is a ball was among the first to be proven by the ancient Greek scientist Eratosthenes. He made his conclusions using a specially designed pole, which cast a shadow in sunlight.

By observing the position of the sun simultaneously in different populated areas, the scientist was able to measure the height of the sun at its zenith and compare the indicators with each other.

It turned out that the points of the sun's position relative to earth's surface are at an angle to each other. This proved that the planet has a round shape. Eratosthenes even managed to measure half the diameter of the globe. Surprisingly, modern calculations practically coincided with the indicators of the ancient scientist. The size of the Earth in radius today is almost 6400 kilometers.

There are versions of researchers that the shape of the planet is not perfectly round, but uneven, sometimes flattened on the sides. It even more closely resembles an ellipse, although this is not noticeable from photographs from space.

It is worth remembering that Newton also argued that the circumference of the earth’s sphere is not a figure that a modern schoolchild can draw with a compass. Modern space discoveries and measurements have shown that the diameter of the Earth is indeed not the same everywhere.

In the 19th century, the German mathematician and astronomer Friedrich Bessel was able to calculate the radii in places where the planet is compressed. Researchers used these data until the 20th century.

Already in our time, the Soviet scientist Feodosius Krasovsky presented to the academic community more precise measurements. According to these data, the difference between the equatorial and polar radii is 21 kilometers.

And finally, according to the latest scientific hypotheses, the planet has the shape of a so-called geoid. It is different everywhere and depends on the height of the hills located on it, the depth of the depressions, as well as the intensity of water movements in the world's oceans.

However, the fact that our planet has the shape of a three-dimensional circle has long been beyond doubt. And the presence of many existing versions on this issue proves: the Earth is a unique space object, the mysteries of which scientists are still trying to unravel.

Top 10 evidence that the Earth is round

So, if schoolboy Petya Vasechkin learned his lesson and presented the ten most common (and now generally accepted by humanity) evidence of the sphericity of our planet, this is what he would list.

1. During a lunar eclipse, when the Earth's satellite enters the shadow cast by our planet, it is clear that the reflection has the shape of a circle, a circular segment or an arc from it, depending on the degree of darkness. This is why when the Moon darkens, it turns into a crescent rather than half a triangle or a square.
2. Ships moving away from the shore do not dissolve, going beyond the horizon, but seem to fall beyond it. This means that the planet is changing its curve. So the worm, moving along the surface of the apple, changes the trajectory of its movement. The fact that ships do not fall from top to bottom, as one might assume, is explained by the fact that the earth is constantly turning, aligning the guides for further rectilinear movement. And of course, a spherical figure is characterized by a shift in gravity towards the center.
3. In different hemispheres of the globe you can see different constellations. If you imagine a flat table with a lampshade hanging above it, it is equally visible from every point of the table. If you place a ball under the lampshade, the lamp at the bottom will not be visible. Constellations that are clearly visible in the northern hemisphere of the Earth should not be looked for in the sky Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.
4. The length of shadows that fall on a flat surface has the same indicators. Two shadows from a round object have different lengths and form an angle.
5. The view of a flat surface is the same from any height. If you rise above something spherical, then you have the opportunity to observe more distantly. The prospect in this case increases.
6. Photographs taken from an airplane at various altitudes show that the Earth has curves. If the earth were flat, it would look level from any height. If you take trip around the world, you can do it without stopping, because the Earth has no “edges.”
7. Photographs from aircraft, which can fly higher than airplanes, clearly demonstrate that the horizon does not have a straight contour, but a curved contour.
8. There are several time zones on our big planet. When dawn comes in one, the sun sets below the horizon in the other. This is how a spherical body rotates around its axis. If the sun illuminated a flat surface, people would not know nights.
9. Everything on the Earth's surface is attracted toward the planet's core. It is for spherical objects that the center of mass shifts to the middle.
10. Since 1946, we have been able to take photographs of the Earth from space. All of them are the best visual evidence that we live on a ball.

It is hardly possible to fully reveal the incomprehensible secrets of the universe. And even what at first glance seems to be an immutable truth, in some cases can turn out to be very controversial. for the sake of political, economic and moral-ethical interests no longer causes such surprise, because the concept of alternative history is gaining more and more adherents every day. And even those who until recently believed in fairy tales about the existence of Peter I, today are no longer so confident in supporting their beliefs.

What if it's not just history that's distorted? Modern geography, geodesy and other sciences have elevated the idea that the Earth is round to the rank of an axiom, however, this theory also has its opponents. At first glance, the idea of ​​a flat Earth can be perceived as a joke, but its adherents are providing more and more convincing evidence in favor of their theory, which looks quite logical and justified. Is this so, or is science not lying in this case? Who knows…

Flat Earth Theory: Basic Concepts

The essence of this theory is revealed by its very name. According to the assumptions of flat-earthers, the globe is a round disk, the center of which is the North Pole. But in principle, the South Pole is not on this map - instead of it there is a high ice wall that encircles the territory of the Earth. What is behind this wall is a mystery. Some suggest that behind it there is only ice and permafrost, others believe that there is a parallel life of other inhabitants of the planet hidden there, and still others believe that the wall serves as a fence behind which there is absolutely nothing. A map that clearly reflects the structure of a flat Earth is called an azimuthal map.

The diameter of the planet is 40,000 kilometers. Above this huge disk, like a dome, rise the constellations, the Sun and the Moon. And so that the day goes on as usual, and day gives way to night, it is not the planet itself that rotates, but the dome located directly above it. That is why the constellations move during the night, the bright sun is replaced by a mysterious and cold moon, and sunrise and sunset regularly alternate.

And since the Sun is constantly moving, the usual ideas about the solar system have no right to exist. In the Flat Earth concept, the solar system is not considered in principle, since the rotation of the Sun is carried out at a breakneck speed, and the planets simply could not fly behind it and rotate around their own axis. The gravitational force of the planets also serves as a weighty argument. According to modern scientists, the Earth ranks third among the planets located around the Sun. But according to the laws of physics, the force of attraction is directly related to mass, which means smaller size planet, the closer it should be to the Sun. After carrying out simple mathematical calculations, you can understand that the Earth should be not in third, but in sixth place. Then our world would be shrouded in permafrost, because the atmosphere simply physically would not be able to warm up enough to comfortably support life.

But if everything works exactly as the adherents of the Flat Earth theory see it, what about space flights, numerous photographs of the Earth taken from outer space, data about other planets and other information that clearly demonstrates the structure of the universe. According to flat-earthers, all this is nothing more than a fiction, a staged act, and a deception on a huge scale. The illusion created by the Freemasons makes it possible to hide the truth from the population. One of the proofs of this assumption is a photograph of Apollo 11, in which the Americans allegedly flew to the Moon. With a detailed magnification, you can see that the spacecraft is made of “available materials” - foil, planks, oilcloth, cardboard, etc. In fact, this is just a set designed for filming the astronauts, who, by the way, did not even bother to take off their jewelry (bracelets and rings), on which the engraved letter G can be seen inside a compass and square - a symbol of the Masonic movement.

What about pictures of Mars? The unreal and mysterious beauty of this mysterious planet, according to adherents of the Flat Earth theory, is nothing more than photo filters, a play of light and shadows, classical computer programs, which any “advanced” student can work with. If you remove the Photoshop effects from these pictures, you will get very beautiful, but still very real landscapes, taken in remote corners of the Earth, untouched by human hands.

A little history, or Where does the flat Earth theory come from?

At first glance, it may seem that the theory about the flat shape of our planet is nothing more than a fashionable trend, of which there are now many on the Internet. However, this is not at all true: looking through the prism of history, you can track how opinions about the shape of the Earth have changed. This theory was mentioned in ancient mythology Egypt and Babylon, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, Scandinavian epic. And even the ancient philosophers, whose teachings are considered historical heritage, including Leucippus and his student Democritus, were firmly convinced that the Earth was flat. The same idea was adhered to in the oldest manuscript of the Book of Enoch, found at Qumran. However, over time, these beliefs gave way to astronomical knowledge, and the idea of ​​a Flat Earth fell into oblivion.

In the Middle Ages, the question of the shape of the Earth again became debated. One of the striking examples of this idea was “Christian Topography”, written by Cosmas Indicopleus in 535-547. In it, the planet is presented in the form of a rectangular plane, on top of which there is a dome: “Some people, hiding behind the name of Christians, claim, along with pagan philosophers, that the Sky has a spherical shape. No doubt these people are deceived by the eclipses of the Sun and Moon." This work, translated, became widespread in Rus', because at that time it was a unique encyclopedia of medieval knowledge, which there was no reason not to believe.

One of the clear examples of the theory was an engraving published in the book “Atmosphere: Popular Meteorology”, published by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion in 1888. It depicts a pilgrim who has reached the edge of the Earth and looks out from under the dome towards new worlds. The caption for the image reads: “A medieval missionary says he found the point where the sky touches the Earth.”

How did the Flat Earth Society come about?

In the 19th century, adherents of the described concept united into a group - the Flat Earth Society - headed by the English scientist Samuel Rowbotham. For several decades, he conducted all kinds of experiments, experiments, studies to confirm his theory and, importantly, found a lot of evidence. Using the pseudonym Parallax, he wrote “Zetetic Astronomy,” in which he thoroughly and clearly outlined all his findings and results refuting the spherical shape of the planet. Rowbotham's initially small work was reprinted several times, becoming increasingly large-scale and evidence-based literature, because it was constantly supplemented by students of the Society. Until his death, Samuel Rowbotham defended his theory, giving numerous lectures and seminars around the world.

Adherents of Rowbotham's theory subsequently united into the Universal Zetetic Society, which found its adherents in all corners of the planet. Since 1956, this organization, led by Samuel Shenton, again became known as the Flat Earth Society, but with the significant prefix “International”. When Shenton saw photographs of the globe from orbit, he did not doubt his convictions for a moment: “It is easy to see how photographs of this kind can fool an ignorant person.”

Since 1971, the head of the organization has been Charles Johnson. He launched a major campaign to promote his ideas, distributing leaflets, publishing brochures and booklets in which he advocated the flat Earth model. Thanks to such activity, during his leadership the number of supporters of the theory increased several times.

Arguments for the Flat Earth Theory

To make an informed decision about the shape of our planet, you need to consider the arguments on both sides to see which makes the most sense and consistency. So, what do flat earthers say about their theory?

1.Earth's rotation speed.

Scientific data says that the Earth rotates around its axis at a speed of about half a kilometer per second. It’s hard to even imagine such a fast object! There are a few simple experiments in favor of flat-earthers, such as jumping. Everyone knows that when a person jumps, he lands in the same place. But what about rotation? After all, in those split seconds that he was in the jump, the planet had to move a considerable distance, and the landing site would have become another point. The same result is obtained by firing a cannon into the sky. In addition, if you shoot to the east (against the direction of rotation), the cannonball should fly half as far as normal, and if you shoot to the west, twice as much. However, this does not happen. And pilots flying over the Earth have never recorded how it rotates, although who, if not them, should be able to see the change in the position of the planet from above.

2.Perfectly flat horizon.

Look into the distance. Take a good look, not losing sight of the slightest detail. What do you see? The ideally smooth edge of the horizon in the area where it is clearly visible - fields, meadows, sea surface - cannot deceive. After all, in a free area the view spans several kilometers in the distance, so why are they perfectly level? According to adherents of the theory, the answer is obvious - the Earth is flat! In addition, tall objects (for example, towers, lighthouses, mountain peaks) would simply not be visible, because the spherical surface would hide them from an attentive eye, since the horizon line would be significantly higher. But this does not happen, and you can admire the mountains from a very long distance, amounting to more than one kilometer.

3.Air travel routes.

Many flights, especially long-distance ones, at first glance seem illogical from the point of view of the spherical shape of the Earth. Looking at the globe, one might wonder why pilots choose such a seemingly illogical route and inconvenient refueling points. However, there is no mystery or irrationalism in this: if you compare these routes with a flat map, it becomes clear that the route is laid out perfectly.

4. Star drawing.

If all objects in the Universe are in constant motion, then why are the stars in the sky located exactly the same both today and several centuries ago? After all, in theory, the star pattern should change, if not every day, then certainly once a week. However, this does not happen. The thing is that stars are just holograms on the celestial dome that cannot change, move relative to each other, much less fall. And the famous meteor shower, which all the romantics of the world eagerly await to make a wish, is a holographic effect.

5. Yellow Sun.

Scientific laws explain in some detail why the sky is blue and the Sun is yellow. According to official data, ultraviolet light, passing through the atmosphere, is scattered into spectra, one of which colors the sky. However, this does not explain in any way why some of the rays concentrated around the Sun do not decay, because then it should be blue-blue. Isn't it the case that the Sun is below the dome-sky, which limits space. Rotating around the Earth, it alternately illuminates the territory, so the light hours regularly replace each other.

6. Space flight is a hoax.

None of the flat-earthers have seen outer space with their own eyes, which means that one can argue its existence until one is hoarse. The photographs are fake, the videos are all special effects, and the flights into space are fantastic stories. Convinced adherents of this theory even organized several investigative expeditions to search for photographic sites “on the Moon.” And when the astronauts were asked to swear on the Holy Scriptures that they had been to the Moon, they all showed aggression and avoided answering.

7. Free flow of rivers.

According to the law of communicating vessels, the network of reservoirs enveloping the Earth simply could not exist on a spherical planet in the form in which we see it today. However, rivers flow to the west, east, north and south in almost equal quantities, and their depth and fullness are in no way related to geographical location. Such characteristics are only possible if the Earth is flat.

8. Technicians' view.

One of the weighty arguments in favor of their theory is the universal conspiracy of engineers, technicians and other individuals who are in one way or another connected with work in vast spaces. For example, surveyors do not take into account the curvature of the Earth when designing buildings and structures. But in this case, the structure made according to this project simply could not withstand the total load and collapsed. However, this does not happen, and the buildings have stood idle for decades. There is only one conclusion: they know that the Earth is actually flat, but they keep this secret from the population. The same applies to airplane pilots who, taking off from a spherical surface, no longer adjust their flight path until landing. How? After all, under such conditions the plane would fly into outer space. And if you look at it from the point of view of a flat Earth, everything falls into place.

This evidence is the most common that the Flat Earth Society uses to refute the generally accepted theory. In order to judge their loyalty, one must also consider the beliefs of the so-called “sharovists” who adhere to a scientific point of view.

Why is the Earth a ball? Arguments against a flat earth

The concept that the scientific community adheres to has many justifications in its favor, some of which look quite convincing. What do the Sharoverists talk about in support of their theory?

1. The moon and its eclipse.

Even if we do not take into account photographs that prove the existence of the Moon as a satellite of our planet, the shadow cast by the Earth, gradually reaching a lunar eclipse, directly indicates its sphericity. Even Aristotle, who supported the spherical nature of the planet, considered the cast shadow as an oval, which directly contradicted the theory of the flat shape of the Earth.

2.Change of constellations.

This argument was also considered back in the time of Aristotle. Traveling around the world, he recorded the position of the stars in the sky and the visibility of each of them. So, being at the equator, constellations were revealed to him that were not visible at other latitudes. And the further the scientist was from the equator, the fewer familiar stars he saw, which were replaced by others. This effect could only be explained by the fact that a person is looking at the sky from a spherical surface, otherwise the location would not have such a strong effect on the visibility of the stars.

3.Time Zones.

And although Polskozemeltsy claim that the change of time of day occurs due to the rotation of the Sun, sharovers are sure that it is the Earth that rotates around its axis. That is why in different countries installed different time, and when, for example, it is deep night in America, the sun is shining in China, and the day is in full swing.

4. Force of gravity.

Another proof of a spherical planet is gravity - the force of attraction between objects. According to the laws of physics, it acts relative to the center of mass. But when an apple falls, it lands from top to bottom, and not at an angle to the center, and a person, walking along the surface of the Earth, feels an attraction to the bottom, and not to the side, closer to the center of the “disk”. That is why we can judge that under it every time there is the center of the Earth, from which maximum gravity comes, and this means that the Earth has a spherical shape. However, flat-earthers reject this evidence, because they believe that gravity is just the result of the planet moving upward with an acceleration of 9.8 m/s2.

5.Visibility of objects from above.

If you climb a mountain, tall tree or a lighthouse, looking at the horizon through binoculars, you can notice that the visibility distance increases in direct proportion to the height at which a person is located. Of course, visible obstacles can interfere with the purity of the experiment, but in a field or meadow this effect is most noticeable. But if the Earth were flat, the height of the observation deck would have no effect on the visibility of objects on the horizon. This is only possible if the planet is spherical.

6. Ship on the horizon.

When sailing, the ship does not immediately disappear on a perfectly flat surface of the sea. First of all, its hull is lost from sight, and only after that the sails disappear behind the horizon. The same thing is observed when it approaches the shore: the sails are immediately visible, and only then the ship itself. This directly proves that, despite the apparent straightness of the horizon, it is curved by the spherical shape of the Earth.

7.Sundial.

The sundial effect is calculated based on the shadow cast by the Sun at different times. By sticking a stick into the ground, you can observe how its shadow gradually changes its shape. And if the world were a plane, the position of the stick would not affect the shape of the shadow, and at different points it would be identical. However, even a seemingly insignificant distance of several tens of kilometers between two experimental sticks gives different result, and the shadows differ from each other by at least a few tenths of a millimeter. This principle was used even before our era when calculating the circumference of the Earth, which was carried out by Eratosthenes.

8. Documentary facts.

And although flat-earthers claim that photographs from satellites and space flights are a hoax, sharers are firmly convinced of their existence. Numerous photographs of our planet obtained from outer space, flights to the Moon and exploration of other planets are a scientific heritage that humanity has achieved over hundreds of years of experimentation and development. True, considerable funds are invested in these studies, and their effectiveness is confirmed only by photographs, but this is the other side of the coin.

Flat Earth in the context of contemporary art

No matter how controversial the theory that denies the generally accepted shape of our planet may be, it has repeatedly surfaced in the works of science fiction writers, film directors and writers. It is enough to recall the well-known “Chronicles of Narnia” by Clive Lewis to understand that this idea attracts a wide audience. Narnia cosmology presents the idea of ​​the plane of the Earth, beyond the boundaries of which there is paradise - Aslan. The heroes go there, following the routes of an ancient map reminiscent of a medieval one.

The English science fiction writer Terry Pratchett devoted a whole series of works to the concept with the predictable title Discworld. In his opinion, based on ancient Indian myths, the disc-shaped planet is supported by four elephants, and they, in turn, stand on a centuries-old turtle. And what about Pirates of the Caribbean, beloved by millions of spectators? Captain Jack Sparrow's team was able to reach the end of the planet, where a bottomless waterfall seethed.

Domestic writers did not ignore this concept either. Thus, the story “Monk at the End of the Earth” by Sergei Sinyak describes an expedition to the heavenly dome, after which its participants were subjected to repression by the state. However, the results of the expedition were undeniable: space flight is nothing more than a fiction based on a distortion of the picture of the universe.

Afterword

What to believe in, what concept to adhere to is everyone’s personal business. It is more convenient for some to believe that the Earth is a ball, while others are also unshakably convinced that our planet is flat. One way or another, it is not possible for most people to go up into space to clearly verify the correctness of one of these movements, so we will have to use what we have - our eyes, logic and common sense. It is enough to close the textbooks, open the satellite map and drive a considerable distance along it, checking the mileage and trajectory with official data. Simple practical experiments will allow you to understand where reality ends and hoax begins.

It is best to end this debate with the words of the wise Dalai Lama: “In any case, all this is very insignificant, isn’t it? The basis of the Teaching is; what they say about the structure of life, about the nature of suffering, about the nature of the mind. These are the basics of the teaching. This is what is most important; something that is directly related to our lives. Whether the world is square or round does not matter much as long as there is prosperity and peace in it.”

People have long known that the Earth is round, and they are finding more and more new ways to show that our world is not flat. And yet, even in 2016, there are quite a few people on the planet who firmly believe that the Earth is not round. These are scary people, they tend to believe in conspiracy theories, and it's hard to argue with them. But they do exist. So is the Flat Earth Society. It becomes funny just thinking about their possible arguments. But the history of our species was interesting and quirky, even firmly established truths were refuted. You don't have to resort to complicated formulas to dispel the flat Earth conspiracy theory.

Just look around and check ten times: the Earth is definitely, inevitably, completely and absolutely not 100% flat.
Moon

Today people already know that the Moon is not a piece of cheese or a playful deity, and the phenomena of our satellite are well explained by modern science. But the ancient Greeks had no idea what it was, and in their search for an answer, they made some insightful observations that allowed people to determine the shape of our planet.
Aristotle (who made quite a few observations about the spherical nature of the Earth) noted that during lunar eclipses (when the Earth's orbit places the planet exactly between the Sun and the Moon, creating a shadow), the shadow on the lunar surface is circular. This shadow is the Earth, and the shadow cast by it directly indicates the spherical shape of the planet.
Since the Earth rotates (look up the Foucault pendulum experiment if in doubt), the oval shadow that appears during each lunar eclipse indicates not only that the Earth is round, but also not flat.
Ships and horizon

If you've been in port recently, or just strolled along the beach, looking at the horizon, you may have noticed a very interesting phenomenon: approaching ships don't just "emerge" from the horizon (as they would if the world were flat), but rather emerge from the sea. The reason that ships literally “come out of the waves” is because our world is not flat, but round.
Imagine an ant walking along the surface of an orange. If you look at an orange from a close distance, with your nose to the fruit, you will see how the ant's body slowly rises above the horizon due to the curvature of the orange's surface. If you do this experiment with a long road, the effect will be different: the ant will slowly “materialize” into your field of view, depending on how sharp your vision is.
Change of constellations

This observation was first made by Aristotle, who declared the Earth to be round by observing the change of constellations when crossing the equator.
Returning from a trip to Egypt, Aristotle noted that “stars are observed in Egypt and Cyprus that were not seen in the northern regions.” This phenomenon can only be explained by the fact that people look at the stars from a round surface. Aristotle continued and stated that the sphere of the Earth “is of small size, for otherwise the effect of such a slight change of terrain would not have manifested itself so quickly.”
The further you are from the equator, the further the “known” constellations move towards the horizon, being replaced by other stars. This wouldn't happen if the world were flat.
Shadows and sticks

If you stick a stick into the ground, it will provide shade. The shadow moves as time passes (based on this principle, ancient people invented sundials). If the world were flat, two sticks in different places would produce the same shadow.
But this doesn't happen. Because the Earth is round, not flat.
Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) used this principle to calculate the circumference of the Earth with good accuracy.

The higher you go, the farther you can see

Standing on a flat plateau, you look towards the horizon away from you. You strain your eyes, then take out your favorite binoculars and look through them as far as your eyes can see (using binocular lenses).
Then you climb the nearest tree - the higher the better, the main thing is not to drop your binoculars. And again look, straining your eyes, through binoculars to the horizon.

The higher you climb, the further you will see. Usually we tend to associate this with obstacles on Earth, when the forest is not visible for the trees, and freedom is not visible for the concrete jungle. But if you stand on a perfectly clear plateau, with no obstacles between you and the horizon, you will see much more from above than from the ground.
It's all about the curvature of the Earth, of course, and this wouldn't happen if the Earth were flat.
Flying an airplane
If you've ever flown out of the country, especially somewhere far away, you might have noticed two interesting facts about airplanes and the Earth:
Planes can fly in a relatively straight line for a very long time without falling off the edge of the world. They can also fly around the Earth without stopping.
If you look out the window on a transatlantic flight, most of the time you will see the curvature of the earth on the horizon. The best kind of curvature was on the Concorde, but that plane is long gone. From Virgin Galactic's new plane, the horizon should be completely curved.
Look at other planets!
The Earth is different from others, and that is undeniable. After all, we have life, and we have not yet found planets with life. However, all planets have similar characteristics, and it would be logical to assume that if all planets behave in a certain way or exhibit specific properties - especially if the planets are separated by distance or formed under different circumstances - then our planet is similar.
In other words, if there are so many planets that formed in different places and in different conditions, but have similar properties, most likely, our planet will be the same. From our observations, it became clear that the planets are round (and since we knew how they formed, we know why they are shaped that way). There's no reason to think our planet won't be the same.
In 1610 year Galileo Galileo observed the rotation of Jupiter's satellites. He described them as small planets orbiting a large planet - a description (and observation) that the church did not like because it challenged the geocentric model in which everything revolved around the Earth. This observation also showed that the planets (Jupiter, Neptune, and later Venus) are spherical and revolve around the Sun.
A flat planet (ours or any other) would be so incredible to observe that it would overturn almost everything we know about the formation and behavior of planets. This will not only change everything we know about the formation of planets, but also about the formation of stars (since our Sun must behave differently to accommodate the flat Earth theory), the speed and movement of cosmic bodies. In short, we don't just suspect that our Earth is round - we know it.
The existence of time zones

In Beijing it is now 12 midnight, no sun. It's 12 noon in New York. The sun is at its zenith, although it is difficult to see under the clouds. It's one thirty in the morning in Adelaide, Australia. The sun will not rise very soon.
This could only be explained by the fact that the Earth is round and rotates around its own axis. At a certain point, when the sun is shining on one part of the Earth, it is dark on the other end, and vice versa. This is where time zones come into play.
Another point. If the sun were a "spotlight" (its light shining directly on a specific area) and the world was flat, we would see the sun even if it wasn't shining above us. In much the same way, you can see the light of a spotlight on a theater stage while remaining in the shadows. The only way to create two completely separate time zones, one of which will always be in the dark, and the other in the light, is to acquire a spherical world.
Center of gravity
Eat interesting fact about our mass: it attracts things. The force of attraction (gravity) between two objects depends on their mass and the distance between them. Simply put, gravity will pull toward the center of mass of objects. To find the center of mass, you need to study the object.
Imagine a sphere. Because of the shape of the sphere, no matter where you stand, there will be the same amount of sphere underneath you. (Imagine an ant walking on a glass ball. From the ant's point of view, the only sign of movement will be the movement of the ant's legs. The shape of the surface will not change at all). The center of mass of a sphere is at the center of the sphere, meaning gravity pulls everything on the surface towards the center of the sphere (straight down), regardless of the object's location.
Let's consider a plane. The center of mass of the plane is at the center, so the force of gravity will pull everything on the surface towards the center of the plane. This means that if you are on the edge of the plane, gravity will pull you towards the center, and not down, as we are used to.
And even in Australia, apples fall from top to bottom, not from side to side.
Photos from space

Over the past 60 years of space exploration, we have launched many satellites, probes, and people into space. Some of them returned, some continue to remain in orbit and transmit beautiful images to Earth. And in all the photographs the Earth (attention) is round.
If your child asks how we know the Earth is round, take the trouble to explain.