It's the Solstice tomorrow; let's all measure the size of the Earth! (Flat-Earthers not welcome)
21 replies, posted
[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Portrait_of_Eratosthenes.png[/img]
[quote]Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth without leaving Egypt. Eratosthenes knew that, on the summer solstice, at local noon in the Ancient Egyptian city of Swenet (known in Greek as Syene, and in the modern day as Aswan) on the Tropic of Cancer, the sun would appear at the zenith, directly overhead (he had been told that the shadow of someone looking down a deep well would block the reflection of the Sun at noon). Using a gnomon, he measured the sun's angle of elevation at noon on the solstice in his hometown of Alexandria, and found it to be 1/50th of a circle (7°12') south of the zenith. He could have used a compass to measure the angle of the shadow cast.[9] Assuming that the Earth was spherical (360°), and that Alexandria was due north of Syene, he concluded that the meridian arc distance from Alexandria to Syene must therefore be 1/50 = 7°12'/360°, and was therefore 1/50 of the total circumference of the Earth. His knowledge of the size of Egypt after many generations of surveying trips for the Pharaonic bookkeepers gave a distance between the cities of 5,000 stadia (about 500 geographical miles or 927.7 km). This distance was corroborated by inquiring about the time that it takes to travel from Syene to Alexandria by camel. He rounded the result to a final value of 700 stadia per degree, which implies a circumference of 252,000 stadia. The exact size of the stadion he used is frequently debated. The common Attic stadion was about 185 m,[10] which would imply a circumference of 46,620 km, which is off the actual circumference by 16.3%. However, if we assume that Eratosthenes used the "Egyptian stadion"[11] of about 157.5 m, his measurement turns out to be 39,690 km, an error of 1.6%.[12][/quote]
[t]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Eratosthenes.png[/t]
So a physicist vlogger is doing an experiment - how accurate can a crowdsourced estimate of the size of the Earth be?
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX-UtuZeysM[/media]
I'm gonna do this tomorrow (assuming no cloud cover). What about the rest of facepunch?
(note that the solstice may be either today or tomorrow depending on your timezone - even then it doesn't matter if you missed it since you can measure it the next day and get an almost indistinguishable result)
It's the solstice today according to animal crossing
[QUOTE=Eric95;41128067]It's the solstice today according to animal crossing[/QUOTE]
How big is the Animal Crossing world? The horizon in that game is like 10 steps away, so what speed would the planet rotate and go around the sun at for it to have 24 hour long days and seasons that coincide with our own planet? And all the sciency stuff that is relevant.
Solstice was today, but I have nothing but overcast here.
[url]http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0#.UcWCARLsZ8E[/url]
stupid facepunchers, the earth isn't a sphere!
I celebrated it by drinking cans of special brew with a few friends, it was quite unpleasant
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;41138541][url]http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0#.UcWCARLsZ8E[/url]
stupid facepunchers, the earth isn't a sphere![/QUOTE]
Reading this makes me think, how do people even think this in the 21st century?
Assuming the website isn't satire.
I was gonna do it today but it was too cloudy :c
[QUOTE=Animosus;41138600]Reading this makes me think, how do people even think this in the 21st century?
Assuming the website isn't satire.[/QUOTE]
It's real unfortunately
The forum is probably entirely made up deluded junkies and religious fanatics
[QUOTE=RobbL;41139812]It's real unfortunately
The forum is probably entirely made up deluded junkies and religious fanatics[/QUOTE]
Sounds like trollbait.
I think I'll try this today. It's as simple as gps location, time, length of rod, and length of shadow right?
"summer" solstice, here in Britain we're lucky if we hit 18 degrees Celsius at the moment.
Sent to his email. Hopefully it turns out well.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;41138541][url]http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0#.UcWCARLsZ8E[/url]
stupid facepunchers, the earth isn't a sphere![/QUOTE]
WE HAVE
FUCKING
CIRCUMNAVIGATED
THE
EARTH
FFFUUUUUCCCCKKK
[QUOTE=RobbL;41139812]It's real unfortunately
The forum is probably entirely made up deluded junkies and religious fanatics[/QUOTE]
I seriously doubt it's real. Especially after that part
[QUOTE]The earth is surrounded on all sides by an ice wall that holds the oceans back. This ice wall is what explorers have named Antarctica. Beyond the ice wall is a topic of great interest to the Flat Earth Society. To our knowledge, no one has been very far past the ice wall and returned to tell of their journey. What we do know is that it encircles the earth and serves to hold in our oceans and helps protect us from whatever lies beyond.[/QUOTE]
I mean, the rest is just pure bullshit but after reading shit like Stormfront I can totally see why some idiots would write it up, but that one part is so obviously fake.
earth is a cube dumasses
[img]http://www.timecube.com/timecubeflierimg.gif[/img]
Earth is a lot of big!!
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;41138541][url]http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0#.UcWCARLsZ8E[/url]
stupid facepunchers, the earth isn't a sphere![/QUOTE]
Oh my God reading that made me want to win the lottery just to send those idiots to space and prove that the earth is round.
still not as long as my dick
[QUOTE=ShardTheOwl;41173755]still not as long as my dick[/QUOTE]
the door's over there.
[QUOTE=thelurker1234;41138541][url]http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=11211.0#.UcWCARLsZ8E[/url]
stupid facepunchers, the earth isn't a sphere![/QUOTE]
Apparently it's got a bulge at the equator and is flattened at the poles. Also, hollow earth, underground solid turf.
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