Flat Earth Society: Map Debunked

Yes it’s amazing, it’s astounding, and it’s damn near religious! the Flat Earth Society really exists! You can check them out here:

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org

This of course is a society that believes our Earth is a flat Earth. A disk where Gravity is upward acceleration to achieve a gravity equal to: g = 9.81 m/s2.. However, we are not here to talk about Gravity, the flashlight Sun just 3000 miles above Earth, the invisible black disk to explain away eclipses, or bendy light to explain the setting sun and sinking ships over the horizon.. No no no, we are going to address the very heart of this by addressing their projection Map of Earth. Though they will enjoy this free publicity for a shot at your science literacy to get you to believe the Earth is flat, but what they don’t have is a map,  a  navigable map with an accurate coordinate system.

Thus I present you with the FLAT EARTH! :

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Yup that’s it, and with a huge ice wall in which the governments of the world conspire to protect from prying eyes, and FE explorers. Yes it gets crazy deep into conspiracy theories to the point of comic relief.  However, by looking at this map we can see some things that are quite obviously wrong here. But the most noticeable detractors can best be stated as follows:

*  No GPS coordinate would ever work on this map.
*  Here we have severe warping of the continents.
*  Distances between continents ridiculously increase as you expand out from the North Pole.
*  No information or detail in terms of coordinates, or exact scale
*  It’s a Cartoon with a satellite projection map!

So many of us would automatically call it a day just by those simple observations of the Map.. However, the ignorance of whether or not this concept fits our observations in the real world is a bit more challenging. Hence, if you walked out your door from where you live now, how would you know that Earth isn’t laid out in such a manner? How would you know if the Earth wasn’t dome shaped with a flat bottom? .. It gets difficult when all images and government data are scoffed at as conspiracy, doctored, bias, or RE (Round Earth) propaganda against the truth of FE (flat Earth). It begs the question of how can we prove it to ourselves rather than the Flat Earthers that will just religiously deny everything? Well, I had taken the time to do some math to find out if I could, and  I did this out of fun really, so I hope all of you enjoy this Debunking of the Flat Earth Society’s projection  Map.

Step 1:

The first thing we must do is establish what they claim to be the diameter and circumference of their flat Earth. So here are the figures straight from their own FAQ, or Wiki:

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=1324.msg566287#msg566287

Circumference: 125,891 km (78,225 miles)
Diameter: 40,073 km (24,900 miles)

Now there is a key thing to note here in order to understand what they did to get these numbers, and that is that they literally took Earth’s circumference, at the Equator, and used it as their Diameter. Sneaky bastards? Well, if you are to keep any sort of scale to which you can use as an ignorance tool in a debate, this would be absolutely necessary. It’s how you unfold a sphere into a circle. But it’s also because they know they can’t do an equal area projection map without severe distortion such as the following example demonstrates :

As you can see that Equal area distortion can be quite extreme. Though navigable if you calculate for the distortion. However, the calculations would invalidate it as a map reflective of the real world.. So in light of this unarguable fact, we can finally address the Flat Earth Society’s projection map. Thus in step 2 of this article we will break down the Map into a basic mathematical understanding to expose why such a map is so deceptive, wrong, and not applicable to the real world!

Step 2:

Before we Start we must recap on FE’s stated Diameter and Circumference:

Circumference: 125,891 km (78,225 miles)
Diameter: 40,073 km (24,900 miles)

Firstly there is a small mathematical correction to make. A diameter of 40,073 Km is 24,900.2077 miles. When you take this and times it by 3.14(PI), you get the circumference of 78226.3095 miles.

* — Breaking up the Map into Segments/blocks — *

* This map has 12×24 blocks for a total of 288 blocks all together.
* Here we have a radius of 12 blocks starting at the north pole.
* North Pole = point 0, and the beginning of Block 1
* These 12 blocks will be our radius, and for sake of argument, they will all be equal in height.
* The 24 blocks across the entire width will be our Diameter
* All Blocks will be in miles for Height and Width
* All Blocks will be in square miles for Area

So in understanding that FE’s diameter, given above, is 24,900.2077.. We can find the radius height of all the blocks by dividing FE’s diameter of  24,900.2077 by 24 blocks  to get 1037.50865416 miles in height for each block of the 24 blocks. These two numbers will be important to remember.

Legend:

Diameter 24,900.2077 miles
Radius 12,450.10385 miles
Circumference: 78,226.3095 miles
total area: 486,962,839.0564 sq miles
center angle: 15 degrees
Blocks: 288, 12hx24w
Sector Area: 20,290,118.294016 sq miles
Sector Sector Arch Legnth: 3,259.4296 miles
Sector Chord Length 3,250.1293 miles
Block Area:  230,984.1378 sq miles

* — Center Angle — *

The center Angle is 15 degrees

* — Radius — *

with a radius of 12,450.10385

* — Diameter by Block — *

Per Block Radius: 1037.50865416
Formula 1: Block (#)(2)(1,037.5086)

0:           0 miles
1:      2,075.0173 miles
2:      4,150.0346 miles
3:      6,225.0519 miles
4:      8,300.0692 miles
5:    10,375.0865 miles
6:    12,450.1038 miles
7:    14,525.1211 miles
8:    16,600.1384 miles
9:    18,675.1577 miles
10:  20,750.1730 miles
11:  22,825.1903 miles
12:  24,900.2077 miles

* — Circumferences by per Block Distance from the North Pole — *

0:            0.xxxx miles
1:     6,518.8591 miles
2:    13,037.7182 miles
3:    19,556.5773 miles
4:    26,075.4364 miles
5:    32,594.2955 miles
6:    39,113.1546 miles
7:    45,632.0137 miles
8:    52,150.8728 miles
9:    58,669.7319 miles
10:   65,188.5910 miles
11:   71,707.4501 miles
12:   78,226.3095 miles

The Area by Block distance from the North Pole:

0:                      0 miles
1:         3,381,686.3551 sq miles
2:       13,526,745.4206 sq miles
3:       30,435,177.1965 sq miles
4:       54,106,981.6827 sq miles
5:       84,542,158.8793 sq miles
6:     121,740,708.7862 sq miles
7:     165,702,631.4035 sq miles
8:     216,427,926.7311 sq miles
9:     273,916,594.7691 sq miles
10:   338,168,635.5174 sq miles
11:   409,184,048.9760 sq miles
12:   486,962,839.0564 sq miles

* — TOTAL AREA  — *

486,962,839.0564 sq miles

Part 3

CONCLUSION:

Well I hope you made it through all the Math! But what’s interesting is what we can derive from it. What we can compare the known Earth in relation to this supposed Flat Earth, and what you will find is that there is a huge amount of differences that would cause all kinds of problems. These include:

> fuel consumption..Fuel costs and consumption would be unknown magnitudes higher
> Flight times..Imagine trying to fly from Boston to Japan!
> shipping costs would be insane!
> food costs would sky rocket!
> The notion of sailing around the world seem likely the impossible!
> Climate Change
> Weather Patterns
> Jet Streams
> Animal and Bird Migration

This list could go on and on! However, to give you an idea of what I am talking about, I have provided you with a comparison if we were to try and keep things to scale:

Total Area Comparison:

FE:

Surface area: 486,962,839.0564 sq miles
percent of Earth’s ocean 70% – 340,873,987.33948 sq miles
percent of Earth’s  land: 30% – 146,088,851.71692 sq miles

RE:

Surface area: 196,935,000 sq miles
percent of Earth’s ocean 70% – 137,854,500 sq miles
percent of Earth’s land: 30% –  59,080,500 sq miles

So what happens when you try to unfold a sphere and convert it into a circle is that you have to add mass area. This is because unfolding a sphere is like peeling a banana, and you end up with a pin wheel with gaps in between.  These gaps must be filled in, and thus mass area is then added to complete the circle. So this is why FE’s surface area is 486 million sq miles vs RE’s 196 million sq miles.

So we are left with a question:

If we did a time speed and distance calculation (estimated), How long would it have taken Columbus to sail around the world?