Flat Earth

[BADecker]

Please forgive me for asking if you are a "flat earth truther". We sometimes get those numpties passing by trying to justify their theories (especially the one about Antarctica being a ringed ice wall with the military guarding it to make sure no-one learns the secret).

There have been many flights over the geographic South Pole, the first documented one being in 1935 by Lincoln Ellsworth and Herbert Hollick-Kenyon. See also the first flight over Antarctica.

Pan Am flight 50, using a Boeing 747SP, also flew over both poles.

No scheduled commercial flights over fly the South Pole since there are no great circle routes in use which do so.

Flights from New Zealand to South Africa would fly over Antarctica but no airline currently flies that route.

As to problems with the compass, modern aircraft have no problems since the primary navigation source is GPS. If you were using a compass only, as you got close to the magnetic South pole (remember, this is not even in Antarctica), the compass would become increasingly unreliable. Simply maintain a straight course though, over the pole, and the compass will become increasingly reliable. However, navigating over the magnetic poles using only a compass is the preserve of explorers and the fool-hardy.

This document contains more technical detail regarding navigation. It talks mainly about the North magnetic pole but is applicable to both.

A couple of other considerations when asking about commercial flights is the need for ETOPS certification and the need to carry special survival equipment when flying south of latitude 72 degrees which is very considerable and would require the removal of revenue seats to carry it.

There is a big difference between the nearest suitable diversion airport flying over the Arctic and flying over the Antarctic.

Check the posting for links to the data listed.

Few airlines fly between cities having a great circle route over Antarctica. Nonstop flights between South Africa and New Zealand, or between Perth, Australia and certain destinations in South America (including Buenos Aires and São Paulo), would overfly Antarctica, but no airline has scheduled such flights. Flights between Australia and South America and between Australia and South Africa pass near the Antarctic coastline. Depending on the winds, the Qantas flight QF 63 from Sydney to Johannesburg-O. R. Tambo sometimes flies over the Antarctic Circle to latitude 71 degrees as well and allowing views of the icecap. Qantas also flies nonstop between Sydney and Santiago de Chile, the most southerly polar route. Depending on winds, this flight may reach 55 degrees south latitude, but other times 71 degrees, which is enough to cross the polar ice cap. The polar route across the remote southern Pacific Ocean between South America and Oceania was pioneered by Aerolineas Argentinas, which began service between Buenos Aires via Rio Gallegos to Auckland in the 1980s with a Boeing 747-200 aircraft. Aerolineas Argentinas later operated to Sydney, but ended its flights to New Zealand and Australia in 2014.

Because of ETOPS limitations on twin-engined aircraft—the maximum distance the aircraft can operate from an airport for emergency landings—only 4-engined aircraft such as the Boeing 747 or Airbus A340 can operate routes near Antarctica. Twin-engined aircraft must fly further north, closer to potential diversion airports; for example, when Virgin Australia operated a flight from Melbourne to Johannesburg on twin-engined Boeing 777 aircraft with a 180-minute ETOPS rating, the flight was two hours longer than a Qantas flight from Sydney to Johannesburg. Air New Zealand flies nonstop between Auckland and Buenos Aires-Ezeiza; in 2015, government regulators approved its twin-engined Boeing 777-200ER aircraft that operate the route for a 330-minute ETOPS rating (i.e. its 777 aircraft can fly a maximum 330 minutes away from the nearest diversion airport), an increase from its previous 240-minute ETOPS rating. LATAM Airlines began a nonstop flight between Santiago de Chile and Sydney via Auckland in April 2015 with twin-engined Boeing 787 aircraft with a 330-minute ETOPS rating. LATAM has announced a nonstop flight between Santiago de Chile and Melbourne to begin in October 2017.

[Astargath]

**fap**

1. get in an airplane and fly West and keep flying west.

They have some really weird ''explanations'' of why this doesn't work. I don't remember exactly what the idea was, hopefully our crazy friend notbatman can help us here.

The magnetic compass points north, this is the center. South is Antarctica; a ring of ice and land that encloses the oceans and continents. Travel east or west via the compass and you will go in a circle.

So there is no way to actually ever travel in a straight line?

[ferall]

504 pages on this is worrying.

[sven2017]

Chill bros :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyUrw8TJDHM

I really hate to ask a 3rd-party about the shape of the earth, so we should create a blockchain for that without 3rd-party LIARS in between

[notbatman]

**fap**

1. get in an airplane and fly West and keep flying west.

They have some really weird ''explanations'' of why this doesn't work. I don't remember exactly what the idea was, hopefully our crazy friend notbatman can help us here.

The magnetic compass points north, this is the center. South is Antarctica; a ring of ice and land that encloses the oceans and continents. Travel east or west via the compass and you will go in a circle.

So there is no way to actually ever travel in a straight line?

A gyroscopic compass can guide you in a straight line.

[notbatman]

...
I really hate to ask a 3rd-party about the shape of the earth, so we should create a blockchain for that without 3rd-party LIARS in between

With a Nikon Coolpix P900 camera, Google Maps and the metabunk.org curvature calculator anybody can confirm the Earth is flat without relying on 3rd party information.

[sven2017]

Yes. I hope more people will do this. At the very beginning of this thread it was funny. Because we are in a bitcoin (and "blockchain") forum and here are still people who rely on 3rd parties like NASA, this is a blatent contradiction of blockchain-thinking

[flekkelek]

**fap**

1. get in an airplane and fly West and keep flying west.

They have some really weird ''explanations'' of why this doesn't work. I don't remember exactly what the idea was, hopefully our crazy friend notbatman can help us here.

The magnetic compass points north, this is the center. South is Antarctica; a ring of ice and land that encloses the oceans and continents. Travel east or west via the compass and you will go in a circle.

So there is no way to actually ever travel in a straight line?

A gyroscopic compass can guide you in a straight line.

So if I use a gyrocompass and a regular magnetic compass, they will show different directions over time? I mean it has to be some sensable difference after a while, right?

[BADecker]

**fap**

1. get in an airplane and fly West and keep flying west.

They have some really weird ''explanations'' of why this doesn't work. I don't remember exactly what the idea was, hopefully our crazy friend notbatman can help us here.

The magnetic compass points north, this is the center. South is Antarctica; a ring of ice and land that encloses the oceans and continents. Travel east or west via the compass and you will go in a circle.

So there is no way to actually ever travel in a straight line?

A gyroscopic compass can guide you in a straight line.

What does it even mean to travel in a straight line? There are always deviations in the line of travel, caused by the method of travel, that keep it from ever being a straight line of travel.

That's the problem with this whole thread. People who post aren't coming close with the words thay post to expressing what they really mean.

[Vod]

The sea is curved is it? Well you just go ahead and prove that hahaha...

How much more proof do you need that water finds its level on a curve?    Go visit the ocean someday.

Your lies are becoming weak, old man...

[Alex3601]

As I have seen from riding an airplane, I never saw that the earth is round or flat. I wonder how could anyone captured that the earth is round or spherical in shape?I think my school teacher was lied since I was a kid. And also the astronauts maybe they are lying to us that the earth is round or spherical shape. If we fly by an airplane, we cannot see the earth's surface cause it almost covered with the clouds. How could they take a picture that the earth is round in shape?  I agree that the earth is flat.

[Gyro]

As I have seen from riding an airplane, I never saw that the earth is round or flat. I wonder how could anyone captured that the earth is round or spherical in shape?I think my school teacher was lied since I was a kid. And also the astronauts maybe they are lying to us that the earth is round or spherical shape. If we fly by an airplane, we cannot see the earth's surface cause it almost covered with the clouds. How could they take a picture that the earth is round in shape?  I agree that the earth is flat.

That's right man, everyone is a liar. Everyone in our lives is a liar.. with the exception of those flat earth youtube people. Clearly they are the only ones telling us the truth.

[notbatman]

As I have seen from riding an airplane, I never saw that the earth is round or flat. I wonder how could anyone captured that the earth is round or spherical in shape?I think my school teacher was lied since I was a kid. And also the astronauts maybe they are lying to us that the earth is round or spherical shape. If we fly by an airplane, we cannot see the earth's surface cause it almost covered with the clouds. How could they take a picture that the earth is round in shape?  I agree that the earth is flat.

That's right man, everyone is a liar. Everyone in our lives is a liar.. with the exception of those flat earth youtube people. Clearly they are the only ones telling us the truth.

Simulated MSM Image

[MiSKLaCH]

Meanwhile, in the real world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

[bkbirge]

Meanwhile, in the real world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

Beautiful. The launch and booster reentry was truly amazing. They made it look easy.

[MiSKLaCH]

Meanwhile, in the real world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

Beautiful. The launch and booster reentry was truly amazing. They made it look easy.

There are rumors about the core Falcon 9 didn't made it to the drone ship, but nevertheless this was amazing as fuck!!! 

[ferall]

Meanwhile, in the real world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M

Beautiful. The launch and booster reentry was truly amazing. They made it look easy.

Yep, they must be in on the conspiracy, showing a fake earth curvature.

Or maybe not.......

[Jitra]

How as an individual can I know if the Earth is a sphere or a flat disc? What experiment can I do that doesn't involve trusting information from a 3rd party that would prove what the geometry really is?

Watch Space-X Falcon Heavy launched today and you'll see the earth is not flat... :-)

[gogiking]

find a place where you can see a horizon.

take a picture with your phone

interestingly, your picture of the horizon will be bit round.
if earth was flat, the horizon should be flat too.

[notbatman]

find a place where you can see a horizon.

take a picture with your phone

interestingly, your picture of the horizon will be bit round.
if earth was flat, the horizon should be flat too.

You're full of shit, the horizon is perfectly flat.