Oh gods can we get any more off-topic *wink* [was Re: [Python-ideas] Inconsistencies]

[Chris Kaynor]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2016 at 1:19 PM, <breamoreboy at gmail.com> wrote:

> It is so blantantly obvious that the world is not flat I find this
> discussion flabbergasting.  Anybody who has tried to take any form of
> vehicle up, or probably more dangerously down, any form of hill knows
> that.  As for the raving lunatics who make their living by riding up and
> down these http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-37348004, well need I
> say more?
>

Going up or down a mountain does not prove the world is round by itself, no
matter how twisted the road might be. Take for example most 3D game worlds,
which are generally simulated using a flat-world for ease, but still
simulate gravity (and sometimes even the horizon) just fine.

If you find somebody determined to not trust evidence such as the blue
marble photos, it can be quite hard to prove that the world is not flat.
The major issue comes from the fact that, at a human scale, the difference
between a flat world and and Earth is very small - you don't need to take
into account the curve of the earth for almost any buildings.

With that in mind, I'm not sure what evidence you claim is "blatantly
obvious". By far the two simplest evidence is traveling around the Earth
(not particularly easy, especially even 100 years ago) and watching the
stars move. Both could be explained by other methods, but those would be
vastly more complicated to explain the observed behavior (look at the
Earth-centric universe models).

Chris