In an absolutely shocking twist that NOBODY saw that coming, some people still believe that the Earth is flat. Yes, in the year 2025, with billions of dollars worth of satellites literally orbiting our atmosphere everyday.
The Flat Earth theory actually has ancient roots, dating back to times when ancient people thought thunderstorms and lightning were signs of angry gods and maps were still being drawn on animal skin. But the modern version of the Flat Earth theory truly took off in popularity during the 19th century when Samuel Rowbotham published “Zetetic Astronomy: Earth Not a Globe”. He tried to argue in his book that the Earth was a flat disc with the North Pole in the middle and a long ice wall covering(that being Antarctica) around the edge. In a nutshell, he tried to argue that the Earth was one giant cosmic dinner plate.
So, Rowbothan’s “proof” was the famous Bedford Level Experiment in which Rowbotham looked over a canal, didn’t see a curve, and thought to himself “Physics must be wrong!” Because apparently, the entire planet’s shape can be judged by standing next to a body of water and using a telescope.
Then came the Flat Earth Society in the 1950s, where these flat Earth believers claimed NASA was faking the moon landing photos and these brave astronauts were actually just really good actors, maybe Hollywood should take note. Why? Because if you believe that NASA lied about the Earth being round, of course they’d think NASA lied about everything else including the moon landing. Flat Earthers claimed that the Apollo missions were a staged operation to cover up the truth of a flat planet, pointing out things like missing stars, odd lightings, and a supposedly “flapping” flag, all of which have been debunked by science completely. In reality, the missing stars are due to poor camera exposure, the flags waves only because of momentum, and the lighting matches the Moon’s own reflective surface. But of course, no one can stop the conspiracy theorists. The Society still exists to this day, and thrives on clickbaitey Youtube videos and conspiracy forums, where any bit of science goes to die.
Meanwhile, actual scientists, astronauts not just from NASA, and well, anyone who’s ever used a telescope in their life, continue to confirm that the Earth is 100% a sphere. Gravity, satellite photos, and the timezones all agree that the world isn’t flat. If Earth was some giant pancake, gravity would pull everything towards its center, that’s basic physics. This means people near the “edges” of our big Earth pancake would be walking at a very weird angle, and on top of that, the way planes travel, how massive mountains disappear over the horizon, and just how the stars can shift depending on where you are make sense only on a round planet. And no, there isn’t some big ice wall keeping our oceans from spilling into the void of space, that’s Antarctica, a continent, not some cosmic fence.
But hey, at the very least Flat Earthers remind us of one great thing, curiosity is great, but maybe next time, do a quick Google search or check Google Earth before trying to be the next Christopher Columbus.