It was the
ancient Greeks who first found out that our Earth, despite how it apparently
looks, is not technically flat. They were even able to calculate the
circumference of the Earth. And that was about 2,000 years ago. We had already
written it down on stone that the Earth was a sphere. Now, if anybody wanted
more proof, then all they had to do was to wait for the 20th century. Not only
did we go to the Moon, but we have captured photographs of our round Blue
Planet from space. Now, we would believe that any misconception about the Earth
being flat would be put to rest.
But
unfortunately, it isn’t.
The Flat
Earth Society and other flat earthers believe that the entire theory of a
spherical earth is just hogwash – a grand conspiracy cooked up by NASA to keep
us blind to the fact that the Earth is ‘Flat’. According to them, that is the
truth. As per the Flat Earth Society (FES) website, it is one of the world’s
oldest organization regarding Flat Earth which has been active since the early
1800s. They even have a diagram of what the earth actually looks like: a pancake-like disk which has the North Pole
in the middle. According to them, the edge is surrounded by a thick ice wall
which keeps the ocean from falling over
And now, the
Flat Earthers are finally going out on a mission to prove their point. They are
planning a cruise to reach the edge of the Earth and finally get to those ‘secret’
ice walls surrounding the edge of the Earth. Their adventure is scheduled for
2020 as per their website. This might be their ultimate shot at proving that
the Earth is flat. While many of the details about the date and other aspects
of this event are still pending, the Flat Earth Society claims that it would be
one of the bravest adventures to date. However, there is an irony attached to
this great scheme.
All the
nautical maps and navigation tools currently present in this world are based on
the concept of the globe-like earth. That’s how modern navigation technologies
like GPS (Global Positioning System) has been developed too. They can even be
considered as proof for the round shape of the earth. But then again, ironies
come as part and parcel when we are talking about flat earthers.
Henk Keijer,
who is an ex-cruise ship captain, was quite surprised by this irony. He has
been in the business for about 23 years and he told The Guardian how all the
navigation charts and systems are based on the principle of the spherical
earth. The GPS that we use all the time is completely dependent on the dozens
of satellites that are orbiting the earth. These satellites beam signals down
to the receiver of a GPS and pinpoint a certain location. If the Earth had been
flat, three satellites would have been sufficient to help everybody on the
planet to get their location on the GPS. That we have to invest so much on more
satellites to do so is simply because the Earth is actually round.
However, we
are not completely sure whether the cruise is actually using GPS. Maybe they
might rummage through their hidden stash and find a new kind of nautical map,
especially suited for Flat Earthers! Well, all we can say to them is good luck.
Hopefully, this proof will be enough to make them realize how wrong they were.
Or maybe
that’s asking too much.
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