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There are people claiming that the earth is flat. Most notably the flat earth society. While I believe this is mostly run by people with good knowledge of science having a fun side-project, I'm having a hard time disproving them.

How do you really prove that the earth is round?

Filip Haglund
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    Without reading over their wiki and just assuming a simple concept. The first thing that comes to mind is see if your GPS works. You would have to assume they are lying about the way it works. And if they are, how does it work? A couple other ideas is to check airline flight paths and distances. A compass would be difficult to explain under a flat earth. The sun being at a different angle in north and south latitudes and seasons also. Weights are lighter at the equator. Even the makeup of the atmosphere. Atomic clocks at different latitudes. (ignoring astronauts of course) – Adam Phelps Jul 03 '15 at 02:30
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    You might have to narrow it down to a specific model. Some flat-earth models are quite hard to disprove because they make exactly the same predictions as the standard model of the universe, just in an unnecessarily awkward way. – Philipp Jul 03 '15 at 08:26
  • The linked site seems to be a humorous site. – Sklivvz Jul 03 '15 at 10:18
  • Note the **round** shadow of the earth cast on the moon's surface during a [lunar eclipse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse)... –  Jul 07 '15 at 16:56
  • @recursion.ninja the earth could be a flat disc, or maybe something else is throwing that shadow – Filip Haglund Jul 07 '15 at 17:09
  • By sampling the trajectories of projectiles originating from any single point on the earth, you can confirm via the [Coriolis effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Rotating_sphere) that the earth has a spherical rotation rather than a radial rotation. –  Jul 07 '15 at 17:37
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    @Skliwz How exactly is this off topic? While most people **know** the earth is round, there's a good large chunk of people who are challenging this claim today, and many of them are indeed very serious. Hell, I even got fooled for a second because of lack of evidence for the earth being round; or much of said evidence actually still applying were the earth flat. The strongest argument I've found for a rounded earth is indeed however the Coriolis Effect; Satellites and other planets viewed through a telescope. – Cestarian Mar 09 '16 at 21:29
  • 20 Reasons We Know the Earth Is Spherical: https://medium.com/@hb20007/20-reasons-we-know-the-earth-is-spherical-8dca3ecdeaf – hb20007 Jun 14 '18 at 12:10
  • People who believe in earnest that the Earth is not round: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/behind-the-curve-a-fascinating-study-of-reality-challenged-beliefs/ – A E Sep 21 '19 at 13:34

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