#facepalm. But like, once you get past the crazytalk… How do we know the Earth IS round?

Welcome back my woke friends, Trace here for DNews. If you follow the pervasive yellow

journalism online and elsewhere, you've probably heard of Rapper B.o.B.'s beef with NASA, science

and specifically Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and science celeb. In short,

some pop culture peeps think the Earth is Flat. Proving them wrong is simple, though

it took hundreds of years for science to figure it out in the first place.

how do we know otherwise? We know the Earth is round by observing it

closely. If you watch a ship as it disappears over the horizon, the bottom vanishes first

and then the top disappears later. It looks like it's sinking. That's because the Earth

is curved. Using a stopwatch you can do your own experiment to prove it. Watch the sun

set over the ocean or a open plain with a friend. If you stand, while they lay down,

each will see the sun cross the horizon at a slightly different time!

how did we first realize the earth was round? The Greeks first realized this 2500 years

ago, and spent hundreds of years attempting to explain it. First, mathematician Pythagoras

looked at the moon and discovered a curve in the line dividing light from shadow on

its surface -- called the terminator. A flat moon would have a straight line! The only

explanation? The moon must be a sphere! Sometime later, Anaxagoras, while watching the moon

during an eclipse, realized the shadow covering the moon must be from the Earth! As that shadow

is definitely curved, the Earth must be round! And still later in about 350 BC, Aristotle

noted that star constellations, visible in Greece were hidden beyond the horizon in Egypt.

His conclusion, yet again, was the Earth must be a sphere, just like the moon! Sidebar:

Notice, humanity knew the Earth was round 1800 years before 1492 when Columbus Sailed

the Ocean Blue. Just debunking some grade school crap.

how curved is the earth? Once these great thinkers realized the Earth

was curved, they wanted to PROVE IT. A Greek astronomer named Eratosthenes figured it out.

On the summer solstice, the sun reaches a peak at the top of the sky. Eratosthenes went

to two distant locations in Egypt on the Solstice and measured the angles cast by the shadows

in each place. Then, using some geometry he could calculate the curvature of the Earth

between those places! From there, he could extrapolate how many degrees around the circle

of the Earth he had moved -- ultimately, revealing the circumference and diameter of the EARTH!!

Dang.

Thanks to all these ancient humans we know Earth is just a bit over 40 thousand km around

the poles (about 24,860 miles) (which is supported by modern observations), and knowing that

we can determine how far the horizon is from you -- which changes depending on how high

above sea level you are. The Earth is curved, and we know it.

Why do these people think this? In the end, the problem is Flat Earthers just

don't trust science. When the Flat Earth Society was founded in the mid-1920s, the idea was

observation trumps all. This is called the Zetetic philosophy. Many skeptics believe

the same. If the Earth looks flat it must be flat. Often they cry "Prove me wrong!"

"Only trust your own observations!" The funny thing about that argument is that it was observation

that showed us the Earth’s curvature in the first place! Pythagoras observed that

shadow line across the moon. Countless people have observed ships sailing underneath the

horizon. NOT TO MENTION the fact that we’ve gone to space and observed a very spherical

Earth from above.

And if you don’t believe all those people for some reason, make your own observation.

Climb a mountain, watch a ship sail away, or watch the sun set with a friend. And behold

an inarguably spherical Earth.

Your move, B.o.B.

Conspiracy theories are just, the best, aren't they? Have you ever wondered why people love

9/11 conspiracies? Why are we so obsessed with the Illuminati or which conspiracy theories

might be actually true? TestTube Plus is the podcast/show for you! We cover…

Do y'all know anyone that we should make a video debunking? Comments. Do it.