Problem concerning if the earth is flat or not. ?

Question

So here's the thing. My prof asked us to write on a paper whether we think that the earth is flat or not. He told his class that the earth is flat. We weren't that stupid to believe that. But we knew that he was testing us if we could counter back what he says about the flat earth. (We once said that if the earth is flat, someone should have seen the edge of the world. But he countered back by saying that those who have seen the edge of the world fall off there. LOL)

What can I say to prove that the earth is not flat but spherical(or is it)?

Answer 1

Tell him that if the earth was flat how would it be posible to have days and nights

Answer 2

Use the fact that it is light in your time zone while it is dark in another. If the Earth was flat, it should be light and dark at the same time.

The fact that we have seasons - these are caused by part of the earth being tilted towards the sun as it rotates; if earth were flat, seasons wouldn't exist.

Th coriolis effect occurs because the Earth rotates. The fact that the coriolis effect is stronger at the poles than at the equator shows that the Earth must be spherical - otherwise it would have the same effect all over.

I would also think you could use gravity - the gravitational pull from the center of the Earth is basically what keeps us from, you know, floating/falling away from the surface of the Earth. If the Earth was flat, there could be no central core and center of gravity, meaning there would really be nothing keep us on the surface of the planet.

Plus, wouldn't all the water drain off the edge of the Earth it it were flat? What would be keeping the water on the flat planet?

Answer 3

Well, in science we cannot prove anything. You can, however, falsify a flat Earth.

You can start here to see some of the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_earth

Then you can move out from there to explore the different lines of evidence we use to determine Earth is round.

Answer 4

Tell him to look at the moon and use your brain to reason.

Answer 5

1. call someone in a different time zone - if they are east of you, then call when it should be just dark there, but light where you are.  If the earth were flat, it should be the 'same' sun angle in both places.  

2. Observe the sun, mark the angle the sun makes to the ground at noon.  Drive north (or call a friend who lives more than a couple hundred miles) and measure the sun angle again - it will be different - why?

3.  Mark the sun angle over several months - why is it changing?   (the poles tilt to the axis of the earth's orbit - why days get longer in the summer and shorter in the winter...)

4. go to the ocean - observe ships going over the horizon - (if you have access to a radar range, and can see some part of a ship that you know the height of, you could actually calculate the earth's curvature given the range and the height of the 'missing' portion of the ship  (e.g. the hull is 26' tall, your eyes are 8 feet above sea level, and the ship is 15 nm away when the hull is no longer visible... )  This doesn't work as well on land, because land is not truly level most of the time...

Answer 6

Bring up Google earth and show him the pics of the globe from space.

Look up the NASA site, they have pics of the Earth from space, and l think video footage from the window of the space shuttle etc.

If all else fails, change schools and get yourself a sane teacher :-)