Is Earth Actually Flat?

In 2003, researchers measured and found that Kansas is, in fact, literally flatter than a pancake. However, despite such findings, the Earth is round. Otherwise, travelers would be falling off the edge all the time, right? Wrong.

If the Earth were not ball-shaped but instead a flat disk, like a plate, life would feel normal in the center. However, as you move toward the edge, gravity on a disk Earth would skew slightly, pushing at a greater angle back toward the center. This simulation, though not to scale, shows how increasingly diagonal gravity would work. Although this is a flat disk, it would feel to a runner headed toward the edge like they were fighting to climb up a steeper and steeper hill. The building foundations reflect how structures would need to be built closer to the edge to ensure people felt like down was at right angles to the floor, similar to how we experience it on our round Earth.

As you approach the edge, things would get scary. Despite this being a flat Earth, it would feel like a sheer drop-off. Contrary to the "don't fall off the edge" fear, on a flat world, the real risk would be falling away from the edge and rolling back to the center. Once you step over the edge, instead of falling into space, you could relax on a nice, level place. However, this model neglects the fact that such a planet shape would be impossible. Anything as massive as the Earth, shaped like a flat disc, would naturally collapse back into a ball under its own gravity. This is why in outer space, everything more than a few hundred miles in diameter is round.

What if gravity isn't real? What if the Earth is, in fact, flat, and science has been wrong all along? It's a misconception that Christopher Columbus discovered the Earth is round. Virtually every scholar and major religion in the West accepted Earth's rotundity since at least the time of the Ancient Greeks. For instance, they noticed that boats disappear bottom first when sailing away, and stars pop in and out of view as you walk north and south. The misconception that lots of people believed the Earth was flat a few hundred years ago likely began as an insult, repeated so often it became accepted as historical fact. "Flat-Earther" became synonymous with "Anti-science."

The Earth might seem flat over short distances, but over longer ones, it’s pretty curvy. For example, the Verrazano–Narrows Bridge, connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn, had to be designed with Earth's roundness in mind. Its two towers, separated by 1,300 meters and perfectly vertical, are nonetheless 41 millimeters further apart at the top than at the bottom due to Earth's curvature.

In the 3rd century BC, Eratosthenes measured the differences between shadows cast by poles in Syene and Alexandria to calculate the circumference of the Earth with impressive accuracy. Word got around that the Earth was a round shape. But in 1906, Wilbur Glenn Voliva, head of a religious sect in Zion, Illinois, believed the Earth was flat and enforced this belief in schools. He also believed the sun was only a few thousand miles away and 32 miles across. This sounds crazy, but the phenomenon Eratosthenes measured could be explained by a flat Earth if the sun were only a few thousand miles away and 32 miles across.

Today, with the power of the Internet, modern-day flat Earthers continue where Voliva left off. They have explanations for any evidence you present that the Earth is round. They claim circumnavigation is just a flat circle path, the round shadow Earth casts on the Moon during a lunar eclipse could be made by a flat disc, and time zones are caused by a spotlight sun. They argue that gravity, as we know it, doesn't exist; the flat disc of Earth is merely accelerating upward at 9.8 meters per second. They claim all photos and videos of the round Earth from space are fabricated by Big Globe conspirators, including space agencies and airlines.

Is it a coincidence that the logo used by the Flat Earth Society is a projection of Earth centered on the North Pole, similar to the projection used by the United Nations? Are these people for real? Probably not most of them. This is Poe's Law in action: parody of extremism and sincere extremism are difficult to distinguish. Flat Earth theories are predominantly ad hoc explanations—excuses made up on the spot that only address one issue and don't fit all the evidence. Science rejects a theory if a better one fits more observations, but why the obsession with our observations?

A cosmic ray particle, for example, might conclude that the Earth is flat. At speeds near light, time slows, and lengths contract. Unstable muons, created by cosmic rays in the upper atmosphere, should decay before reaching Earth's surface, yet we detect many because their crazy fast speed means, from our perspective, their physics runs according to a slower clock; to them, the distance to the surface is much shorter. So, Earth is flat to them but round to us. It is ball-shaped to some observers and flat to others. There doesn't appear to be a single, correct answer in all circumstances.

Susan Haack compares knowledge to a crossword puzzle, where new answers interweave with old ones, reinforcing each other. The clues are the questions we ask, and the way the answers fit into a grid reassures us we're on the right track, though there may never be a finished puzzle. The famous 1996 New York Times crossword puzzle before the US election between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole had a clue, "Lead story in tomorrow's newspaper (blank) elected." The answer could be either Clinton or Bob Dole, and all other clues fit regardless. Our knowledge might be similar, with answers fitting together but always the possibility that a fundamental answer might change everything.

Richard Feynman said, "Some people say 'How can you live without knowing?' I always live without knowing—that is easy. How you get to know is what I want to know."

This analysis explores the flat Earth debate, highlighting the persistence of such beliefs despite scientific evidence and demonstrating the complexity and curiosity driving our quest for knowledge.