one of my long time friends is a flat earther........

[Photon440]

I'll put this here to ponder: Why do we need Saturn rockets to escape the earth's atmosphere, rather than just let a plane fly at a straight horizontal plane vs. the earth ?

Rockets traditionally take off straight up just to get out of the atmospheric drag faster. If they flew horizontally, they'd be in thick air much longer. Even going straight up, the rockets aren't at full power all the time because of the air; they launch at full power, then throttle back as air resistance rises to prevent excessive loading (Max Q), then when they've reached thinner air they go to full power.

For example, for the Space Shuttle, Max Q was around 36,000 feet. Before that point, the main engines were throttled down to 65–72% of their rated thrust. Different designs vary, Apollo reached 43,000 - 46,000 feet before full power could be used.

Accelerating to the speeds needed to reach orbit while traveling horizontally would use much, much more fuel and create too much heat through friction.

 

[WileE]

Rockets traditionally take off straight up just to get out of the atmospheric drag faster. If they flew horizontally, they'd be in thick air much longer. Even going straight up, the rockets aren't at full power all the time because of the air; they launch at full power, then throttle back as air resistance rises to prevent excessive loading (Max Q), then when they've reached thinner air they go to full power.

For example, for the Space Shuttle, Max Q was around 36,000 feet. Before that point, the main engines were throttled down to 65–72% of their rated thrust. Different designs vary, Apollo reached 43,000 - 46,000 feet before full power could be used.

Accelerating to the speeds needed to reach orbit while traveling horizontally would use much, much more fuel and create too much heat through friction.nd why a plane would not gain altitude flying horizontally vs. the earth surface.

Gravity. You need to reach escape velocity to overcome gravitational force.

 

[Mopar Miki]

lol...lot's of scientists on here. Both sides of the equation have questions they cannot answer; however that requires an objective view without one's opinion slanting the view.

 

[WileE]

lol...lot's of scientists on here. Both sides of the equation have questions they cannot answer; however that requires an objective view without one's opinion slanting the view.

I graduated 6th grade in the same class with Jethro Bodine. That's my educational level.

So... educate me why YOUR earth is flat.

 

[eldubb440]

I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express a time or 2

 

[QuickBpBp]

I was crabbing over the summer and got too close to edge and almost fell off. It was scary. LMAO

 

[Photon440]

I wonder how certain flight paths, for example Australia to Chile which fly past Antarctica, would look on a flat Earth map.

vs.

 

[WileE]

I wonder how certain flight paths, for example Australia to Chile which fly past Antarctica, would look on a flat Earth map.
View attachment 1758696
vs.
View attachment 1758698

Maybe they fly UNDERNEATH the flat earth, and come out the opposite end ? Hey... I wonder, is there any air/atmosphere on the underside ? How thick is the earth ? Are there any bugs that fall off from the bottom if they dig too deep ?

 

[64BEL]

If the earth is flat, how is China hanging on to the bottom side? Everyone knows that if we dig deep enough, we get to China, right?

 

[Kern Dog]

Obviously these dorks are confused and weird but they have had help getting there.
There are people that comment about other outlandish topics like ....
CIA sanctioned, LSD infused soldiers....
The fake moon landing.
9-11 was an "inside job".
Chemtrails.
But sometimes something comes along where the deniers are actually right.
Covid did come from a lab, it did come from China.
The vaccine wasn't safe, nor was it effective.
The authorities urged us to trust the science but not our bullshit detectors?

 

[Detective D]

Obviously these dorks are confused and weird but they have had help getting there.
There are people that comment about other outlandish topics like ....
CIA sanctioned, LSD infused soldiers....
The fake moon landing.
9-11 was an "inside job".
Chemtrails.
But sometimes something comes along where the deniers are actually right.
Covid did come from a lab, it did come from China.
The vaccine wasn't safe, nor was it effective.
The authorities urged us to trust the science but not our bullshit detectors?

None of those are the topic of the thread, but please do not include flat earth with something as documented through public record as MK Ultra. There is so much public record available about that they made a couple movie/documentary about it now.

Flat earth is born of pure misunderstanding of scale and ignorance of physics, with a bit of high fantasy and daydreaming thrown in. It would only be a possibility when looking at higher perception things like ability to see other dimensions or other ultra abstract concepts.
The rest of your list boils down to if you can believe people would be so corrupt to do that or not. Selfishness and corruption as a motive is a different playing field then dimensional possibility and hard sciences.

I am not going to go on and on about the topics because it will derail the thread. And please don't take that as I am 100% in agreement or disagreement with those topics. I am just saying the flat earth topic is not related to those as a thought exercise.