My question regarding this quote is: How do you think it's possible to see 300 miles away when your magic sphere should be hiding the image with 60,000 feet of curved water?
Just something for you to think about, try to come up with a good answer, I'm interested in your response.
I am happy to answer that question.
Your statement that after 300 miles, the Earth should have curved 60,000 feet is based on the result you get from using the GitHub Earth Curve Calculator, or at least the same formula. (Other readers are advised to play with the calculator and see for themself).
Now, what you have to know is that this formula is just the math based on a perfect 2dimentional circle. As the site demonstrates with the image below:
Height h0 and h1 are measures of the distance from a straight line and down to the circle. But for this to be applied to an experiment, you must make the assumption that the curvature is equal at all times. So basically assuming that the Earth is a perfect sphere. So yes, the fact that there is a point on Earth where one can take a 300mile photography does indeed disprove that the Earth is a perfect sphere!
However, nobody believes that it is. We've known for a long time that the Earth is very far from a perfect sphere (if this was to be literally true, the Earth's surface would be slick as a bowling ball). Instead, the model of the Earth that we have is one that is bulky and uneven. I mean, it would be amazing if even millions of years of titonic plates moving and colliding we would have been left with a complete perfect mathematical circle?
Below you can see the best model that we have according to our measures from the GOCE Satellite that we launched in 2009.
As you can see, the curvature is very different at different points of the Earth. This is why you can have some places on Earth that allow for longer distant photographs than others.
I doubt this will change your or Fulltimegeek's mind, but your question made the direct assumption that for the Earth to be round, one should necessarily see 60 000 feet curvature anywhere after 300 miles. This is simply not the model you're tasked to falsify. So I hope that at least it may have helped clarify what it is that the current model suggests is.
So there's the backing for his claim that one can be, and should be, able to find a place on Earth to take a longer distant photograph than others.
Steem on.
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