Homemade rocket man is about to prove the earth is flat...

[Angilion]

Bills got your back bro (5:26 onwards) [..]

I listened to it...and Bill's talking rubbish;

1) He's blathering on about how impressive building a small, inefficient, low power rocket is solely on the basis that he can't be bothered to spend half an hour looking up how to do it.
2) He's blathering on about how this guy was "fact-checking" the claim that the Earth is round when he obviously wasn't because even if everything had gone perfectly all he would have done was reached an altitude lower than a cheap off the shelf drone is capable of.
3) He's blathering on about high altitude being the only way to "fact check" the claim that the Earth is round...in an era where millions of people have spent extended periods of time at a far higher altitude than this rocket was capable of. Planes have windows.
4) He's blathering on about high altitude being the only way to "fact check" the claim that the Earth is round...in an era where billions of people have instant access to detailed instructions on how to do it from the ground and children at schools sometimes do it as part of science classes.

 

[wolfie138]

they proved Earth was round about 2500 years ago w/ a pair of sticks, nevermind drones and other clever kit.

 

[Angilion]

they proved Earth was round about 2500 years ago w/ a pair of sticks, nevermind drones and other clever kit.

That was Eratosthenes about 2200 years ago and he was measuring the size of the Earth. It was already proven that it was spherical(*), so his method simply assumed it was (because it is). The earliest formal proof is from maths and observations of the Earth's shadow on the moon. The Earth's shadow is circular from all angles and the only shape that casts a circular shadow from all angles is a sphere, therefore the Earth is a sphere.

The most impressive thing about Eratosthenes' method isn't the result (which isn't entirely known as he was using stadia as the units of measurement and didn't specify which version he was using) but the fact that it works. Any error would be due to limits of precision in measurement. If you repeat Eratosthenes' experiment with modern equipment (as some people have done), you get what would be precisely the right result if Earth was exactly a sphere so it's a fraction of a percent off because Earth isn't exactly a sphere.


* technically it's an oblate spheroid rather than a sphere, but it's extremely close to being a sphere.

 

[neckbeardthethird]

I listened to it...and Bill's talking rubbish;

1) He's blathering on about how impressive building a small, inefficient, low power rocket is solely on the basis that he can't be bothered to spend half an hour looking up how to do it.
2) He's blathering on about how this guy was "fact-checking" the claim that the Earth is round when he obviously wasn't because even if everything had gone perfectly all he would have done was reached an altitude lower than a cheap off the shelf drone is capable of.
3) He's blathering on about high altitude being the only way to "fact check" the claim that the Earth is round...in an era where millions of people have spent extended periods of time at a far higher altitude than this rocket was capable of. Planes have windows.
4) He's blathering on about high altitude being the only way to "fact check" the claim that the Earth is round...in an era where billions of people have instant access to detailed instructions on how to do it from the ground and children at schools sometimes do it as part of science classes.

He's a comedian bruh, you're not to meant take him seriously to the point of actually debating his points (which he himself would admit he's spent the grand total of 1 minute fomulating)

 

[Angilion]

He's a comedian bruh, you're not to meant take him seriously to the point of actually debating his points (which he himself would admit he's spent the grand total of 1 minute fomulating)

I disagree. He's putting forward an argument and that makes it fair game for debate. "They're a comedian" isn't a catch-all excuse to forbid any criticism of any argument put forward.

You're not allowed to disagree with me because I am identifying as a comedian while writing this post.