Flat Earth vs Globe Earth

As per the rules, I’ll only be presenting my arguments for a spherical earth this round. Brief OverviewMy first argument will concern gravity and how the existence of gravity is incompatible with a flat earth, in multiple important respects.Next, we’ll look at a probabilistic argument regarding the likelihood of a conspiracy. Specifically, we’ll look at the number of people that would need to be involved in this conspiracy, as well as the number of governments. We’ll analyze whether it is possible to maintain such a conspiracy. We’ll also lightly look at the existence (or lack thereof) of motivations for keeping such a conspiracy alive.Argument 1: GravityWe will first acknowledge that there is a force which continuously acts upon all bodies. For evidence of this, simply jump. Finally, take note that you will soon return to the ground. For your body to change directions (from up to down) a force must necessarily have been applied to your body. [1]We further note that this “falling force” does not appear to work in a single, universal direction. We see that the planets appear to follow particular paths which they could not possibly follow unless a force was acting upon them. This “falling force” appears to change direction depending upon the orientation of the masses involved. This “falling force” is what we call gravity and its behavior has been accurately described by an equation [2] which yields the attraction between two objects depending upon their distance and masses.Given the existence of gravity, it is not possible for a flat earth to exist.The first reason for this has to do with planet formation. We have never seen a planet form, but we intimately understand the physics of how objects move and so it is simple to work the math “backwards” to determine how planet formation must have occured. [3] Put simply, gravity attracts objects to one another. If you have space occupied by clouds of dust, the motes of dust will mutually attract one another and centralize in one location. Notably, the dust configures itself such that it is in a state of minimal energy.Consider pouring sand from a glass onto a table. The sand will never form a vertical pillar, like you might see on a building. Instead, the sand forms a mound. Similarly, as a planet forms, the dust that composes it will take a spherical shape, as this is the shape which has minimal energy. It could not form “flat”, just as you cannot pour sand into a perfect pillar.Assuming that earth magically formed flat, it could not retain its flat shape. Earth is not a solid object, but is instead composed of layers of dirt, sand and rock. It has no rigidity. The forces of gravity would tear at the loose layers of the outer boundaries of the earth and pull them toward a center. The flat earth would quickly turn into a “squashed sphere”.Lastly, simple observation along with the theory of gravity demonstrates that the earth isn’t flat. Every object has a “gravitational center”, toward which they are attracted. (This is technically the average of all attraction vectors, since one particle is attracted to every other particle.) People on the outward edge of the would experience a pull toward this gravitational center. Only when near the center of the disc would “down” fell perpendicular to the surface of the earth. When you got even a little bit toward the edge, down would not pull toward the earth beneath you. If you got close enough to the edge, things would “slide” back toward the center of the disc. If you dropped a ball, it would appear to fall at a steep angle toward whatever direction the origin of the disc laid. We, however, do not observe this. In fact, everywhere on earth gravity is experienced perpendicular to the earth, which is exactly what is expected on a sphere. (Interestingly, no other 3d shape has this property.)In conclusion, gravity precludes the existence of a flat earth. A flat earth could not form under gravity, it could not continue to exist under gravity, and the human experience would be very much different than it is now, even if a flat earth could somehow form and remain structurally intact. Argument 2: A Probabilistic ArgumentWe first acknowledge that if the earth is flat, somebody is lying to us. It is useful to tally up who these liars would be. We first start big. Twelve countries have purportedly launched satellites into space. Because satellites do not work on a flat earth (for gravitational reasons well implied above), we must assume these countries have lied. These countries are the USSR, the US, France, Japan, China, UK, India, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran and North Korea. The combined populations of these countries (excluding the USSR) is about 3.6 billion, accounting for about half of the world’s population.We must also acknowledge that the respective space agencies of all these countries, minimally, must be involved in the conspiracy. Additionally, since space and aircraft design naturally assumes the earth is spherical and since the shape of the planet informs aircraft and spacecraft design, we must assume all employed aerospace engineers are also lying to us. In the US alone, over 68,000 aerospace engineers are currently employed and working. [4] Additionally, there are at least 9 private spaceflight companies currently operating in major countries each of which “supposedly” have working modules, rockets, or stations in space. [5]This debater conservatively estimates that at least 100,000 people are aware of these conspiracy. Why does that make this conspiracy unlikely? First, because people are bad at keeping secrets. We regularly see leaked documents released on the news, often for relatively trivial matters. For this secret to be held, over 100,000 humans in at least 12 countries, all with varying levels of pay, would need to hold this secret -- the most earth shatteringly important secret every held. And yet not a single leak or document has been produced. We conclude that, by any standard of reason, this is because the earth is not flat.Secondly, countries would be likely be motivated to share this information with the public, in an attempt to undermine rival nations’ citizens’ faith in their government. If Russia currently admitted that the world were flat, along with proof, the United States would up and revolt against the government. Nobody would trust American scientists anymore and the economy would tank. It’s difficult to see how Russia would lose in that scenario.And yet that hasn’t happened. While the second reason is more speculative than the first, both allow us to reasonably conclude that there is not a conspiracy in which tens of thousands of people are in on. And that directly implies that the Earth is a sphere.SummarySadly, I did not have time to present a third argument, but my first two should be sufficient. They are, I believe, the two most important arguments for the spherical earth, as far as easily understood arguments using basically no math or advanced physics are concerned.First, we demonstrated that gravity, as it is understood in "mainstream" science, is easily observed. A direct implication of gravity is that the earth is round. A flat earth could not form, it could not maintain its structural integrity and gravity effects on it would be markedly different than those we observe. If any argument should ever be remembered for the existence of a spherical earth, it is this one. Next, we looked at how a conspiracy of this magnitude is not feasible. Too many people would need to be involved and there would be too great a motivation for even one person to leak the truth. To entertain the notion that tens of thousands of people are lying is literally a mental disorder. [7]We have no choice but to conclude that the world is indeed a sphere. I look forward to the final round. Sources: 1 - goo.gl/KfkL1n2 - goo.gl/x9QV493 - goo.gl/PTN3cN4 - goo.gl/LZizdx5 - goo.gl/VjMSdD6 - goo.gl/vduqGu7 - goo.gl/tHcppi