Flat-Earther's Steam-Powered Rocket Lofts Him 1,875 Feet Up Into Mojave Desert (latimes.com) 410
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Los Angeles Times: "Mad" Mike Hughes, the rocket man who believes the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air Saturday before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert. He told the Associated Press that outside of an aching back he's fine after the launch near Amboy, Calif. The launch in the sparsely populated desert town about 150 miles east of Los Angeles -- was originally scheduled in November. It was scrubbed several times due to logistical issues with the Bureau of Land Management and mechanical problems that kept popping up. The 61-year-old limo driver converted a mobile home into a ramp and modified it to launch from a vertical angle so he wouldn't fall back to the ground on public land. For months he's been working on overhauling his rocket in his garage. It looked like Saturday might be another in a string of cancellations, given that the wind was blowing and his rocket was losing steam. Ideally, they wanted it at 350 psi for maximum thrust, but it was dropping to 340. Sometime after 3 p.m. PDT, and without a countdown, Hughes' rocket soared into the sky. Hughes reached a speed that Stakes estimated to be around 350 mph before pulling his parachute. Hughes was dropping too fast, though, and he had to deploy a second one. He landed with a thud and the rocket's nose broke in two places like it was designed to do.
And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
This dude is a fucking inspiration.
"Mad" Mike Hughes, I salute you.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:4, Funny)
Did he prove that the earth is flat?
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Funny)
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Informative)
and yet from there he could have just taken the gondola in Palm Springs up to the top of Mt San Jacinto and gotten almost 10x higher than he did. Or hike to the top of Mt Whitney, and just look out to the east.
Or for about the same altitude, just go to Chicago, go to the top of Sears Tower. Tgen explain how on a clear day one can see over to Michigan, and reconcile why one cannot see it from Lake Shore Drive.
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and yet from there he could have just taken the gondola in Palm Springs up to the top of Mt San Jacinto and gotten almost 10x higher than he did. Or hike to the top of Mt Whitney, and just look out to the east.
Or for about the same altitude, just go to Chicago, go to the top of Sears Tower. Tgen explain how on a clear day one can see over to Michigan, and reconcile why one cannot see it from Lake Shore Drive.
If he had done that he wouldn't have had his 15 minutes of fame or have a topic on Slashdot about him. He is getting "press" for flat earth by doing a stupid stunt like this. Not sure how many people he will convince (probably not many), but it's bringing attention to the fact that there are people who still think the earth is flat.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
He doesn't think the earth is flat. He thinks he wanted to ride a homemade rocket. He tried other funding sources before suddenly deciding that the earth must be flat and getting flat-earthers to sponsor his toy.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Funny)
You have no idea how dangerous steam is.
It's at its most dangerous during the Summer and Winter sales.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:2)
Yeah but then you canât come back to tell anyone of your discovery. Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously. Hell of a way to go though
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Interesting)
I think he recently became a flat earther, so your statement about not being a real flat farther might be truer than you intended
He did. From an article [npr.org] posted last November:
Still, Hughes converted to the flat-Earth belief recently, shortly after his first fundraising campaign for the rocket earned just $310 of its $150,000 goal. His second campaign, this time posted after his conversion and with the support of the flat-Earth community, succeeded in hitting its $7,875 goal.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand, 1900ft? There are buildings taller than that! Why the expense of a rocket? Why not go get on a hot air ballon? The rides are like $40....
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I think he did this as a precursor to launching himself into space. This wasn't about getting proof.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
He didn't believe in science like, for instance, classical mechanics, so was unable to calculate that he would only reach 600 meters. He believed his rocket would take him to space.
I fully expect that he will claim that he has proven that the earth is flat, because he would not have been able to see earth's curvature from only 600 meters, unless he wanted to.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Interesting)
When dealing with flat earthers, attempting to use logic tends to backfire. It may seem obvious to you that "falling off the edge" is the best way to get in to space, they have argumentation about why no edge has been found. In general I expect that any given fact can be countered by fiction you cannot immediately disprove except by using evidence generated by conspiracists, such as, a globe.
For example, and I warn you that the rabbit hole here is real, they believe the earth is a disc, surrounded by a giant ice wall that we call "Antarctica", beyond which no one has passed. I suppose it was constructed by Bran the Builder, and no doubt contains the shoggoths documented in Lovecraft's xenobiology textbook "At The Mountains of Madness".
I'm not making (some of) this up:
https://wiki.tfes.org/Frequent... [tfes.org]
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
"I don't understand, 1900ft? There are buildings taller than that! Why the expense of a rocket? Why not go get on a hot air ballon? The rides are like $40...."
What's so difficult to understand?
It's not rocket science, the guy is nuts.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:4)
It ainâ(TM)t Science but it sure is Rocket. He is halfway there!
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
Some nobody pulling a stunt on a oversized bottle-rocket might make the local news, but someone trying to prove the earth is flat on a homemade rocket, now that's national front-page news.
Nothing difficult to understand
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"just wanted to say that you must be an idiot, or simply an asshole... unless you have built something that has boosted your own ass to something higher than 1800 ft..."
Like an elevator?
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
Iâ(TM)m not actually convinced this guy is a flat earthed, just an attention seeker looking for an audience
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But if he believes the earth is a flat disc then wouldn't he just say that explains why the edge looked curved?
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
That doesn't matter. None of the flat earth stuff matters. Columbus thought he was sailing to India.
"Mad" Mike Hughes embodies the real American spirit. He had a dream and he put his life on the line for it and shot himself into the air on a homemade goddamn rocket. It's the unifying concept of Westward, Ho! except he was already in California and couldn't go West any more, so he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad.
Jesus, if you guys can't see how magnificent that is, your souls have been hollowed out.
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he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad
Breaking Mad
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Funny)
Hey, he embodies the American spirit. The human spirit, really, in which your dreams are more important than reality.
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Hey, he embodies the American spirit. The human spirit, really, in which your dreams are more important than reality.
To quote Michael on The Good Place [wikipedia.org]:
Michael: All I really ever wanted was to know what it feels like to be human, and now we’re going to do the most human thing of all: attempt something futile with a ton of unearned confidence and fail spectacularly!
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:2)
Agreed, I can't help but root cor this guy.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Interesting)
That doesn't matter. None of the flat earth stuff matters. Columbus thought he was sailing to India.
Columbus was a bit loopy thinking he could reach India, this dude is completely bonkers, there's no comparison.
"Mad" Mike Hughes embodies the real American spirit. He had a dream and he put his life on the line for it and shot himself into the air on a homemade goddamn rocket. It's the unifying concept of Westward, Ho! except he was already in California and couldn't go West any more, so he turned a goddamn mobile home into a goddamn launch pad.
Jesus, if you guys can't see how magnificent that is, your souls have been hollowed out.
I'll give him full props for going through with it, I thought the whole rocket thing was a scam. The fact he actually built a rocket and launched himself into the sky is an awesome example of determination and ingenuity.
But he's still loopier than a bag of yarn.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, but in a way, doesn't that make the story even more inspiring?
I don't know what's happened to so many Slashdot commenters who can't see beyond the mundane. Has the world beaten you down so much? "Mad" Mike Hughes has just pulled off one of the great "hold my beer" moments in history and you're pissing and moaning about it. (not you, quantaman. I think you can see a little bit of the beauty in what this crazy sonofabitch just did.)
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I don't know what's happened to so many Slashdot commenters who can't see beyond the mundane. Has the world beaten you down so much? "Mad" Mike Hughes has just pulled off one of the great "hold my beer" moments in history and you're pissing and moaning about it.
Well, let's just change the narrative instead of complaining about the complainers. I'll start with a Slashdotian "My way is better" rant.
Why this guy decided to use steam was lame. Any amateur rocketeer with a working brain cell would have used something else.
Solid Rocket Boosters FTW!
Steam means you have to have the total energy expenditure all at once since the fuel is actually on the ground, not carried in the body of the rocket.
Any real amateur rocketeer would have produced his own fuel in
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
Columbus was taking a shot into the unknown. This guy is not.
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Good point, it's a great achievement.
The 'american appropriation' bit is contentious. Go West was about enterprise and opportunity.
This is more about British bloodyminded individualism which goes against the flow. The consensus was that he was just an idiot about to kill himself.
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No, not only on Slashdot.
https://splinternews.com/tille... [splinternews.com]
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:2)
If that is the case neither does the article belong here
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
Pitched as a flat earth screed, no it doesn't belong here.
Pitched as a private individual creating a rocket out of his mobile home, and following through? That's almost the definition of what this site used to be all about. I only hope that in my entire life I do something equally amazing, but I doubt it.
I wouldn't ever encourage it though, this is a really good way to get yourself killed, and he seemed to be well aware of it.
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Seconded. To create a rocket of - despite of his obvious flaws in reasoning - from scratch out of sheer determination and with enough quality to launch at 350 mph is a great triumph for the man and also small triumph of the human spirit.
I've thought that 99% probability that he's an attention troll / fraudster when he cancelled previous rocket launch. I'm pleasantly surprised he followed through.
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Slashdot is in the business of fostering rational debate. If you cannot handle that, you do not belong here.
Hahahahaahahaha! HHahahahahahaaaa!
*gasp*
HahahaahahaAAHAa! HAHAAHAHAHAHAA!
Oh wait, you're serious?
Slashdot has never been in the specific business of fostering rational debate. It has vacillated between the ravings of fanboys and the ridiculousness of geek culture with the occasional insightful or meaningful comment from time to time.
If Slashdot were in the specific business of fostering rational debate then it wouldn't rely on community moderation and would have actual paid moderation staff to run the pl
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
But proving the earth was flat wasn't his original intention at all. He was trying to build this rocket for ages, then realized he could get the funding from flat earthers because they are dumb, so drummed up a bunch of interest and cash saying he could prove the earth was flat.
So yeah, some guy grifting stupid people for his own silly endeavors. The american dream.
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I wouldn't even calling grifting, he no doubt "proved" their theory and made good on the money given to them. As about a hundred people above have said, you can't see the curvature of earth from 2kft in any believable way so he basically gave them another broken talking point.
But he got to blast his old ass up in his mobile home, which is pretty cool on its own, so everyone walks away happy. Ultimately that's a good business deal right there: money changes hands and both parties walk off getting what they t
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You sound like a trump supporter.
Not only is that a hilariously idiotic thing of which to accuse PopeRatzo of all people.
It's also the first instance of the 2017/2018 version of Godwin's law in this thread, where everything or anything negative evokes a reference to Trump or trump supporters, no matter how off-topic, eventually (the comparison of Trump to Hitler, also popular, however, I suppose evokes the actual Godwin's Law). Trump must really be in your head bad.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Insightful)
Not to worry, Trump will reward Hughes by appointing him head of NASA
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Yes, to him he did. His goal was never to prove the earth isn't flat. Just to prove that it is. From the altitude that he achieved, ~1900 feet, he could not see the curvature of the earth. Thus proving to himself, and the rest of the idiots, that the earth isn't round, so therefor it must be flat.
Mission Accomplished!!
Re: (Score:3)
An on this note. I have to report the failure of my kickstarter campaign to fund my plan to lower a capsule over the side of the flat earth. In which I would have attempted to make contact with the giant turtle that we all ride up on. This the true name and sex of the turtle will remain unknown to us.
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He managed to not kill himself. That's actually pretty amazing. I know he's crazy but he does seem to have some skills.
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I mean, right? He's 61 goddamn years old. Most 61 year olds' biggest concern is an enlarged prostate and their blood sugar levels. This crazy bastard is trying to launch himself into space from the roof of a mobile home. I cannot understand how I'm maybe the only one here who can see how truly wonderful this is.
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Most 61 year olds' biggest concern is an enlarged prostate and their blood sugar levels.
That's about as American-centric as an assertion as you can get.
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Most 61 year olds' biggest concern is an enlarged prostate and their blood sugar levels.
That's about as American-centric as an assertion as you can get.
A quick glance at 2015 statistics suggests that over half of Europeans (this study used Northern Ireland) aged 55-64 are sedentary for over four hours on weekdays (mainly watching TV). As for blood sugar, diabetes is an epidemic in Europe and accounts for more than 1 in 10 deaths there (not counting the complications: amputations and blindness and kidney failure and stroke).
You're assertion is about as ignorant as a European moron cam get.
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I'm onboard with what you're saying, though I don't get your amazement at being 61. I've worked with plenty of brilliant people in their 60s. Also, I think some folks at that age start losing their fear of death, and are looking for a way to leave a meaningful legacy.
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No, not a troll at all. He might be crazy as a loon, but unlike a troll he's actually putting himself out there and risking something. He has skin in the game.
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't believe him. He knows the Earth isn't flat, only a gibbering idiot believes that nonsense and this guy obviously has some logical ability to do what he did. The kind of people that believe this crap are good at watching TV and that's about it. He is a Troll. A really good one too.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't be so bloody-minded. You're focused on the flat-earth nonsense and ignoring the beauty. Stop and smell the roses. Not everything has to be logical.
You will never experience glory unless you dream big. And as everyone knows, dreams are sometimes illogical.
Do you know where the name "troll" comes from? It somebody who hi
Re: (Score:3)
A dedicated flat-earther will tell you that the cameras lie. They probably all have altimeters built in and start adding the fish-eye effect when you take em up high.
Oh hell, I've been reading too many of their web pages.
That's what I was going to say (Score:2)
I thought for sure he was going to die if he ever went up in a rocket. The fact he is not dead - lots more respect to him than I had before, even if I happen to think the Earth is round. Not like I'm going to fling myself up in a rocket to argue against him...
I would 100% vote for him if he ever ran somewhere I could vote for him. Or heck, if he's running in California anyone can vote for him!
Re:That's what I was going to say (Score:5, Insightful)
You would vote for a guy because he showed the wherewithal to build a steam rocket and survive it? This is your job interview for political representation?
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Hey, it's somebody who gets off the couch and builds stuff. Probably a better choice than many politicians who think walking about talking about themselves is the best effort they need to make.
Re:That's what I was going to say (Score:5, Funny)
How many times have YOU wished a politician would strap themselves into a highly dangerous rocket and send him or herself away?
Now here's one that actually does!
Re:That's what I was going to say (Score:4, Funny)
I start to understand how something like Schwarzenegger could become governor in your state...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
But did it really happen?
There were lots of videos and witnesses to his previous cancelled/failed launches.
This successful launch has no video (that's been shared) and scant witnesses.
So far it's a cool story without any evidence, not even a photo of the landed craft.
My bullshit meter it push that needle pretty hard right now.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Informative)
Of course there was video. VIdeo of the launch and video of paramedics extracting him from the crashed spacecraft. More than one video, too. The main one was shot by an AP cameraman. All sorts of witnesses, too.
Where did you get the idea there were no videos or photos?
https://gizmodo.com/at-long-la... [gizmodo.com]
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Funny)
It's pretty easy to doctor video these days. I rather doubt it happened.
Re:And then Hollywood comes along (Score:4, Funny)
Do you see him get in? _no_.
Do we have any evidence that the rocket was not simply pulled up by a cable? _no_. There is a close-up shot where a cable could easily have been hidden, and a long distance shot that is very clearly made on a computer. Just look at that horizon! Are we supposed to be living at the bottom of a bowl?
And it's not even very good special effects, but I guess that's what you get for a home-grown production... Just look at that puny steam cloud. Is that supposed to be lifting an entire rocket?
Let's call it what it is: a fraud.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually you see him entering the rocket.
You watch the wrong movies.
Do we have any evidence that the rocket was not simply pulled up by a cable? ... however if you see the launch, you see that the sky is clear ... where should the cable be coming from? From a low orbit space craft?
There can not be evidence for a negative
Let's call it what it is: a fraud.
Yeah, lets call you what you are: and idiot.
Re: (Score:3)
Wooooosh.
Clearly the cable could be tethered to the moon which I think at least one flat earth theory* places at around 4 miles from the surface of the Earth.
*Not to be confused with the scientific meaning of the word 'theory'
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Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't be such a drama queen. There can be more than one hero in the world and they can be heroic for many reasons. And if that Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Beltran or whatever his name is was such a hero, whey didn't he just shoot the terrorist through the eye and save everyone? As your favor
Re: And then a hero comes along (Score:2, Insightful)
He was unarmed for one . You should be ashamed of yourself
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He should use a very high magnification telephoto lens, to determine if really is turtles all the way down.
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I wouldn't use the word "hero" or "inspiration", but the dude has some balls. I'll admit I didn't think he'd actually pull the trigger, lever, button, or whatever device he used to launch himself. He did, though, and I'll give him props for that.
As to everyone who pooh-poohs the height his device achieved, I'd like you to tell me how far off the ground YOUR homemade rocket got you. The point is not about how high he got. Who the hell cares? We all know the earth is flat. The awesome part is that he ac
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Funny)
>> This dude is a fucking inspiration.
You have a strange kind of inspiration when you fuck.
Re: (Score:3)
>> This dude is a fucking inspiration.
You have a strange kind of inspiration when you fuck.
I dunno. Get all hot and wet after lying to people about your intentions, then make a mess and call the paramedics. Seems about right.
Re:And then a hero comes along (Score:5, Interesting)
Shame on you. If "Mad" Mike Hughes had connected 1000 Raspberry Pis and 1000 Geforce 1080s into a Beowulf cluster in order to mine something called "cryptocurrency" which will replace all the world's currencies, you'd be cheering and calling him the second coming of Notch or some shit.
This guy sat down and designed and built a homemade rocket and launchpad. He's 100 times the nerd you are.
I applaud him for actually doing it, but... (Score:2)
At least he actually followed through and did what he promised, but wouldn't it have saved everyone a lot of time, effort, and aggravation if he had just visited the Burj Khalifa? There is not enough development around it to hide the horizon, and it would actually have gotten him higher off the ground.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed! I was almost certain he was a flake screwing with the press about the flight. He actually took the flight and proved he is a truly dedicated and faithful nutcase. I'll give him a special gift. [thingiverse.com]
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What's the fun in that?
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He could also have just driven to the summit of Pike’s Peak.
Let's Give Him a Taste of His Own Medicine (Score:2)
At least he actually followed through and did what he promised
Did he? I don't believe it. Where's the proof that he launched? The article contained no pictures or videos. The evidence that he launched is far flimsier than the evidence that the Earth is a sphere so, by his own standards, we should simply refuse to believe that he did this and then, just perhaps, he might actually learn something valuable from this non-event.
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At least he actually followed through and did what he promised
Did he? I don't believe it. Where's the proof that he launched? The article contained no pictures or videos. The evidence that he launched is far flimsier than the evidence that the Earth is a sphere so, by his own standards, we should simply refuse to believe that he did this and then, just perhaps, he might actually learn something valuable from this non-event.
FWIW, Matt Hartman (a well known AP news photographer) was apparently the "designated reputable witness" to the actual event. You can google it in a few places...
However, for more entertainment value, the production video is on Noize TV [youtube.com]. Of course you might not be predisposed to believe the video, but apparently Matt was there, so there you have it...
Then again, with all the Fake News floating around in the inter-tubes, a healthy dose of skepticism is usually warranted. Of course many align our skepticism
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But it's tall enough to measure the curvature of the horizon just by looking out the window at/near the top, isn't it? That was the whole point.
Steampunk rocketry (Score:5, Funny)
His big mistake was burning pine in the firebox. Next time, a longer-burning hardwood like well-seasoned hickory will improve the specific impulse of his Engine For Raising Aeronauts By Fire. I commend him for trying this approach for high aerial flight and not simply giving up after learning that Czar Nicholas had cornered the entire supply of cavorite he had intended to buy on the London commodity exchange.
I also recommend that should he achieve high altitude, he thoroughly seal his gondola with oakum and gutta-percha, to prevent the escape of too much air.
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He could use propane for the firebox. It might work a little better.
Re:Steampunk rocketry (Score:4, Funny)
Hank Hill will sell him all the propane he needs.
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And accessories.
Re: Steampunk rocketry (Score:5, Funny)
I heard that Trump is trying to persuade NASA to work with Mr Hughes to build the first coal-fired Mars rocket.
How to prove roundness without endangering him (Score:2)
I doubt that 1800 feet is going to give you a good view of the curvature of the earth. I doubt that even 30,000 feet up which is cruising altitude of a jet plane would show it.
So how best to prove to him that the earth is round? Perhaps the best way available at a low budget is to use a telescope to watch a sailboat coming over the horizon, the top of the mast should appear first before the rest comes into view. Maybe with this proof he will have to admit the earth is round, in addition, to stop further att
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
I forget which one it was, but knowledge that the Earth is round goes back to the Ancient Greeks. As I recall, the story goes something along the lines of a guy walked from Greece to Egypt, and along the way he would put sticks in the ground and measure the shadow they cast at specific times of day. Based on their length and direction, you can deduce that the Earth must be round, or at least curved in a convex way.
You can also apply some simple logic. Why is it objects disappear over the horizon as you get
Re:How to prove roundness without endangering him (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorry, why should we be bothering to work out how to prove it to him? That's up to him, if he wants to go against the entirety of established science - with all their own proofs and evidence - for the last few thousand years.
Flat-earth nonsense is literally predating civilisation. Everyone since has known that it's not flat, nobody in their right mind in even the 14th Century was thinking "Oh, the world is entirely flat". The Ancient Greeks knew it - and could prove it.
It doesn't need any complicated tools, experience, mathematics or intellect to prove it in a matter of seconds. And the more time we waste celebrating and legitimising idiocy like this, the more pathetically sad I am for humanity.
Want to prove it? Buy a round the world ticket and look out the window. You don't need to see curvature of the Earth (though that's easily done) in order to prove that the world isn't a flat plane. Unless you think somehow that the (round) Sun and Moon both circle us perfectly, spend half the day hiding underneath that flat plane, yet always appear from the East no matter where you are on the planet and for some reason the MIDDLE of the planet is closer / warmer, not East vs West.
These people are literally the biggest fools I've ever encountered. It would be ironically funny if someone had suggested this in the 1700's or something, but they still would have been laughed at. To think that they BELIEVE this stuff is worse than anything I can imagine. The Flying Spaghetti Monster has more evidence than this tosh.
Let's please just stop giving them any kind of credence that they are susceptible to "just the right piece of logical thinking, if only we could explain it" but continue laughing at them for their ignorance.
Re:How to prove roundness without endangering him (Score:5, Insightful)
Sigh. Really? We're going to do this?
No they don't require travel. People couldn't travel anywhere near as simply as we can, back in the Ancient era.
One only needs to get an answer that works only if the world is round, that's all. Stand on a cliff. See further out to sea than at the bottom of the cliff, but not to infinity (or any reasonable approximation). Ships and oil rigs and wind turbines at sea? You can't see the bottom of them, if they are far enough away. Shouldn't happen on a flat earth. You should see all of them or they should all too far away enough to see. They shouldn't have the bottoms chopped off unless the Earth is curving away from you (now, does "flat Earth" imply perfectly flat or merely a curved plane? Nobody argues that one).
Observe an eclipse, then explain it without the Earth getting in the way. It's a disc? Really? Every eclipse (dozens a year). From every different angle? When the Moon is in all kinds of different positions? You know what object casts a disc shadow no matter which angle you look at it from? A sphere.
And simple travel does not mean "thousands of miles". Your latitude changes everything - from shadows on the ground, to what stars are visible, and that shouldn't be true on flat-earth. Grab a telescope. Now track an object without an equatorial mount (basically an angled gear on a tripod). Arms tired from all the adjustment yet? Okay, put it on an equatorial mount but don't adjust for latitude. Watch as the objects you see drift enormously within a matter of minutes.
Now put it on an equatorial mount that's properly set to your latitude. Watch as everything works and stays in your viewfinder. Now explain that in flat-earth terms.
Technically there should be no difference in latitude at all on a flat-earth - why would it be heated in a band with two tropics E->W but not the same N->S? Does the Earth have a strip of parallel E->W heating elements in it? And is this Earth still circular or is it plane-flat? Because then it gets even odder (if it was circular and centrally heated, you'd expect one point on Earth to be "hottest" and distance from that to result in temperature drops all over, yes?
Far too complex to explain for flat-earth, very simple demo for round-Earth. Explain winter. You don't need to travel to prove that the tropics exist, the equator is mean-hottest and the further North/South you go the colder it gets. You DO need to prove some mechanism for flat-earth to emulate that without being ridiculous.
This is the sort of thing we give to kids to prove in their lunch break, much like the Egyptians, Greeks and every civilisation since has managed to do, casually, without people suddenly expressing denial of it (despite being persecuted for suggesting the Earth is not the center of the universe, etc. simultaneously), without any hi-tech tools, major travel networks, or photography.
I don't lack the words, arguments, reasoning, explanation or capability to prove this to you. What I lack is the impetus, the motivation, and the hourly fee.
P.S. I'm a mathematician. Unfortunately, you try to state there's no math(s) I can use in a matter of seconds to prove the earth is round. There is. But you need to know maths. I can quite happily grace you with a complete geometric analysis of things that ONLY HAPPEN ON SPHERICAL OBJECTS and then link them to things that happen on Earth. But I've avoided the maths because a) I don't get paid enough to write papers for Slashdot flat-earth commentors, b) I would be accused of "using maths, it's all just theory, you know, etc. etc." (I'd give it three comments before someone mentioned completeness, for example).
Go out. Touch that world. Explain why a flat disc, or hyperbolic paraboloid, or plane, or anything other than a near-perfect sphere would result in that phenomenon.
Watch as "compensation effect" takes hold and you have to change not just the shape of the Earth but the orbits of the planets, the motion of the
Re: (Score:3)
That's already been explained by them. Light gets "tired" on long distances and "falls down" to earth, that's why it looks like the ship disappears behind the horizon. And I have to give it to them, if you ignore the rest of physics, it would actually explain the observation.
That's how most of their "proofs" work. They come up with something that explains the current problem at hand, completely ignoring that it might create a problem with explaining something else (like in this case how other light sources
When I read flat earther I see (Score:2)
Idiot!
Most rockets are steam powered (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
That's an example of stating something which has some truth in it but isn't very helpful. Cars are steampowered too then but what's the point then in calling them steam-powered? The point in calling something steam-powered is not to say the steam is doing the work, but to indicate that the energy source is separate from the propellant.
I question his motivation (Score:4, Insightful)
He went up 570 meters. Five hundred seventy meters.
For comparison: A Sopwith Camel, an airplane of the first world war, from a hundred years ago, had a service ceiling of about 5,791 meters. Approximately ten times the altitude this goofball reached. If his goal was to prove flat earth, he sure chose a poor way. ANY plane he could build out of plywood and cloth (like aforementioned Camel, which was not that much more than exactly this) would take him higher.
And since he obviously is not dumb (another reason why I can't picture him as a flat earther), my conclusion is that he's trolling flat earthers and duping them into giving him money for his stunts.
Re: (Score:3)
Have you ever talked to a flatearther? Trust me, the bar is pretty low.
99 out of 100 times you hear regurgitated arguments they heard somewhere else, with a good chance that they didn't even understand WHAT the argument is because as soon as you start arguing against them they immediately drop it and move on to the next argument, hoping that eventually they'll find one you can't instantly debunk. Sadly, the arguments are hardly new. It's the same arguments repeated over and over, and has been for at least t
No-one believes the earth is flat (Score:3)
To believe that this man believes the earth is flat is as absurd as believing that the earth is flat. He pretends to believe it for purposes of self-publicity.
Re: (Score:2)
You know, he could have gone thousands of miles higher in a hot air balloon. In fact, he could get one like Alan Eustace used to set the record for highest altitude jump. That was 135,000 feet. Low Earth Orbit is 380,000 feet or so. If he want's that he'll need a hell of a lot better rocket.
Re: (Score:2)
Duh! My bad, I meant to say feet, thousands of FEET higher. It's late, that's my excuse.
Re:Earth is flat? (Score:4, Funny)
I installed a 24' diameter pool one summer. I had to flatten a 24' circle of it so at least that much is flat.
Re:Competition is good (Score:5, Funny)
FWIW he beat both SpaceX and Blue Origin to a manned rocket launch.
Re: (Score:2)
His results are going to be inconclusive no matter what.... (1) 1875 feet is NOTHING. We have commercial planes that fly at 30,000 feet -- what a waste.
(2) 1875 feet up is less than a mile; a very small section of the land will be visible from this height.... you need to be 6 or 7 miles up before you begin to see some interesting things, so this is a "safe" experiment in other words it's guaranteed to be inconclusive or at least can't disprove the flat earth theories.... you need to be many hundreds
Re:Units (Score:5, Insightful)
Last time I checked /. was an international website (besides CA/UK/AU and NZ have long finished metrication), so why do I keep seeing imperial units here?
Last time I checked, it was an American website, owned by an American company based in NYC, and because we're imperialists.