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5 votes
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Biologists discovered a widespread protein that abruptly shuts down a cell’s activity — and turns it back on just as fast
20 votes -
Proving the Earth is round at home
I am looking for practical ways to prove the Earth is round using materials accessible to the average person. I have zero interest in disproving Flat Earth folks. I am inspired by Dan Olson's...
I am looking for practical ways to prove the Earth is round using materials accessible to the average person. I have zero interest in disproving Flat Earth folks.
I am inspired by Dan Olson's (Folding Ideas) excellent video where he is able to do this measuring the curvature of a lake near his home that has a very specific geography that lends itself to this sort of experiment. I've seen all sorts of ways to prove this measuring shadows and poles, using gyroscopes, etc. and wanted to know if there are any practical guides for proving once and for all that the Earth is round for yourself relying on nothing more than experimentation.
What I'm not looking for:
- Math relying on flight times/charts
- Video/picture evidence
- Deductive proofs built on agreed upon premises
- Expensive tests
- Extremely time consuming projects
- Underwhelming results (relying on a probabilistic argument for a round Earth from the evidence.)
What I am looking for:
- Practical experiments
- Things I could potentially do without spending much money
- Tests that aren't largely comprised of accepting someone else's research
- Potentially math-heavy evidence
- Results that are strong and conclusive
I've thought of finding some easy to test version of Eratosthenes' proof using two poles. I've also thought about using a balloon and sending something to space like what is done in this Tom Scott video. Nothing seems well documented in such a way as for me to be able to follow it at home.
TL;DR: I think it would be a meaningful experience to have the power to prove the Earth is round by myself, for myself. I can only compare this desire to the desire a child with a telescope has when wishing to observe Saturn or Mars themselves for the first time. It's not to prove anything or to settle doubts, but for the personal value of independently observing this astronomical fact oneself.
17 votes -
The bizarre patterns that emerge when you heat any fluid
11 votes -
Beneath the Earth, ancient ocean floor likely surrounds the core
15 votes -
July 2023 was the hottest month on record
29 votes -
‘We’re changing the clouds.’ An unforeseen test of geoengineering is fueling record ocean warmth.
80 votes -
North Atlantic Oscillation contributes to 'cold blob' in Atlantic Ocean
10 votes -
Photosynthesis, key to life on Earth, starts with a single photon
5 votes -
For a billion years of Earth's history our days were only nineteen hours long, finds new study
26 votes -
In a geologic triumph, scientists drill a window into Earth’s mantle
13 votes -
The unique merger that made you (and ewe, and yew)
10 votes -
Ancient Earth map | Map showing modern locations across millions of years
14 votes -
Measuring the size of the Earth
3 votes -
Driver of the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth identified
13 votes -
Meet Oklo, the Earth’s two-billion-year-old only known natural nuclear reactor
17 votes -
Rock samples aren’t archived or shared: An international group of geologists make the case for storing and sharing ancient rocks
7 votes -
Microbial life has been found deep in Earth's crust beneath the ocean floor
8 votes -
Mt. Þorbjörn, Reykjanes – Icelandic volcano swell signals potential eruption
4 votes -
Earth is missing a huge part of its crust. Now we may know why.
15 votes -
How fungi made all life on land possible
9 votes -
Watch the Ridgecrest earthquake shatter the desert floor in stunning before-and-after images
12 votes -
The cataclysmic break that (maybe) occurred in 1950
7 votes -
We've been sure that the Earth is round for a long time, so what's driving the recent resurgence of flat-Earthers?
25 votes -
Human body might be able to pick up on Earth's magnetic field
9 votes -
Animation of Earth's magnetic pole shift
7 votes -
Is the Earth flat?
11 votes -
Earth's magnetic pole is wandering, lurching toward Siberia
6 votes -
Spiders use Earth's electric field to fly hundreds of miles
17 votes -
When will the Earth try to kill us again: Most mass extinctions began with vast convulsions of Earth’s interior—can we detect that?
13 votes -
The deadliest being on planet Earth – The bacteriophage
7 votes