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15 votes
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Making an atomic trampoline
13 votes -
What happens when you touch a Pickle to an AM radio tower?
36 votes -
Maglev titanium heart now whirs inside the chest of a live patient
24 votes -
Gilead shot prevents all HIV cases in trial of African women
29 votes -
Frozen human brain tissue was successfully revived for the first time
34 votes -
Safer Sunscreen: Stanford researchers explore novel approach to sustainable sun protection
13 votes -
Bizarre traveling flame discovery
11 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 -
Scientists studied how cicadas pee. Their insights could shed light on fluid dynamics.
7 votes -
First Light fusion startup breaks pressure record using giant ‘gun’ machine for projectile fusion attempts
13 votes -
Researchers were able to isolate the brain from the rest of the body of a pig, and kept it alive and functioning for five hours
59 votes -
What the Prisoner's Dilemma reveals about life, the Universe, and everything
32 votes -
Watch gravity pull two metal balls together
9 votes -
Shocking study discovers bottlenose dolphins possess electric sixth sense
11 votes -
UK's nuclear fusion site (JET) ends experiments after forty years
18 votes -
Attosecond lasers explained (2023 Nobel Prize in physics)
6 votes -
ALPHA experiment at CERN observes the influence of gravity on antimatter
24 votes -
Muon g-2 doubles down with latest measurement, explores uncharted territory in search of new physics
21 votes -
Wobbling muon experiment could reveal a fifth force of nature — if the results hold up
20 votes -
Sinéad Griffin of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab publishes simulations supporting LK-99 as a room temperature superconductor
84 votes -
By selectively breeding forty generations of silver fox over the course of sixty years, researchers managed to make them as friendly as dogs
64 votes -
Parrots taught to video call each other become less lonely, finds research
10 votes -
Measuring the amount of lead (Pb) consumed when drinking from lead crystal glassware. Is it safe?
5 votes -
I lost the cubane race (still going though!) - Cubane Ep. 15
10 votes -
The spool paradox
4 votes -
Bullets hitting bullets in slow motion - The impossible shot
14 votes -
Multi-layer reactive foil: no fuel, no oxygen, tons of heat
9 votes -
Turning paint thinner into cherry soda
25 votes -
How NASA reinvented the wheel
2 votes -
Prince Rupert's Drop exploding in molten glass
6 votes -
Can water solve a maze?
11 votes -
Making the stinkiest chemical known to man
2 votes -
The elements of change: A grand unified theory of self-help
7 votes -
LHCb (Large Hadron Collider beauty) experiment discovers three new exotic particles
11 votes -
Prince Rupert's Drop exploding in epoxy resin at 456,522 fps
6 votes -
How do these rocks move on their own in the desert? Ninety-nine years later... we solved it.
19 votes -
Cody's algae panel
5 votes -
Making what is said to be one of the worst smelling substances ever invented, US Government Standard Bathroom Malodor
18 votes -
Electric kettles turn off automatically when the water starts to boil. So what happens when you boil alcohol that has a lower boiling point?
6 votes -
How to grow sodium chloride crystals at home
9 votes -
Fractal ink jets that power spiral motion
2 votes -
Why are scorpions fluorescent?
4 votes -
The longest-running evolution experiment
4 votes -
Plans to capture and run six-hour-long sound tests on young minke whales are set to go ahead in Norway despite condemnation from more than fifty international scientists
5 votes -
Why 10,000 volts at altitude is a bad idea
6 votes -
How high voltage arcing happens, and why it happens so much easier at higher altitudes
5 votes -
I found an article that said "The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments." And I thought, no it wasn't. ...was it?
22 votes -
Making transparent wood
11 votes -
Results from the Fermilab g-2 experiment indicate new physics with 4.2 sigma confidence, stronger than previous measurements
23 votes