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Written by: Kurt Tischer

Published: 08 March 2017

It’s an interesting thing about models. A good model may not actually be reality in and of itself, but a good working model helps us to understand reality. If the model doesn’t match what we see, then the model needs to be modified or discarded.

Proponents of "flat earth" also claim to have a model and make numerous claims about it.

Of the many flat earth claims thrown about, two common ones  are:

• there is no discernable curve at 30 miles (48km) above the earth. 
• the sun is 32 miles (51.5km) in diameter, 3000 miles (4828km) high and circles a flat earth around the equator. 

This article attempts to disprove both of these claims using some simple three dimensional modeling.

The following images were created using PovRay (Persistence Of Vision Raytracer), a simple 3-D rendering program used to create photorealistic images. The interesting thing about PovRay is that it uses a simple scripting language to describe primitive geometric shapes in a three dimensional coordinate system. From there, the user can combine these shapes in various ways to create more complex shapes, define how they look, where they are in the image, etc. Clock functions can even be applied to move objects and the viewing location to create complex animations. That said, what I’ve done in these images is quite easy and still, IMO, thoroughly disproves the claims addressed herein. At the end of this article, I have provided links to the rendered images and the PovRay files used to create them. PovRay is FREE software and so can be used by anyone willing to learn how it works. So, let’s get started.

Claim #1: No Discernable Curve at 30 miles (48km) altitude.

 

A common refrain we hear from the Flat Earther's goes something like, "OH MY GOD! 30 miles above the surface and there's no significant curve!" Well, I'm mot sure what they mean by "significant" or even what they expect to see, given the scales and distances involved. Nevertheless, I decided to test that theory via some 3D modeling in PovRay. Everything in the following images is to scale and described above each image. Some interesting caveats, however, (1) even though my image of the sun is to scale, I was shocked by the size it rendered at, that is, until I saw a time-lapsed video of the ISS riding the terminator between night & day. As one of the sets of solar panels on the ISS revolved around its axis, eventually coming around to obscure the sun, I expected them to completely block it out. Instead, they merely filtered out lots of glare and the sun's corona. Oddly enough, the size of the sun as filtered by the solar panels was so remarkably close to what I was seeing in my renders, I had to conclude that the model was accurate enough for the purpose. Besides, adding corona, glare, lens flare, etc. to the models only distracts from the purpose of this exercise. (2) Notice how the center shadow of the grid line widens out. This is the raytracer accounting for the shadow of the blue ball. (3) While rendering these images, someone aksed, "Why don't I see shadows of the horizontal grid lines?" That's because [finish this later]. Hopefully, viewing some images to scale, along with some points of reference, will get FE'ers to really THINK about what they are seeing and help explain to them why they are so far off base. So, let's begin:

Projection: Spherical
Spherical Earth Radius	6378km	Camera Height	48km	Horizon Distance	784km
Grid Distance	6378.14km	Grid Spacing	100km	Blue Ball Distance	1100km
Blue Ball Altitude	48km	Blue Ball Radius	480m	Sun Distance	150,000,000km
Sun Radius: 695,700km
Sphere Earth 48km

 

Projection: Planar / Flat
Flat Earth Radius	6378km	Camera Height	48km	Horizon Distance	6378.14km
Grid Distance	6378.14km	Grid Spacing	100km	Blue Ball Distance	1000km
Blue Ball Altitude	48km	Blue Ball Radius	480m	Sun Distance	150,000,000km
Sun Radius: 695,700km
Flat Earth 48km

 

Projection: Planar / Flat
Flat Earth Radius	6378km	Camera Height	718km	Horizon Distance	6418.29km
Grid Distance	6418.29km	Grid Spacing	100km	Blue Ball Distance	671.32km
Blue Ball Altitude	48km	Blue Ball Radius	480m	Sun Distance	150,000,000km
Sun Radius: 695,700km
Flat Earth 718km