A flat earth calculation
There are people who believe that the earth is flat. More than once, I have seen a flat-earth believer attest that there is no such thing as gravity. I was always puzzled by what they meant by that.
But recently I read about one flat earth theory (I gather there are a few different variations) which claims that the flat earth is moving in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the earth, and is accelerating at a constant rate of 9.8 meters per second per second, which is equal to what we call the gravitational acceleration.
First, a quibble on my part. Even if that were true, the effect produced by that acceleration is something we would still call gravity.
But, aside from that, I thought it would be interesting to calculate how fast the flat earth is moving today, if it has been accelerating throughout its entire existence.
Since a lot of believers in the flat earth also believe in a young earth, I will take the age of the earth to be 6000 years, which seems to be on the low end of age estimates proposed by believers of the young earth.
Age of the earth in seconds:
(60 sec/min) (60 min/hr) (24 hrs/day) (365.25 days per year on average) (6000 years)
= 1.8935 x 10^11 seconds.
If we have been gaining 9.8 meters per second every second, then assuming we started at velocity 0, the current velocity of the flat earth is
(9.8 m/sec per sec) (1.8935 x 10^11 sec) = 1.8556 x 10^12 m/sec
Dividing by the speed of light, which is about 3 x 10^8 m/sec, we find that we are all currently moving at more than 6000 times the speed of light!
Caveats: I am assuming a disbelief in relativity theory. If relativity is taken into account, then I confess I am at a loss as to the precise calculations, as I have only studied Special Relativity, in which the acceleration is taken to be zero. In General Relativity, the mass of the earth would have to be taken into account, and I have no idea how the flat earth theory assesses that value. But I think it is fair to conclude that we would be travelling at pretty darned near the speed of light by now! Perhaps our resident professional physicist @GlitterEater could weigh in, assuming she has nothing better to do with her time!
Also, if the earth is older than 6000 years, or if our velocity at creation was more than 0, then our current velocity would be even greater than what I calculated.
But recently I read about one flat earth theory (I gather there are a few different variations) which claims that the flat earth is moving in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the earth, and is accelerating at a constant rate of 9.8 meters per second per second, which is equal to what we call the gravitational acceleration.
First, a quibble on my part. Even if that were true, the effect produced by that acceleration is something we would still call gravity.
But, aside from that, I thought it would be interesting to calculate how fast the flat earth is moving today, if it has been accelerating throughout its entire existence.
Since a lot of believers in the flat earth also believe in a young earth, I will take the age of the earth to be 6000 years, which seems to be on the low end of age estimates proposed by believers of the young earth.
Age of the earth in seconds:
(60 sec/min) (60 min/hr) (24 hrs/day) (365.25 days per year on average) (6000 years)
= 1.8935 x 10^11 seconds.
If we have been gaining 9.8 meters per second every second, then assuming we started at velocity 0, the current velocity of the flat earth is
(9.8 m/sec per sec) (1.8935 x 10^11 sec) = 1.8556 x 10^12 m/sec
Dividing by the speed of light, which is about 3 x 10^8 m/sec, we find that we are all currently moving at more than 6000 times the speed of light!
Caveats: I am assuming a disbelief in relativity theory. If relativity is taken into account, then I confess I am at a loss as to the precise calculations, as I have only studied Special Relativity, in which the acceleration is taken to be zero. In General Relativity, the mass of the earth would have to be taken into account, and I have no idea how the flat earth theory assesses that value. But I think it is fair to conclude that we would be travelling at pretty darned near the speed of light by now! Perhaps our resident professional physicist @GlitterEater could weigh in, assuming she has nothing better to do with her time!
Also, if the earth is older than 6000 years, or if our velocity at creation was more than 0, then our current velocity would be even greater than what I calculated.
