Re:In defense of flat earthers (2020)
by aeternum on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @12:41PM
(#29982735)
Can it actually be demonstrated in a lab that gravity non-planar? One interesting explanation I've seen by the flat earthers is that gravity does not exist, instead the flat earth is simply under constant acceleration at 9.8m/s^2.
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Yes. Very precise measurements of gravity on Earth have shown that, although it always points to the Earth's center, the force of Earth's gravity varies by latitude a tiny bit[1] (because Earth is a rotating oblate spheroid) and by elevation (because gravity varies by distance between center of masses). Neither of these can be accounted for on an accelerating disk Earth.
[1] https://www.britannica.com/science/gravity-physics/Accelerat...