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I have been wondering for a while.There dozens of topics which prove the earth is round. But they all heavily rely on the vision of the person you proof it to. Is there any way, not at all relying on vision, to proof the earth is round?

Qmechanic
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Mark Smit
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    How about the Coriolis force, or the Foucault pendulum? They prove it's round and spinning. – hdhondt Jan 09 '17 at 23:14
  • Related: http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/26427/2451 – Qmechanic Jan 09 '17 at 23:53
  • As any method one comes up with is a valid method of proving the earth is round, there is no real answer to this question which makes it too broad. – Kyle Kanos Jan 10 '17 at 04:16
  • @hdhondt: Those effects definitely prove that the Earth spinning, but how do they prove it's not a flat disk rotating about its center? – Michael Seifert Jan 10 '17 at 20:34
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    @Michael The Foucault pendulum precesses differently at different latitudes. At the north and south pole it moves in opposite directions (wrt the observer). That is possible only on a spherical earth. The Coriolis force is opposite in northern and southern hemisphere. How is that possible on a spinning flat earth? – hdhondt Jan 10 '17 at 21:25
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    @hdhondt: Fair enough. But if you're willing to go a significant way around the Earth in order to prove that it's round, you don't actually need anything involving the Coriolis effect; you can "just" carefully measure the distances and angles of a sufficiently large triangle. – Michael Seifert Jan 10 '17 at 22:10
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    @Michael you could use one of those newfangled devices called "telephones" and talk to someone at the south pole to check the pendulum ;-) – hdhondt Jan 11 '17 at 08:46

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Put the blindfolded person in a car and tune into an FM station. Then drive however long it takes for that local signal to distort, fade and vanish, say 100 km. The radio beam travels in a straight line So the signal is gone because it's above your head, and the only way that can happen is if you dropped below it, i.e. you are on a sphere.

To verify this, take a flight from your local airport, if you can still hear the signal, then that supports the idea that it is not the signal loss due to horizontal distance that is affecting it, but instead it's due to vertical distance.

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From Light of Sight Radio Propagation

Line-of-sight propagation means radio waves which travel in a straight line from the transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna. It does not necessarily require a cleared sight path; at lower frequencies radio waves can pass through building walls and foliage. Line of sight transmission is used in short to medium range radio transmission such as garage door openers, cell phones, cordless phones, walkie-talkies, wireless networks, FM radio and television broadcasting and radar, and satellite communication, such as satellite television. Line-of-sight transmission on the surface of the Earth is limited to the distance to the visual horizon, about 40 miles.

A high powered directional radar beam would be better, but enough already....

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Put the person in a circular orbit around earth. Free falling feeling proves they are in orbit. All you need to prove to the person now is that they are facing half sphere all the time. Can use some wave technology to prove that. This is equivalent of putting a flat earther (with vision) into earth orbit.

kpv
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