Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round?

[Admin]

The only way to see the curve of the Earth is to fly more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) above its surface.

Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round? : Read more

 

[Thermoman]

The only way to see the curve of the Earth is to fly more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) above its surface.

Why does everything look flat even though the Earth is round? : Read more

Everything is a lot , my living room table doesn't look flat (jokes)

The reason things start to look flat over distances is because the illumination of the object often becomes a narrow band because of the ''transverse'' square law.

So you don't see other dimensions of what you are viewing , the viewing becomes 2 dimensional .

The best example to view the curved Earth is to look down on a football ,soccer in America !

Because it is near you will see the curvature but only the topside of the ball .

Then get a freind to move away with the ball and view the ball horizontally . Notice then the curvature ''vanishes'' and the ball become a visual 2d flat object with no curves .

 

[Classical Motion]

Perspective can fool you. Greeks misaligned their buildings to make them look square.

We have round eye balls.

 

[Helio]

“The only way to see the curve of the Earth is to fly more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) above its surface.”

But, if the horizon is smooth water (e.g. sea), and the seeing conditions are favorable, then curvature is noticeable if one looks for it. I’ve seen it many times, but not always. The horizon isn’t just what is directly in front of us, but it is left and right of a forward look.

So, if we can see, say, 10 miles left of center, then the drop is 67 ft. That drop will appear as an angular drop of 4 arcminutes, 4x the minimal resolution of the eye, thus noticeable.

Also, there are certain cloud conditions where it appears obvious that the bottom level of the clouds are below the horizon, thus arguing for curvature.

Then there is the usual argument of initially seeing only the top of ships at great distance due to curvature.

“Ever since the ancient Greeks first made observations of the circular Moon and the skies, scientists have known that the Earth is a sphere.”

I'd like to add that Aristotle, and others no doubt, were quick to point out that the Earth’s spherical form was seen during lunar eclipses since the Earth’s shadow upon the Moon is always curved.

Aristotle also argued that since everything falls toward the center of the Earth, then the Earth would necessarily be a sphere. [His works were adopted within the Church, especially at the Council of Trent, so Christianity had few that favored a flat Earth].

 

[Classical Motion]

Yes indeed the ship's mast is a visual of curvature.

 

[Thermoman]

Yes indeed the ship's mast is a visual of curvature.

With a telescope you can still see the mast , curvature and perspective plays a part. I.e You can't see 10 cent from 100 yrds away by eye .

 

[Pogo]

Draw a circle on the ground of sufficient radius, a short segment would be indistinguishable from a straight line.

 

[quikmaff]

Leave it to a random user to answer space.coms dumb question.
The same reason a basketball looks flat when u look at it under a microscope...surely u can figure out the rest....