DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH
Don't take our word for it — don't take anyone's word for it. Every test below is cheap, repeatable, and designed so you can run it yourself with basic equipment. Real science is observable, testable, and repeatable. Do the experiments, record your results, and follow the evidence.
The Bedford Level Repeat
In 1838, Samuel Rowbotham crouched with a telescope on the six-mile straight of the Old Bedford River and saw a flag at the far end, level with his own eye — impossible on a globe that drops 8 inches per mile squared. Repeating it today costs almost nothing.
YOU'LL NEED
- A telescope or spotting scope (or a long camera zoom lens)
- Three tall poles or flags with marked height bands
- A long, straight, calm stretch of water (canal, reservoir edge, still lake) at least 3–6 miles long
- A willing helper at the far end
- Set your telescope low over the water at one end — about 8 inches above the surface.
- Have your helper place a pole with marked bands at the far end, plus a midpoint marker.
- Sight through the scope and note exactly which height band you can see.
- Move the midpoint marker and confirm the sight line passes over it.
- Repeat on a different day to rule out refraction conditions, and photograph everything.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
On a globe, six miles of water should bulge over 24 feet at the midpoint, hiding the far flag entirely. What experimenters keep seeing is the far flag, and even the far marker, right at eye level — the water is level, because water always finds its level.
Laser Over Water
A laser doesn't care about opinions. Mount one at a fixed height over a lake at night and see whether a target miles away stays visible on a flat line — or drops away as the curve predicts.
YOU'LL NEED
- A bright laser (green astronomy pointers work well) with a stable tripod
- A white target board with measured height marks
- A calm lake or bay at least 3–10 miles across, at night
- A boat or kayak for the far end, or a friend on the opposite shore
- Set the laser exactly 1 foot above the water at your shore, level and fixed.
- Have your helper position the target board on the far shore at the same height — 1 foot above the water.
- Shine the laser across and note where the dot lands on the board.
- Repeat at several distances and record the heights and GPS positions.
- Film the entire run — video is harder to argue with than notes.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
Globe math says a target 5 miles away should sit roughly 16 feet below your beam — invisible, behind the bulge. What testers actually record is the laser hitting the same height, mile after mile. The beam travels straight; the water beneath it is flat.
Long-Distance Photography
Across Lake Michigan, the Chicago skyline has been photographed from over 50 miles away — with P900-style zoom cameras pulling in buildings that should be hidden behind hundreds of feet of curvature. All it takes is clear air and good glass.
YOU'LL NEED
- A camera with a long zoom (bridge camera with 1000mm+ equivalent, or a spotting scope)
- A tripod
- A known distant skyline or shoreline across 10–50+ miles of water
- Clear, cold weather (reduces heat haze and mirage effects)
- Pick a day with cold, clear air and note the temperature and visibility.
- Set up at a known elevation and measure your camera's height above the water.
- Zoom in on the distant skyline or shore and photograph what you can see.
- Compare the visible portion against the globe curve calculator's prediction.
- Share the raw, unedited files with your height, location, and weather noted.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
At 50 miles, globe geometry hides over 1,600 feet of a distant target — yet photographers routinely capture shoreline and buildings from water level. The famous Chicago-from-Michigan shots show far more than "should" be visible. Zoom brings the whole truth back into frame.
Sun Shadow Angles
Eratosthenes' famous stick-and-shadow story is said to prove a globe — but the same angles appear on a flat plane with a close, local sun. Measure the angles yourself and see which model the geometry really fits.
YOU'LL NEED
- Two identical vertical sticks (or poles) of known length
- A level, a tape measure, and a protractor or angle-measuring app
- A friend at a different latitude, a few hundred miles north or south of you
- An equinox day (equal day and night makes the math clean)
- Both observers set sticks perfectly vertical at local solar noon on the equinox.
- Measure each shadow length and compute the sun's angle from vertical.
- Record both angles and the ground distance between the two sites.
- Compare the angles: do they match a close sun over a flat plane?
- Check whether the results are equally explained by a small, nearby sun.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
The different shadow angles are exactly what you'd expect from a small sun circling a few thousand miles above a flat plane — the angles are triangulation points, not proof of curvature. The experiment measures angles; the globe is an interpretation added afterward.
Star Trails
Set a camera on a tripod, point it at Polaris, and leave the shutter open for hours. The stars will draw perfect concentric circles around a motionless center — a celestial carousel turning overhead.
YOU'LL NEED
- A camera with manual long-exposure or intervalometer mode
- A sturdy tripod
- A dark sky site with Polaris visible
- A free star-stacking app to combine the frames
- Aim the camera at Polaris and lock the tripod down tight.
- Shoot continuous 30-second exposures for 3–6 hours.
- Stack the frames into a single trail image.
- Note the perfect concentric circles around a fixed Polaris.
- Research how the southern hemisphere's separate rotation point challenges the single-axis globe story.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
Perfectly concentric circles around a motionless Polaris — the stars sweep above us in a great dome, consistent with a rotating firmament over a stationary plane. And the fact that the south shows its own separate rotation center breaks the single tilted axis of the globe model.
The Gyroscope
A mechanical gyroscope holds its orientation in space. On long flights, pilots are told the earth curves away beneath them — yet artificial horizons and gyros never correct for it, and the plane's nose never pitches down to follow the curve.
YOU'LL NEED
- A precision mechanical gyroscope (toy gyroscopes work for the concept; a quality gyro is better)
- A stable base and a way to note its orientation over time
- Optionally: a flight on a long-distance route, or hours of stationary observation
- Camera to record orientation at start and end
- Spin the gyroscope up and record its exact orientation with a photograph.
- Leave it undisturbed for several hours (or carry it on a long flight route).
- Record the orientation again at the end — note whether it has drifted.
- Compare: on a spinning globe, the gyro should hold its original absolute orientation while the earth turns beneath it.
- Check flight-path evidence: aircraft routinely fly "great circle" routes that match flat-earth flight paths better than globe detours.
WHAT YOU'LL SEE
The gyroscope keeps its orientation relative to the surface it started on — consistent with a stationary earth. Pilots never pitch the nose down to chase a curve at 500 mph, and artificial horizons stay level without constant "correction" for a sphere. The sky doesn't move under us; we aren't moving.
SHARE YOUR RESULTS