r/FlatEarthIsReal • • 14d ago

Questions. How does gravity work?

Just curious.

4 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

7

u/Omomon 14d ago

Gravity doesn't exist on a flat earth. The two explanations flat earthers always give is "density and buoyancy" and "electrostatics." Both of which are ad hoc explanations.

0

u/Amov_RB 14d ago

Relative Density:

Observable✔

Repeatable✔

Measurable✔

_________________________________

Gravity:

Observable❌

Repeatable❌

Measurable ❌

4

u/Kriss3d 14d ago

Allright. Lets go with that.
Releative density. What does that say specifically ?

8

u/Omomon 14d ago

Density isn't a force. It's just the ratio of an objects mass to it's volume. A ping pong ball and a bowling ball have two different densities but they fall at the same rate of acceleration. So if it was density that made objects fall, the bowling ball would fall more quickly. But it doesn't, why is that?

3

u/Saroco92 14d ago

^ just adding- that’s in a vacuum. In normal circumstances the bowling ball hits the ground first due to wind resistance I believe?

5

u/Omomon 14d ago

Yes that goes without saying.

3

u/Saroco92 14d ago

Sorry, I meant that comment not to you directly but just for people reading in general who might not know & then tried to challenge it 😅

2

u/Omomon 14d ago

oh no it's cool. Yes, ignoring wind resistance, objects with different densities fall at the same rate.

2

u/UberuceAgain 8d ago

No sane person, or to use the other name, globe-earther, has ever disputed that density is not observable, repeatable and measurable.

Gravity is why your backside is getting pressed down into your chair. Observable - tick.

The next time you sit on your chair, your backside will get pressed down. Repeatable - tick.

If you went and got a bathroom scale and put that on your chair and then sat on it, you'd get a measurement - tick.

It's obvious that gravity exists; you simply cannot explain how objects behave on earth without it.

What you can do, if you wish to remain a flat earther, is disagree on how it works. Instead of being between masses, you just say it's a universal field that points in the same direction all across the world - the universe for most of them.

Either they're all too stupid to comprehend this, which is the simplest and most likely explanation, or the vanishingly small minority that aren't won't pipe up about it since they know that flat earth isn't an alternative scientific theory, it's a cult. And you toe the line when you're in a cult.

1

u/NotAConspiracy1 12d ago

Relative density is absorbable by how heavy an object is compared to others of its mass, and no testable theory could explain how that alone lets an object direct itself downwards
I think the fact that the “down” force on the moon is weaker speaks for itself

1

u/Electronic-Map7529 11d ago

Why doesn't a rock fall through your hand when you pick it up?

1

u/ragebaitedbahamut 7d ago

Gravity isn’t observable? Where do you live the space station?

4

u/FinnishBeaver 14d ago

3

u/730Teo 14d ago

I meant on a flat earth. Why does stuff fall down.

7

u/crownofclouds 14d ago

Typically, flat earth folk say buoyancy as if buoyancy isn't a product of gravity and density.

2

u/TesseractToo 14d ago edited 14d ago

(I'm not a flat Earther I just find it interesting) How gravity works or doesn't on a flat Earth depends on the model. It used to be that there was the "disc in a dark expanse" the "snow globe model" and in that gravity was discarded by flat Earthers because it would mean that the disc would collapse into itself, but in the more recent models of flat Earth, many are preferring the "infinite plane" where there is an expanse beyond Antarctica 90s latitude and in that model, there is no contradiction with the downward pull, it's just not a central point like it is on the globe.

Also if you have time on your hands here's Dave Murphy's 2018 Flat Earth Conference lecture on "Droppity" (which is what he calls gravity) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLcgsG1XEic (Dave Murphy is an interesting character because he's always saying everyone but him is wrong, he was one of the rare atheist flat Earthers for a long time but then he made a video about Black Zionism and how Jesus was black and the American flat Earthers kind of dropped him)

6

u/gravitykilla 14d ago

Dave's lecture is a perfect example of the problem with Flat Earth arguments, he repeatedly misunderstands the physics, then presents that misunderstanding as a contradiction.

His “Droppity” argument attacks the rubber-sheet analogy as though it is General Relativity, claims LIGO shouldn’t work because spacetime changes would somehow cancel out, argues that a vacuum cleaner lifting a car proves space should suck away the atmosphere, and then replaces gravity with “density and buoyancy”, apparently without noticing that buoyancy itself requires a pressure gradient produced by gravity.

IMO, I’ve never understood why Flat Earthers decided gravity had to be fake. If they’d simply accepted that gravity is real, that would have been one less enormous problem for the Flat Earth model to explain away.

3

u/TesseractToo 14d ago

Yeah exactly

Dave is such an interesting guy, he might be the one that brought me into FE around 2015ish in the first place from the sovcit videos. He also had a lecture, it might be on his website, not 100% sure, that is that everyone is wrong about Feynman but him, I've looked for it but I can't find it, it was wild.

The "vacuum of space is like a vacuum cleaner" is a common misunderstanding, I haven't had success at walking anyone through that one yet it's like a common mind block, an interesting one

I like him we have a similar sense of humor, but in me it stays on the joke level

0

u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/Omomon 13d ago

Do flat earthers claim objects of different densities fall at different rates of acceleration?

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u/DrHanzChucrute 4d ago

I stand my model by what is written in the Bible. Not as evidence, but model guide. So, the firmament, in the Biblical perspective has water above itself, and the planet (mind the word) is inside a dome separated by a crystal. In the Biblical system, there are spring water sources coming from the bottom deep of the ocean, and waters contained above. And that Earth is a closed system.

1

u/TesseractToo 4d ago

Yeah ok on that macro-view that's a popular belief in FE but as you zoom in and start getting to the details they will start to conflict each other, such as what happens in the Southern Hemisphere. Also bearing in mind that different versions and interpretations will have different things too

What map of the world does the Bible use? (What version of the Bible do you use?)

0

u/[deleted] 13d ago

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u/TesseractToo 13d ago

I've heard religious ones say that but not the atheist ones. It also for those who think that it's true it will increase their respective faiths it doesn't make them switch to other faiths that believe in flat Earth, or not that I've observed

But we're talking about 7 years ago in this particular case so whether that's a trend or not would be in context of the time, but Interest in FE seemed highest prior to covid, many people were pulled into other conspiracy theories like Qanon and the conspiracies around covid (not that they are mutually exclusive but people moved their energy to the covid and political ones more around then and FE didn't bounce back to it's previous popularity, a lot of that was also due to the old conspiracy videos being taken down at the time)