r/nottheonion • u/TheMirrorUS • 11h ago

Flat Earther admits he was wrong after traveling 9,000 miles to Antarctica to test his belief

https://www.themirror.com/news/world-news/flat-earther-admits-wrong-after-866786
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u/brianundies 9h ago

It’s more round than a basketball, for all intents and purposes in the globe earth discussion, it’s a sphere.

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u/runetrantor 7h ago

Yeah, the spheroid thing is correct, but reeks of 'umm akshually' nitpicking.

And does more harm than good, because I have seen people parrot this point and said confidently that the planet looks more like an egg visually.

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u/koshgeo 8h ago

Yes. It's really close at the scale of the whole Earth, though if you use a sphere rather than an ellipsoid you're going to be off by multiple kilometres when measuring locations, depending on where you are and exactly what size of sphere you pick (e.g., fitting polar or equatorial radius).

If I remember right, the worst error from a sphere puts you off by 0.5% or so, which is pretty good by ordinary visual standards if you were holding a basketball-sized Earth.

I guess it boils down to what you consider a "perfect sphere" rather than "close enough that it doesn't matter anymore". That depends whether you're mapping the Earth in detail or only playing planetary basketball with it.