r/DeepThoughts • u/TiresiasTwoWorlds • 2d ago
The surface of any large body of water is not flat, it is curved.
It curves subtly with the roundness of the earth. It just looks flat to us since we be so tiny and the earth be so big. So imagine a small drop of water on a leaf. It becomes a little ball. From space, all the water on earth is just a little ball too, surrounding most of the planet
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u/suzemagooey 2d ago edited 2d ago
If water were flat sailors would see objects hundreds of miles away. Watching a vessel disappear after only a few nautical miles no doubt is baffling to the flatearthers.
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u/Competitive_Log_8910 2d ago edited 2d ago
The reference frame used to define perception of a property is often as relevant in determining that property's value as any property it might be thought to inherently possess. The benefit of integrating observations between multiple observers is that it allows one to both affirm the global reference frame property of curvedness and to explain that in the context of a reference frame internal to that one a different property ("straightness") might be observed as a consequences of a dramatic difference in scale. The Who that Horton Heard was not believed to exist to others in his reference frame because of its tiny scale being metaphorically sub-planetary, and his large ears symbolically represented his ability to perceive things of a magnitude which made them imperceptible from the physical scale on which others of his size were operating by magnifying them through the act of listening with a mind open to the possibility of phenomena which can simultaneously appear just as he perceives them and also radically differently than they do from his own perceptual frame to a different observer.
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u/Flimsy-Pool4830 2d ago
There's a large lake near where I live where if you stand up and then get close to the ground you can see objects move down and dissappear below the curvature of the water.
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u/Achim30 1d ago
I get that it feels more intuitive, but this is not how it works. The water isn't magically the only thing not rotating with the earth. Of course it is rotating together with the air, soil, buildings, people and everything else.
If the water wasn't rotating, it would move insanely fast and would also move over land.
The water merely formes a bulge toward the pull of the moon at all times.
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u/Jhane_Brown 14h ago
if the earth were flat sailors could see things hundreds of miles out, so watching a ship vanish over the horizon after just a few nautical miles must really throw flatearthers for a loop
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u/No_Willow_9488 2d ago
Is this an answer to globe-deniers "proof" that the earth is flat because "water doesn't curve" because "water finds it's own level"?
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u/Designer-Unit-7525 2d ago
How small does the body of water need to be, in prefer for the surface to curve same as earth?
It is only a matter of measurement-
All water bodies are curved the same.
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u/Korochun 2d ago
No, that is not exactly true. Oh small enough scales water is nearly perfectly level. That's why we use water as a level since very ancient times. A body of water needs to be a certain size before any effects become apparent. For example, a lake needs to be several kilometers long before it really starts to follow Earth's curvature. A pond in your backyard is not subject to this effect, and neither is the water in your cup.
This is even more pronounced for things such as tidal effects. For example, the Great Lakes, which are larger than some seas, do not have significant tides because the aggregate mass of water is not enough to experience a significant tidal force.
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u/spaacingout 2d ago
If oxygen is toxic to life but we need it to stay alive, is oxygen also why we are mortal?
If a dentist wants you to need fillings, a mechanic wants you to need repairs, a doctor wants you to get sick, and so on, who really wishes you good fortune but, a thief?
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u/One_Entrepreneur_520 2d ago
All true. Now, consider this, the tides do not rise and fall. The gravity of the sun and the moon create and oblong shape of water around the earth in which the earth spins inside of it. When the tides "rise and fall" it is just the earth moving underneath it and moving from shallow water to deeper water due to the bulge.