Question:
If the earth is a globe...?
2016-04-17 20:23:15 UTC
Why don't engineers have to adjust for the curvature of the earth, when they lay roads, railways etc.?

The earth is actually flat isn't it, the idea of the earth being round goes against all visible evidence.
34 answers:
GeoffG
2016-04-17 20:31:19 UTC
Engineers and surveyors certainly do adjust for the Earth's curvature. I guess you've never heard of Coriolis force and great circle routes. Maybe you'll learn about them when you get to high school.
?
2016-04-18 10:11:48 UTC
From Eric Dubay's book

Engineer, W. Winckler, wrote into the Earth Review October 1893 regarding the Earth’s supposed curvature, stating, “As an engineer of many years standing, I saw that this absurd allowance is only permitted in school books. No engineer would dream of allowing anything of the kind. I have projected many miles of railways and many more of canals and the allowance has not even been thought of, much less allowed for"



There is no source for this quote or any information on W Winkler on the internet that I can find, there's an Emil Winkler but he died in 1888, five years before the supposed quote, I'm nearly 100% certain that this quote is a fabrication, ask a civil engineer in real life about curvature and stop relying on flat earth con artists.



The globe actually conforms with ALL the evidence and you're a fool to think otherwise, how can the sun get anywhere near the horizon when it's supposedly 3000 miles up? How do people everywhere on earth see the same phase of the moon if it's supposedly 3000 miles up? How does the sky rotate clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere if we don't live on a globe?



Flat earth doesn't match a single observation, flat earthers are retarded, if you aren't retarded, don't be a flat earther.
Griffin Covert
2016-04-18 00:33:38 UTC
They don't usually adjust for small roads and railways because the curvature is insignificant at that scale, also, gravity will cause the roads and rails to curve to fit the earth. The curve is extremely gradual, so even a material as solid as steel will have no problem curving that little over that far Keep in mind, the earth is really big. Engineers do, however, need to adjust for the curvature of the earth when building very large bridges.



I believe the most obvious sign that the earth is round is the existence on the horizon. If the earth didn't curve away, you'd be able to see the whole planet from the top of a mountain. You can do some very simple math using the distance to the horizon and your height of observation to calculate the radius of the earth quite roughly.
?
2016-04-18 11:55:42 UTC
Take Canal for instance.

It uses the rule that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.

And any body of water will naturally lie level because of gravity.

Now remember that.

For a short distance, like between two cities, that is all fine and dandy.

But across a Continent, you could look down it and see the first 11 miles, the rest gradually sloping away.

Just like standing on a Sea Shore and looking out at the Horizon.

If you have ever stood on a suspension bridge, you can see the curvature of the Earth, whereas from the side it looks completely straight.

It is all about perspective.

Earth's size and density gives it a Mass of 1 G, and it effects solid liquid and gas.

It is why our atmosphere doesn't just drift away.

Just imagine where water would go without it, or even small rocks.

The most natural shape for any body with mass is globular.

Its gravity no matter how small gradually pulls it into that shape.

Have you seen Astronauts, or even passengers on the so called Vomit Comet in freefall squirting liquid from a bottle: it comes out in globules because of the lack of gravity, but shows off its own gravity.

On a short distance the world can well took flat, but Globally, if you even look at the flightpaths of inter Continental Airlines, their paths are curved.

Because three dimensionally it is the shortest route, unless you want to go deep underground.

Rain falls down, not up.
D g
2016-04-18 09:35:17 UTC
just to give you a little lesson in physical fact



If the earth is not curved why did countries set the two hundred mile coastal limit.



The 200 mile limit is tge distance a tall ships mast can be seen rising or disappearing at the horizon.



The curvature is about 100 feet per 200 miles you cant feel that little of curvature.



Jeez i really thought flat earth people died out in the renisance shows that. Nothing is impossible.



Also how does a satelite orbiting the equator go below the horizon if the earth is flat.



Its not up to us to prove every stupid idea as stupid its up to you to prove beyond any doubt that your idea is true

D
playinmyblues
2016-04-18 12:18:17 UTC
The setting of the Sun could not happen the way it does without the Earth being round. Take the setting of the Sun behind a mountain. If the Earth was flat, and the Sun sets behind a mountain, once you crested the mountain, you would see the edge of the Earth as a flat surface if the Earth was flat. However, this is not the case.
?
2016-04-17 21:06:47 UTC
There is no need to bother with the shape of the world if building a straight road no matter how long that road is.



But consider two hypothetical roads parallel to each other that are 1 mile apart.

The roads start at the equator and head due north.

No matter how carefully each road maintains a due north heading, the two roads will eventually meet at the north pole.



And that is the basis of the problem of mapping the earth's spherical surface on a 2 dimensional map.
2016-04-19 06:09:24 UTC
Earth is round as a globe if you believe world is flat well your 400 years to late and complete idiot.
RickB
2016-04-18 08:00:57 UTC
What sort of "adjustment" do you imagine would be necessary? Railways, bridges, etc. are constructed from short spans, for ease of construction and transportation, and to allow for thermal expansion. Suppose one of these spans is 100 feet long. It's easiest to build such a span perfectly straight, but you suppose it must "allow for the curvature" if the earth be a globe. So, do the math. If the earth is an 8,000-mile-diameter globe, then to perfectly follow the curvature, a 100-foot span would have to bulge a whopping 0.0007 inches in the middle (that's just about the width of a silk fiber). In other words, a series of STRAIGHT spans will do the job just fine, even without the silk-fiber bulge in the middle; they'll bend as necessary at the joints (by 0.0000043 degrees). Gravity does that work. No "adjustment" necessary.



When flat-earthers speak of "all visible evidence," what little they can actually produce seems to go into their eyes and then somehow completely bypasses their brains. They honestly seem to believe that "if it LOOKS flat, it MUST BE flat," and that literally no other analysis of the situation is necessary or possible. It seems like none of them can get to the concept of, "what do you do in case a large globe produces the same appearance as a flat earth? How do you distinguish between the two situations? What kind of math can you use to understand what you should expect to see?" They seem to be terrified and suspicious of math.



Their "visible evidence" isn't backed up by anything. They make pronouncements like, "the horizon always rises to eye level," and simply expect people to believe it. But this claim is contradicted by centuries of experiments -- EASY experiments, that flat-earthers themselves can do, but they REFUSE to do them. Experiments CLEARLY show that the horizon dips down by an angle consistent with an 8000-mile-diameter globe. This was done as early as 990 AD by astronomer Abu al Biruni, who used a simple astrolabe to measure the dip. You can also measure it using a good theodolite, or a special prism that attaches to a sextant, designed for just this purpose. Or see the May, 1979 issue of Scientific American magazine, which describes a clever technique that requires only a ruler and a piece of string; the article also discusses some actual experimental results. Or see Timothy Smith's YouTube video, "The Size of The Earth", where he demonstrates a similar technique. The point is, the flat-earther claim that the dip angle is "zero" is a flat lie.



If the earth were flat, we should be able to see Hawaii from Los Angeles (it subtends an angle 4 times the size of the full moon). Flat-earthers counter that "atmospheric haze" makes that impossible; yet you can clearly see the moon itself on the Pacific Ocean horizon (through all that atmospheric haze). Other flat-earthers simply make up fairy-tale rules of optics and geometry, and claim that Hawaii lies beyond a magical boundary called "the vanishing point" that no one in the real world can explain.



The positions of the stars are different as seen simultaneously by two observers in different places. If you "shift" one observer to the other's position on a flat earth with a nearby firmament, the change in the stars looks a certain, predictable way (predictable by geometry and trig). But if you "tilt" one observer to the other's position on a globe earth with very distant stars, the change looks a certain DIFFERENT predictable way.



The way it ACTUALLY looks, is the "tilted" way, not the "shifted" way. There is simply no way the view of the sky we see could be produced by observations on a flat earth. It is geometrically impossible.
Raymond
2016-04-18 07:25:53 UTC
They do have to adjust. On the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, the two vertical towers are perfectly vertical and yet, they are not parallel: the distance between the towers' centre-lines grows as one moves away from Earth's centre, with a difference of 41 mm between bottom and top.



If the Earth's surface had been flat, then the towers would be parallel to each other.
poornakumar b
2016-04-22 06:52:28 UTC
Engineers & Surveyers in their routine work, follow a piecemeal approach considering short stretches as flat Earth (tangential plane). They join together such pieces & there really is no need to consider Earth sphericity. While planning Air routes the sphericity comes first above all else. So, it depends on situation to situation.
Adam D
2016-04-18 07:21:57 UTC
Roads are built to elevations using survey information. Surveying calculations absolutely do account for the curvature of the earth.



If the earth is flat, why can't anyone provide a single piece of verifiable evidence to support such a stupid statement?
?
2017-02-17 21:26:48 UTC
1
?
2016-04-19 04:00:41 UTC
“The disc, being flat, has no real horizon. Any adventurous sailor who got funny ideas from staring at eggs and oranges for too long and set out for the antipodes soon learned that the reason why distant ships sometimes looked as though they were disappearing over the edge of the world was that they were disappearing over the edge of the world.”

― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
?
2016-04-18 05:53:46 UTC
Actually, we do. Take the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York. Due to the curvature of the Earth the distance between the towers at the top is actually several inches more than at the water level, even though the towers are perfectly plumb.
Paul
2016-04-18 01:46:29 UTC
The Earth is round and engineers do have to account for the curvature of the Earth when they build roads.



It is obvious to everyone's eyes the Earth is NOT flat. If Earth was flat why did I have to walk uphill to get to my house?



I too can make completely specious arguments.
Lodar of the Hill People
2016-04-17 21:05:36 UTC
Does "All visible evidence" only mean the evidence of your limited eyesight? But even so, you can see the curvature as distant ships go below the horizon, or when the earths' shadow strikes the moon during a lunar eclipse. Why is it day time in Paris when it's night time in New York? "All visible evidence" to you apparently means ignoring a large amount of it.



But enjoy. If you're like 90% or more of flat earthers, you're only doing this for attention.
Brad
2016-04-18 23:09:01 UTC
Nothing is real. We're all inside of a video game! The word is only 24 square miles in size and if you try to go out too far you will de-res and disappear!
Gary B
2016-04-19 11:32:52 UTC
they do.



But because things like roads and trains do not generally go "intercontinental", their length is so short that the curvature of the earth doesn't affect them much.



But this MUST be taken into account for things like ship travel and intercontinental air flight, or heaven forbid atomic attack by intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), Go google Great Circle Route)
Tom S
2016-04-18 11:56:02 UTC
The thickness of roads/ railroads is very thin and the curvature of the Earth is negligible compared to local topography. With long and tall structures, (like bridges) it is factored in, as Joseph (and others) points out in his answer.



Edit: Also there is in fact several forms of "visible evidence". Look and learn.



http://www.popsci.com/10-ways-you-can-prove-earth-is-round



http://www.smarterthanthat.com/astronomy/top-10-ways-to-know-the-earth-is-not-flat/
?
2016-04-17 22:39:33 UTC
Actually they do when building something really long. There is a test track in Germany, near the former East German border, that had to be built perfectly flat to test very fast cars. As a result, it is several feet off the ground at one end of its 4+ mile long main straight.
porkyV3
2016-04-19 13:28:11 UTC
and i suppose by visual evidence the sun, the moon, and the stars revolves around earth? a lot of exceptional people died just to give you the information you have right now about the earth. don't let their deaths be in vain.
2016-04-19 01:31:39 UTC
Your'e right, the Earth is flat, it's all a communist plot to get us to think otherwise, Pardon me for a moment, the nurse is here with my medication, it's difficult typing while wearing this jacket!
2016-04-17 20:30:01 UTC
Engineers DO adjust for the Earth not being flat. That is WHY interstates are no straight lines, nor are U.S. highways or state highways.
?
2016-04-18 05:52:26 UTC
They do have to adjust for the curvature and it being round does NOT go against all visible evidence as there are lots of ways to see the curve.
?
2016-04-17 20:43:20 UTC
Visibe Evidience?? Your Blind if you can't see the Earth is Round.
MoonWoman
2016-04-17 20:28:04 UTC
Engineers and Surveyors do adjust for the curvature of the Earth.
Athena
2016-04-18 18:17:57 UTC
Actually, they do.

The supports of suspension bridges of great lengths are not parallel but further at the top than at the bottom.
Shannon
2016-04-18 11:37:26 UTC
If the earth is flat, you should be able to see Mt. Everest with a telescope, right?
Brigalow Bloke
2016-04-18 06:47:22 UTC
They had to when building the Golden Gate Bridge in SF.
2016-04-20 19:01:54 UTC
The shape of the earth: spheroid-oblate.
2016-04-17 23:09:52 UTC
Try Funny.
matthew
2016-04-18 12:55:06 UTC
What
JAKE
2016-04-19 14:12:59 UTC
I give up, I am not wasting my time with you


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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