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tl;dr This is the result of a thought experiment regarding the "Flat Earth Conspiracy" theory. Is it possible to confirm this, oneself, without a lot of traveling or expensive equipment. (There is some expense, but it's not ridiculous.)

One of the features of our modern world is the Global Positioning System. (You flat Earthers may object to the name but that's what it's called.) I'm sure anyone with a cell phone will concede that GPS exists; even if you've no idea how it works, it can clearly locate your position on a map with a high degree of accuracy. This is - supposedly - done by receiving radio signals from satellites about 11,000 miles high in the sky, traveling in circular orbits around the sphere that is Earth. This wouldn't work with a flat Earth.

If you built your own GPS receiver, you'd be able to interpret these signals yourself. You'd need to understand how both the hardware and software work, which is a bit complicated; but you'd see that the radio sources the receiver is listening to have to be certain distances away from you, and moving according to the model of the orbits in the software used to interpret the radio signal. This could possibly be faked - for one position - but move a few dozen yards away and you're essentially triangulating the distance to those transmitters. (You'd need two recievers, and run them both simultaneously, to be abolutely sure, but you might not consider that necessary.)

Here is information on how to build a GPS receiver, the pattern for the FPGA and the software to interpret the output:

http://www.aholme.co.uk/GPS/Main.htm -

tl;dr This is the result of a thought experiment regarding the "Flat Earth Conspiracy" theory. Is it possible to confirm this, oneself, without a lot of traveling or expensive equipment. (There *is* some expense, but it's not ridiculous.) One of the features of our modern world is the Global Positioning System. (You flat Earthers may object to the name but that's what it's called.) I'm sure anyone with a cell phone will concede that GPS exists; even if you've no idea how it works, it can clearly locate your position on a map with a high degree of accuracy. This is - supposedly - done by receiving radio signals from satellites about 11,000 miles high in the sky, traveling in circular orbits around the sphere that is Earth. This wouldn't work with a flat Earth. If you built your own GPS receiver, you'd be able to interpret these signals yourself. You'd need to understand how both the hardware and software work, which is a bit complicated; but you'd see that the radio sources the receiver is listening to have to be certain distances away from you, and moving according to the model of the orbits in the software used to interpret the radio signal. This could possibly be faked - for one position - but move a few dozen yards away and you're essentially triangulating the distance to those transmitters. (You'd need two recievers, and run them both simultaneously, to be *abolutely* sure, but you might not consider that necessary.) ------------------------------- Here is information on how to build a GPS receiver, the pattern for the FPGA and the software to interpret the output: http://www.aholme.co.uk/GPS/Main.htm - [archive link](https://archive.ph/WQ3ok)

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[–] • 2 pts (edited )

An equatorial mount is able to track any object in the sky using a single axis of rotation at constant speed, and this can be done from any location on the earth. This single axis, constant speed, and any location is important.

For example, on the flat earth model it is impossible to track the sun using a single axis of rotation, unless you would happen to be standing exactly in the center of whatever circle the sun is doing that day. From any other vantage point the sun's track across the sky would become an oval, and you cannot track an oval using only a single axis of rotation at constant speed.

In addition, the axis of the equatorial mount is angled towards the sky at each latitude according to the angle of the sphere at that point. This proves the roundness. For example at the equator, the axis of rotation is perpendicular to the ground. At the poles, the axis is vertical, and in between the poles and the equator the the axis is aligned somehere between horizontal and vertical.

All of these bits of information taken together, proves a spherical earth. And at the same time it completely disproves a flat model.