Concave Earth Debunked

Anyone looking into alternative Earth cosmologies will inevitably run across 3 main options for the general alleged shape of the Earth. Either Earth is a level plane devoid of any curvature, a convex sphere upon which we live outside, or lastly, a concave sphere upon which we live inside. The majority of my work contains undeniable proof as to what the objective reality of this situation is, and debunks the majority belief that Earth is a convex spinning ball, but in this article/video I will specifically address and debunk the claim that Earth is concave.



In my books and videos you will find hundreds upon hundreds of proofs that Earth is devoid of any convex curvature, and the vast majority of these proofs double to show that Earth is also devoid of any concave curvature. For example, the natural physics of large bodies of water is to seek its lowest level with the surface of all standing water remaining perfectly flat from end to end of its container. Whether in a beaker, bottle or bathtub, pond, lake or ocean, this tangible substance which we can all confirm for ourselves, is incapable of supporting itself into any shape whatsoever. Regardless of what shape the ground beneath takes, the surface of standing water remains perfectly horizontal. This alone destroys the unscientific, unobservable, unrepeatable claim that Earth is a concave or convex ball.



The perfectly flat horizon seen for hundreds upon hundreds of miles at the highest altitude any amateur balloon, camera or human has ever reached, also shows beyond any shadow of doubt that Earth is not concave or convex. For Earth to be a ball of the dimensions claimed, means that it must curve (upwards or downwards!) at a rate of h = r - r cos(s/2r) where h = height, r = radius, and s = arc length. When calculated for up to nearly 1000 miles (which is plenty far for any practical observations we can make) this trigonometrical formula can also be simplified to 7.98 inches per mile squared and receive the same results. This means an easily visible and measurable curvature of 6 feet after 3 miles, 24 feet after 6 miles, 54 feet after 9 miles and so on would and must exist if we truly lived on a concave or convex Earth 24,900 miles in circumference. Countless experiments using lasers, spirit levels, theodolites, sextants, telescopes, super-zoom cameras, and Navy rail guns have all confirmed however that no such alleged curvature exists.

Again, there are hundreds more such proofs available in my other works showing the objective reality of our cosmology, so now I will specifically address the evidence given by concave Earthers to substantiate their belief that we are living inside a ball. The largest collection of concave Earth evidences I have been able to find, belongs to the Wild Heretic blog where he has amassed the following 10:

1) Old Maps: For his first point of evidence, Wild Heretic refers to the Glen McLaughlin Map Collection dating from the 17th through 19th centuries whose latitude and longitude lines have been curved “the other way” than we are used to, giving them the appearance of concavity rather than convexity. He then concludes that these map-makers could have had special knowledge of Earth's concavity and attributes a random, subjective number of 10% to the veracity of this evidence to prove that Earth is concave. Now, anyone can draw a map of any shape they would like, and that has exactly 0% relevance and gives 0% evidence of the actual shape of the objective world we all inhabit. There are many maps in existence that show Earth to be diamond-shaped, heart-shaped, rectangular, and even the shape of a large letter M! The existence of such maps does not provide 10% or even 1% evidence that Earth is a diamond, heart, rectangle or letter M, just as these concave Earth projections fail to provide any evidence for their claim.

2) Modern Maps: For his second point of evidence, Wild Heretic refers to modern Polyconic Map projections, which are ironically flat Earth maps, but drawn with concave latitude and longitude lines. Since this projection was "in common use by many map-making agencies of the United States from the time of its proposal by Ferdinand Rudolph Hassler in 1825 until the middle of the 20th century," and used by the US Military and Geodetic Survey, Wild Heretic attributes an arbitrary 60% to this piece of evidence in proving Concave Earth. Once again, anyone can draw maps of any shape, and these flat maps with concave lines over them, have exactly 0% relevance and give exactly 0% evidence of the actual shape of the objective world we all inhabit.

3) 19th Century Balloon Obseravtions: For his third point of evidence, Wild Heretic again refers to flat Earth material but claiming it as concave Earth evidence. This time, quoting Samuel Rowbotham's Earth Not a Globe, he shows a picture and quotes from the book discussing how early hot air balloonists, expecting to see convex curvature beneath them due to their globe beliefs, were shocked that the appearance was instead concave because the horizon rose to eye level along with them while the Earth below them continued to sink away. Wild Heretic conveniently glosses over the proceeding pages where Samuel Rowbotham clearly shows this concave appearance to be the result of plane perspective. The fact that the horizon literally rises up along with the observer/camera as high as they go, shows that we are dealing with a subjective element of vision, not objective tangible reality. If that was the case, then pilots viewing the horizon straight in front of them flying level on long-haul flights should, would, and must eventually come face to face with and inevitably crash into the supposed concave Earth horizon directly in front of them. This never has, never could and never will happen of course, because the eye-level horizon is simply an element of point perspective and the way our eyes perceive the world. If the horizon was an objective tangible facet of reality, it would remain where it was regardless of altitude, and not constantly change based on the position of each observer. These 19th century balloonists quoted also only reached an altitude of 1-2 miles high. Today we have hundreds of amateur balloon videos exceeding 20+ miles high which still show a perfectly flat horizon 360 degrees around with the horizon rising to eye-level the entire way. Regardless of this, Wild Heretic claims this point of evidence lifted from Rowbotham's seminal Flat Earth book somehow gives 30% evidence for concave Earth. Which orifice he is pulling theses percentages from is anyone's guess.

4) Tamarack Mines: For his fourth point of evidence, Wild Heretic refers to J.B Watson's 1901 Tamarack mine experiment where he suspended 4250 foot long plumb lines down copper mine shafts and found the plumb lines were slightly farther apart at the bottom than at the top, concluding from the results that Earth is concave. The experiment began by suspending two #24 steel piano wires with 50 pound cast iron bobs hanging 4250 feet down Tamarack mine shaft 5. The plumbs were 15 feet apart from one another and measured a divergence of 0.07-0.11 feet at the bottom after several tests. In an attempt to rule out magnetism between the iron ventilation pipes running down the western side of the shaft and the plumb bobs, 50 pound lead balls were used and the test repeated with the length of the wires 120 feet shorter and situated in shaft 2; again, recording a divergence of 0.1 feet. In a third attempt, trying to rule out magnetism, the same experiments were repeated in 1902 in shaft 4, but with #20 bronze piano wires carrying 60-pound lead bobs approximately 15 feet apart and 4,440 feet in length. This time instead of diverging, Watson recorded a convergence of 0.028 feet. Changing again to steel wire and trying both iron and lead bobs gave similar convergent results in shaft 4. Lastly, the test was repeated once more in shaft 5 with the bronze wire and lead bobs this time resulting in the biggest divergent reading of 0.141 feet.

The inconsistency between results of various shafts using various materials led Watson and associates to theorize that circulating air must be affecting the experiment. They managed to block off most of the updraft by moving the wire, sealing the top and leaving only a small circulating air current due to the hot air at the bottom of the shaft naturally moving up to the colder air on top. This time they measured and found the lines to be nearly parallel diverging only a minuscule 0.018 feet in shaft 5, and 0.04 feet in shafts 2 and 4. When calculations were done on these final tests, the tiny divergence recorded was allegedly very near to what would be expected on their concave Earth model.

Now, firstly, plumb lines have been used above ground in construction flawlessly for millennia providing builders perfectly straight vertical lines with zero convergence or divergence from which to build gigantic balanced sturdy structures from the Roman Colosseum to the Burj Khalifa. To throw out thousands of years of practical perfectly vertical plumb line measurements used by millions of builders the world over throughout history, in favor of the wildly inconsistent underground results of one 20th century concave Earth theorist is simply untenable and frankly absurd. Secondly, steel and iron are overtly magnetic, while bronze and lead not considered "magnetic" still interact with and are affected and moved by magnetic fields. Thus measuring convergence or divergence of metal plumb lines with metal plumb bobs down mine shafts full of various potentially magnetic materials, including the admitted iron ventilation pipes is truly disingenuous and ignoring the most probable problem. And thirdly, the circulating air currents which Watson and associates were never fully able to negate, are yet another obvious reason for the inconsistent results. Cherry-picking the final test results that best fit their theory while ignoring the previous results and thousands of years of perfectly vertical plumb lines again is incredibly disingenuous and untenable, but Wild Heretic gives this experiment a 50% rating for proving concave Earth.

5) Laser Between Two Posts: For his fifth point of evidence, Wild Heretic refers to an anecdotal experiment claimed to have been done by an anonymous YouTube commenter. You read/heard correctly, Wild Heretic's fifth proof the Earth is concave, is a single unrecorded experiment claimed to have been performed by some YouTube commenter with no content who doesn't even use his real name. In the comments section of a Polish YouTube video against the concave Earth theory, Wild Heretic read and relates the comments made by one "Ar Pi," who was allegedly skeptical of the "cellular Earth theory" until he shined a laser across a 2 kilometer lake and concluded the Earth is concave. "Ar Pi" states that, "Me and my friend stuck a vertical stake in the water and fixed the laser on it on the height of 30 cm above water surface. My friend sailed to the other shore, about 2 km from the first stake and placed a stake there too. By communicating on the phone I set the laser beam on his stake at the same height, 30 cm above water surface. When he confirmed the height was the same on his stake too, the laser was then rigidly fixed to the first stake with two wing screws. My friend sailed back to my position and together we made a measurement in the middle of the distance between the two stakes. The measurement showed that the distance from water surface to the beam was 39-40 cm!"

Now to begin with, this single anecdotal experiment was not recorded and therefore is nothing but unevidenced hearsay which Wild Heretic laughably attributes a whopping 75% veracity on his ridiculous percentage proof scale. Secondly, we know for a fact, as it is an undeniable, tangible, observable, repeatable aspect of reality that large bodies of undisturbed water always remain perfectly horizontal with no deviation in elevation from end to end. In fact, it is water itself which has universally been used for millennia as a leveling tool by builders as it is the easiest and most reliable method of finding true level. Therefore to claim a 2 kilometer wide lake somehow maintains a 10 centimeter dip in the middle, goes against millennia of well-established, easily verifiable, tangible scientific objective reality we can all test for ourselves. Thirdly, Mr. "Ar Pi" never mentions if or how he leveled the laser, which if he didn't, exposes an obvious glaring problem in his experiment, and if he did, then he would literally and paradoxically have been using a water level to look over level water in order to claim water isn't level. Lastly, there are hundreds of successful tests (which have been recorded) using lasers, theodolites, spirit levels, sextants, telescopes, zoom cameras and other technologies to prove that bodies of water at rest do not curve whatsoever.

6) Rectilineator: For his sixth point of evidence, Wild Heretic references the "Rectilineator" experiment performed by Cyrus Teed and his Koreshan Unity members in the late 19th century. Cyrus Teed was a man who claimed to be Christ, renamed himself "Koresh," and created a commune for followers of his "Koreshanity." He also wrote a book claiming the Earth to be concave and attempted to prove this with his infamous rectilineator experiment. It turns out his "rectilineator" was really just a fancy name for a few sections of glorified fence posting. Mr. Cyrus Koresh Christ Teed made a series of 12-foot long, 8-inch wide mahogany supports held up by vertical posts with brass castings which could be adjusted for height by turning screws on the front sides of each. His experiment was to take these sections of fence to a 4 mile stretch of Naples Bay and by lining them up end to end calculate any potential concave curvature that might be found between his fence posts and the sea level. Logistically he was unable to create 4 miles of this kind of rectilineator post, so instead settled for just making a few short sections, unscrewing then re-using them as he went along the beach.

Since the beach sand was anything but level, Teed and his Koreshans had to continuously excavate digging and dumping sand to create a level line along the beach side. Once each section of fence was posted, it was checked by a plumb line, spirit level and geodetic level, then at every eighth of a mile, the height of the horizontal support was measured against the water level beneath. Since the water was tidal, Teed used something called a "caisson" which artificially creates a perforated basin giving him sections of still water to measure against. Teed argued that if the distance between the waterline and the rectilineator was the same at each 1/8 mile measurement, this would prove the Earth to be flat. If the distance continually increased, Earth was convex; and if the distance decreased, Earth was concave. Low and behold, Teed found the distances continually lessened and reached his hoped for conclusion.

Now to begin with, note that this experiment was performed not by a secular, unbiased, man of science, but rather by an active religious cult leader whose following was highly predicated on his claims that Earth was concave. Secondly, his experiment has never been repeated, so we only have Teed and his Koreshans word as to the accuracy of their leveling abilities and calculations. Thirdly, there are several factors that could and would skew the data gathered for this experiment. For example, Teed admitted that even though the level of the supports was tested every eighth of a mile, his equipment was not sensitive enough to give accurate readings for the first several sections; the method of confirming the cassion level with each 1/8 mile tide stick was by observation through a telescope, which introduced a huge element of potential human error; the wood and brass parts used were inevitably subject to slight expansion or contractions with changes in temperature and humidity; and the sand over which they tested was also most certainly subject to subsidence over time causing more inevitable slight decreases in height as they went (which serendipitously just happens to favor their hoped for concave results). Regardless of all this, Wild Heretic and most other Concave Earthers quote this flawed, heavily biased, unrepeated experiment as their most solid proof of Earth's concavity. Thus the "Rectilineator" receives a 99% veracity rating from Wild Heretic, and he also claims that if and when Lord Steven Christ (a contemporary Concave Earth cult leader who also believes himself to be Jesus) repeats Teed's experiment with positive results, this will be 100, yes, 100% proof that Earth is concave.

7) Huge Horizons: For his seventh point of evidence, Wild Heretic references long-distance observation of islands, mountains and buildings which would be invisible behind hundreds or thousands of feet of convex curvature if Earth was truly a ball 25,000 miles in circumference. Once again, taking flat Earth evidence and conflating it as concave, Wildly Speculative Heretic admits this evidence works equally well on a flat Earth, but then later concludes it to somehow be 75% concave proof on his random rating scale. The truth is that objects can indeed be seen much farther than is allowed on a convex ball 25,000 miles in circumference, and this is in perfect alignment with the law of perspective on plane surfaces, but not in any way evidence that Earth is curving upwards as concave theorists claim. The fact that the horizon shows the ground beneath your feet rising to your eye level is a matter of perspective and the way our eyes perceive the world, which we can test and confirm ourselves by rising in altitude and seeing the subjective horizon expanding and rising to our level, or by walking to an object on the horizon over flat land, and confirming the ground that was then at eye level is now under our feet without us ever actually changing elevation.

8) Binocular Effect: For his eighth point of evidence, Wild Heretic basically re-iterates point seven regarding seeing distant objects (which was just shown to be proof of flatness, not concave curvature), but this time focusing specifically on zooming-in objects which have disappeared into the horizon. Islands, lighthouses or ships which are partially obscured or completely eclipsed by the horizon can be brought back into full view with the aid of binoculars, telescopes or zoom cameras. The fact that ships disappear hull first when sailing away from the shoreline is once again an element of perspective on plane surfaces. A person walking away from you on a football field or other longer flat surface will also similarly start to disappear from the ground up starting with their shoes, then their ankles, legs and so on until they appear to be a floating legless torso at a far enough distance. But we can easily prove this is just an element of perspective by zooming in and seeing their entire body, legs and all, or the entire ship, hull and all, come fully back into view. As usual, this is a solid proof of perspective over planar surfaces, but Wild Heretic claims it as 85% proof that Earth is concave.

9) Bendy Light: For his ninth point of evidence, Wild Heretic says and I quote: "Light must bend upwards in a concave Earth in order to make sense… and there is some evidence of that." He then goes on to reference a single anecdotal experiment done by one Wilhelm Martin who hypothesizes bendy light as the reason for the results of a theodolite test he performed over 2000 meters. His test was far from perfect, yielding constantly changing results, with several problem factors including wind, temperature/humidity considerations and refraction, but rather than focusing on faults of the experiment, for this ninth piece of supposed concave Earth evidence, I would like to point out that it is actually irrelevant regardless. As Wild Heretic stated, "light must bend upwards in a concave Earth in order to make sense,"however, it is a fallacy of affirming the consequent in formal logic to state that light must bend for concave theory to be true, then show an example of bending light, and conclude therefore that the Earth is concave. This is the same fallacy Neil DeGrasse Tyson used when Joe Rogan asked him how we can be sure humans went to the Moon and he responded by saying we know they went there because the Saturn V rocket was loaded with enough fuel to get there. Just because there was enough fuel to get there, or just because an example of bending light can be shown, does not mean man walked on the Moon or the Earth is concave. This is a great example of the fallacious sophistry used by both concave and convex Earthers, sophistry that Wild Heretic ascribes a completely undeserved 95% veracity rating on his non-sense scale.

10) Overall Conclusion: And for his final point of evidence, Wild Heretic simply re-iterates the previous nine showing his percentages for each, encouraging the reader to agree that so many arbitrary percentage points couldn't possibly be wrong, and that the only fair conclusion is to concede concave Earth. I'm sorry to disappoint Mr. Heretic, but common sense tells us we live on a level motionless plane with the Sun, Moon and stars revolving over and around us, just as you experience every day. The idea that people, buildings and oceans are all somehow stuck to and curving around the inside of a ball is just as ridiculous and impossible as the idea that people, buildings and oceans are all somehow stuck to and curving around the outside of a ball. Both the convex and concave models require the complete abandonment of our common sense and experience which tells us clearly and obviously that people in one part of the world are not living upside-down with respect to people in any other part of the world. Planes do not curve their paths upwards or downwards during their flights in order to maintain altitude as they would have to on concave or convex Earths. The mechanical gyroscopes operating each artificial horizon on every single plane is proof positive as they remain rigid in space that pilots reach their desired altitude and never change their pitch whatsoever during long haul flights as would be necessary over concave or convex Earths.

For anyone still clinging to concave or convex Earth dogma, please see the presentations 200 Proofs Earth is Not a Spinning Ball and The History of Flat Earth.