The idea that the Earth is a sphere was all but settled by ancient Greek philosophers such as Aristotle (384–322 BC), who obtained empirical evidence after travelling to Egypt and seeing new constellations of stars. Eratosthenes, in the third century BC, became the first person to calculate the circumference of the Earth. Islamic scholars made further advanced measurements from about the 9th century AD onwards, while European navigators circled the Earth in the 16th century. Images from space were final proof, if any were needed.
Today’s flat-Earth believers are not, though, the first to doubt what seems unquestionable. The notion of a flat Earth initially resurfaced in the 1800s as a backlash to scientific progress, especially among those who wished to return to biblical literalism. Perhaps the most famous proponent was the British writer Samuel Rowbotham (1816–1884). He proposed the Earth is a flat immovable disc, centred at the North Pole, with Antarctica replaced by an ice wall at the disc’s outer boundary.
The International Flat Earth Research Society, which was set up in 1956 by Samuel Shenton, a signwriter living in Dover, UK, was regarded by many people as merely a symbol of British eccentricity – amusing and of little consequence. But in the early 2000s, with the Internet now a well-established vehicle for off-beat views, the idea began to bubble up again, mostly in the US. Discussions sprouted in online forums, the Flat Earth Society was relaunched in October 2009 and the annual flat-Earth conference began in earnest.
A lot of physics is about choosing the right model for a task. Keep it as simple as possible, but still accurate enough to carry out the calculation you wish to perform.
Since most people aren’t global transport engineers or something like that, there is little to no use to have people think that earth is a sphere. Different than being anti-vaccine, this one here doesn’t really hurt anyone. I don’t see why there’s so much outrage about this.
The problem is that flat earthers aren’t saying “alright apparently the earth is a sphere but whatever I couldn’t care less” treating a spherical earth like I treat relativity. yeah it’s a thing but it’s always negligible so I don’t care I don’t go to a conference that says “time is sacred, they just want you to think it’s relative”
They’re saying “alright this guy says the earth is round, so I know he’s a dumbass, and a shill, and they can’t be trusted because they’re clearly part of the system” Most of them are treating any spherical earth people like kamala voters are treating trump voters.