The Flat Earth model is a conspiracy theory on the concept that the Earth is a flat, disc-shaped plane. Many ancient cultures subscribed to the idea but it was made famous again in modern times thanks to the creation of a Flat Earth society by Samuel Shenton in 1956. Mark Sargent, an avid member of the widely discredited club and author of several books on the topic, detailed during a new documentary why he backed the wacky conspiracy.
He revealed during Netflix’s “Behind the Curve”, how he noticed no planes flew over the South Pole, because it is apparently the edge of the world.
However, when the footage was shown to Hannelore Gerling-Dunsmore, from the California Institute of Technology, she quickly disproved it.
The astrophysicist researcher quickly pulled up her laptop and went onto a flight tracking website.
Pointing to live planes travelling over the Southern hemisphere, she said: “Oh what’s this guy doing? Seems to be going south.
“Where are you going buddy?
“And where’s that coming from? Looks like the southern hemisphere to me.
“This is a very easy test to perform.”
Shockingly, the argument planes don’t fly over the south pole is arguably not Mr Sargent’s most unusual claim.
During the same series, he showed how the Flat Earth Society is “winning against science”.
Taking the production crew to a beach near his home, Mr Sargent pointed at the city of Seattle across the water.
He said: “Here’s an example if you want to see it real quick.
“So like the buildings in the distance – right out there – that is Seattle.
“You should not be able to see it.
“There should be hundreds of feet of curvature between us and them.”
However, the conspiracy theory has been widely ridiculed by scientists.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, author, and leading science figure, simply put the claims to bed three years ago.
He said: “This whole thing is just a symptom of a larger problem.
“There is a growing anti-intellectual strain in this country that may be the beginning of the end of our informed democracy.
“The Earth isn’t f***ing flat.
“And by the way, this is called gravity.”
Mr Tyson then dropped his microphone and walked off, demonstrating how anything with a mass or energy is brought together by the natural force.
His action disproves the Flat Earth theory because if the Earth was a disc, we would be constantly pulled to the centre.
Because it is a sphere – a constant shape – no matter where you stand, you have the same amount of mass under you.
This means gravity will pull anything on the surface of the sphere straight down toward the centre.