The Flat Earth: Degrees

This is a technical talk on the flat earth, specifically about the sun’s orbit, so it might be heard for some people to follow this.

A “degree,” according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, is the 360^th part of the circumference of a circle, which part is taken as the principal unit of measure for arcs and angles. The degree (°) is divided into 4 minutes of 60 seconds. Astronomers assume that the earth is a globe, and each 360tyh part of a circle all round it is called a “degree;” it is also assumed that the earth moves, though it is the sun which appears to do so.

The position of the sun in regard to the earth’s surface is changed one degree in four minutes; in other words: 15 degrees per hour, and 180 degrees (or half the circumference of the earth) in 12 hours; hence the hour is on a time-piece is divided into 60 minutes. The sun’s time varies, but clock time does not vary.

In regard,however, to the earth’s surface, we are told that the distance between parallels of latitude in different latitudes is not uniform, the length of the degree being greater at the equator than at the poles.

The length of a degree perpendicular to the meridian has been computer and compared with the length of a meridional degree in the same latitude, giving the proportion of the poles to the equatorial axis. The result differed considerably from the obtained by meridional degrees.

Degrees of longitude radiating from the North have been stated to gradually increase in extent as they approach the equator, beyond which they are again said to converge and gradually diminish in extent towards the south. This is the popularly accepted theory.

The matter might be decided by measuring some distance to the south of the equator at right angles to a given meridian (with non-expanding rods), and between two points where the sun is vertical at an interval of 4 minutes of solar time – i.e., as one degree is a 360^th part of the sun’s whole path over the earth so is the period of 4 minutes a 360^th part of the whole 24 hours, which the sun requires to complete his course; therefore, whatever space on the earth is contained between any two points (where the sun is on the meridian at 12 o’clock and 4 minutes past 12) will be one degree of longitude. If we know the approximate distance between any two place in the South, on or about the same latitude, we can calculate the length of a degree of longitude.

No shadow of doubt rests in my mind that the degrees South converge the same as they do in the North, so that the length of a degree South grows less as we go further from the equator. “Parallax” taught otherwise. I believe I have seen the quotation from his book, but have not read the work through.

If meridians converge south of the equator (as I believe they do) then a degree would measure less at 30° south than at the equator. But taking the ration of the supposed globe degrees at that distance, both north and south would be about 47 miles long.

I have heard such scientists as decide these things admit that they are far from their measurements of degrees; and I am convinced that no man has yet “perceived the breadth of the earth,” nor measured it practically.

The globular idea must be stamped out from a man’s mind before he can see things from a true position, and think of the sun’s rays, as he proceeds above his pathway in the heavens, falling upon and directly touching the earth’s surface so as to form a circle, and the extreme limits of his rays of light forming a larger circle within a larger circle, where sunlight comes to an end, and beyond the limits of day and night.