![]() ![]() ![]() The island of Kauai has the seventh highest point in the Hawaiian islands: the peak known as Kawaikini. With nothing but the ocean around it, and a few other nearby islands, you should be able to see extremely far away. Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawaii (the summit of the Big Island), offers incredible views. SIEGELĤ.) You cannot see Kawaikini from the peak of Mauna Kea. The method of Biruni for calculating the Earth's circumference. At right around 12,700 kilometers (7,900 miles) in diameter, our world is undoubtedly a sphere.īut what if you had never been to space, or high enough up to see the Earth's curvature yourself? What if you had never circumnavigated the globe, done the Eratosthenes experiment, or heard about the Shaquille O'Neal experiment that anyone can perform? Believe it or not, there are still a number of simple observations you can make that wouldn't occur if the Earth were flat. If you travel far enough away from Earth, you can observe an entire hemisphere at once, even watching the planet rotate on its axis in real time. ![]() Its dimensions can be measured its radius of curvature in all directions can be calculated the imperfections and departures from sphericity are directly observable by our instruments. If you leave Earth's surface, it's impossible not to see the true shape of the Earth, as it's been unavoidable since we first traveled high enough to observe our planet's curvature.įrom high altitudes, or even from space, the true shape of the Earth can easily be seen. Of course, it actually is quite round: a near-perfect sphere, to better than 99% precision. JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY, U.S. A panorama of many images stitched together from V2 rockets from flights in 1948. ![]()
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