First Law of Flerf: Slappy Can't Help Himself
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Nathan keeps a close eye on the comments section of his videos, using offensive language liberally and parroting his ‘earth measures flat’ and similar mantras. He is also liable to copy and paste a list of references he thinks support the flat earth he does not believe in. None of his referees think the earth is flat either.
He relies heavily on persuading his audience that the horizontal plane used in measuring angles from a point on the earth’s surface is the ground itself, rather than the geometrical construct that it is. An example of reification, a fallacy he is all too eager to accuse globers of.
First Law of Flerf: A Case Study
Here's a breakdown of a comment he made (basically the same as all his other copy'n'paste 'references') on his video Flat Earth Dave 2602B Uncut & After Show An Apology For David Weiss. The comment is reproduced in its entirety so that you can admire his editing skills and strict adherence to supplying references.
Note the absence of any sites that are to do with celestial navigation or surveying. His only arguments are semantic. He cherry-picks to build a case based on his misunderstanding of geometry and the reification of geometric planes.
Sustainable by Design
No link supplied, find it here: Sustainable by Design. Slappy's emphasis.
This is from Sustainable by Design, a consultancy which provides advice on renewable energy and green building. Their website has several tools useful for this sphere of work, including one to calculate the elevation angle of the sun. This calculation is based on a rotating spherical earth.
As a bonus, the very next sentence in the copied text, which Nathan has of course not included, goes on to say:
- "The altitude angle is negative when the sun drops below the horizon. (In this graphic, replace "N" with "S" for observers in the Southern Hemisphere.)"
Talk of negative altitude angles and hemispheres tend to set flerfs in a spin.
Slappy’s use of the website was drawn to the authors attention, who has now added a note stating
- “It has come to my attention that some people are claiming that the below graphic is consistent with the belief that the Earth is flat. I am sad and amused.”
Full text here https://www.susdesign.com/popups/sunangle/altitude.php
PVEducation
No link supplied, find it here: PVEducation. Slappy's emphasis.
The page goes on to describes spherical trigonometry required to calculate the elevation angle for different times and latitudes. The is also a nice picture of the globe earth.
Radartutorial
No link supplied, find it here: Radartutorial
Slappy cut this mid-sentence. It goes on:
- ", starting from the antenna. The elevation angle is denoted by the Greek letter ε (epsilon) mostly. It is positive above the horizon but negative below the horizon."
Again, we have things going below the horizon. The website includes information on over-the-horizon radar and the propagation of radio waves over the curve of the earth.
Chegg.com
No link supplied, find it here: Chegg.com. Slappy's emphasis.
A homework help website. Again he reifies a geometrical plane with the surface of the earth.
CueMath
No link supplied, find it here: CueMath. Slappy's emphasis and added text.
Cuemath will help with all sorts topic, e.g. calculating the circumference of the earth, and spheres.
BYJUS
No link supplied, find it here: BYJUS. Slappy's emphasis.
They also explain the earth’s rotation and revolution and the interior structure of the earth.
Sustainable by Design
As above. Repeating it does not help your case, Mr Oakley
Learn60
No link supplied, find it here: Learn60.
This is the website for a school district in Canada.
FED Video
Link supplied: Flat Earth Debate 1613 Aftershow.
Brief clip of someone saying they used a horizontal plane. They get talked over by Nathan's panel. The clip is suitably tailored to avoid any explanation of what the horizontal plane might be.
Radar Tutorial
This is where the post becomes messy.
Link supplied: Radar Tutorial. Slappy's Emphasis.
Why would radar instructors think the earth is flat? They don't:
- "Normally radar systems have a problem: the bend of the Earth surface."(Over-the-horizon radar)
mathspace
Link supplied: mathspace. Slappy's Emphasis.
Nathan still stuck on his reified horizontal plane. This site does not seem to cover spherical trigonometry.
BYJUS and Sustainable by Design (again)
His link to BYJUS doesn't work because Slappy screwed up the address. The actual page, yet another definition of angle of elevation, is here.
We then get the text from Sustainable by Design, for the third time in this post. The link however has again been screwed up.
PennState College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
The link is to PennState College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. Slappy's emphasis.
Nathan will not have looked past his cherry-picked reference. There lies much spherical trigonometry which is way over his head. Of course, the PennState website holds a wealth of information for the physics and earth science courses that they run. Something that Nathan will never look at.
Tasdia.com?
Another malformed link that crashes into his text but goes nowhere, even when cleaned up, is https://mcqs.tasdia.com/mcqs/explanation/altitude-angle-is-the/26748 up. Just tasdia.com works, but that seems to be a Roblox gamers site. Slappy has been told about this broken link several times, but he does not care.
Naval Gunnery Manual
The link is to the Google Books listing for Principles of Naval Ordnance and Gunnery, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971. Page 514, Slappy's emphasis.
This link is useful as it shows the keywords was searching for:
- Elevation Angle horizontal plane
He's not researching the shape of the earth at all. He's looking for cherries to pick and that's all. Does he really think the navies of this world believe the earth is flat?
Here are more passages from the same book:
- "The most pronounced single limiting factor in air searching is the radar's inability to follow the curvature of the earth and detect low altitude targets beyond the horizon. Some radio frequencies (shortwave) will follow the curvature of the earth for great distances provided the waves are propelled by sufficient power" [page 261]
- "6. Earth's Rotation and Curvature
The discussion so far has implicitly assumed that the earth is flat and does not rotate. For ranges up to 20,000 yards or so, such an assumption does not cause any serious errors in fire control. At extreme ranges (30,000 yards and more) these two factors become important enough to be taken into account, particularly in firing at surface targets." [page 187]
Grand Total
Fifteen instances of the First Law of Flef in one messy post. Nathan does not care. He assumes that nobody (not least his supporters) will read them, his supporters will just lap up his cherry picking and repost at will.
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