But what would flat-earthers consider the longest possible paths to be? Not the ones shown in the article, presumably?

madcaptenor 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Over water, probably something like the entire 60th parallel south.

Over land, I think you want to start near the westernmost point of the African continent and thread the needle of the Isthmus of Suez, and stay south of the Caspian Sea. At least in the projection gcmap.com uses (plate carree - essentially the x-coordinate and y-coordinate are just raw longitude and latitude), this keeps you south of Lake Baikal and allows you to get very far east in far eastern Russia. Something like 17.5 N, 16 W to 69 N, 178.5 E seems to work:

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=17.5n16w-21.79n0.21e-26.08n16.4...

Of course this depends on the projection you use!

This is different from the Portugal-to-China path that is the longest over land in reality, which a flat-earther would have crossing the Mediterranean.

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Anduia 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Flat earthers don't use Mercator projection, they use polar azimuthal equidistant (AEQD) projection centered in the north pole.

I think it would be something like Portugal-Kamchatka:

https://i.ibb.co/9mqz8fvb/image.png

	▲	madcaptenor 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't know that. Makes more sense than a rectangular projection at least.

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1718627440 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Of course this depends on the projection you use!

But if you do not believe in a globe how do you understand projections?

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madcaptenor 2 days ago | parent [-]

Well, they wouldn't call it a "projection", but whatever drawing of the map they use.

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1718627440 2 days ago | parent [-]

Yeah, but how do they explain, that the same world looks different, e.g. having different distances and angles depending on the map "type"? This is kind of important for traveling, navigating or measuring the size of the property you own.

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phinnaeus 2 days ago | parent [-]

They’re flat earthers, they either have no explanation or a completely bogus explanation. Certainly don’t look for any semblance of reason. They just invent whatever to try and feel like they have some secret knowledge.

	▲	1718627440 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm just curious. I think they still believe to have a consistent worldview themself, as every human does. My question was more regarding their self-understanding and less the kind-of "marketing" they throw at outsiders.

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astrobe_ 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They would tell us we are contradicting ourselves because none of them are straight lines in the traditional sense, if we really believe the Earth is a sphere. Don't underestimate trolls ;-)

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Anduia 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It would be a straight line (in their official map) from the south of Portugal to Kamchatka (east Russia)