Questions Regarding Flat Earth

Hello! 

I'm a student taking an Astro-Philosophy class within my university, and our topic this month is on this community: Flat Earth Society.

I should note before I go further: I do not intend nor encourage the harassment of Flat Earth Believers, nor is my topic this month meant in any way to dehumanize or trivialize the concept. I've always been interested and I was looking for a few questions that I couldn't find answers to.

1. Are there any mostly-unanimous maps, diagrams, or concepts regarding how the Earth looks if it's not a sphere? If no, is there a specific reason as to why (apart from the obvious cost and labor that goes into map charting)? Depending on the location of continents (like if they were close by to the edge), would I be able to see the "edge" of the Flat Earth? If not, why?

2. What is the explanation offered for the lack of visuals beyond the sea? I've seen this question a lot. I know the Round Earth explanation is that the Horizon covers the rest of the Earth from our view. What is the Flat Explanation. I've seen a lot of edited images on both sides of the debate (or rather, significantly conflicting images. Even with images on their own sides). I am looking for honesty here, I am being graded after all!

3. I've seen some things about flight trajectories, and it is true that flights do tend to be shorter when on a curvature. Is there an explanation for this within Flat Earth Theory? This seems like something independent from conspiracy, because a flight travel company would try to go the shortest distance possible.

4. On the topic of conspiracy, and with as much respect as you can hold: do you believe more in the idea of a Flat Earth, or do you believe more in the disbelief of a Round Earth? The two of these are the most popular and prominent, but is it more about the disbelief in a round earth? Could the earth be anything but round, by definition?

Thank you again for anyone who reads this. I hope to check back and see some responses!

1. There is no map that can accurately show how the flat Earth is like. Obviously, the distance between cities and locations on the artistic flat Earth map for reference is different from reality. The reason for this is that people first measured the distance between cities, and then attempt to plot such distances on a round Earth model, while the rural areas, such as forests and oceans are mainly distorted on the round Earth map, and few people would notice the differences. Southern Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean are likely to be wider, and southern America and Africa is likely to be narrower than on the flat Earth artistic map, for example. This is also partly why an accurate flat Earth map is not available. You will not be able to see the edge, because light bends upwards due to refraction by atmospheric air.
2. As mentioned above, light bends upwards due to atmospheric air, so the horizon looks like it covers the objects far away.
3. Sometimes there are things more important than money. Consider being the owner of an airline company. You own billions of dollars and minor differences in profit would not affect your standard of living. Like having 10 billion dollars and 20 billion dollars would not really affect your living. Meanwhile, having the power to deceive everyone gives you a sense of superiority, which sometimes money cannot buy.
4. For me, I believe in a flat Earth simply because it is observed to be flat. And people who claim that Earth is round should prove it, and not the otherwise.
However, note that all the points mentioned above are just my own opinion and other members may not have the same views.

Well, have you ever seen pictures that were shot from the ISS? Or if earth were no globe, gravity would be different, depending on how far you were away from the center.

Well, have you ever seen pictures that were shot from the ISS? Or if earth were no globe, gravity would be different, depending on how far you were away from the center.

Earth_Is_A_Globe, this is the Flat Earth Q& section. You can ask FE questions here, and if you know the FE answers you may provide them, but anything outside of that needs to be handled on another section (like FE General or FE Debate).

Please someone explain to me my one source of confusion that I have left regarding the earth being flat.

How do you explain what they call satellite photos wherein they can zoom in ore out to great distances above the ground and zoom back in very close to the ground?

Please get back to me on this.  I'm usually able to knock doubts like this out of the box just off contemplating and thinking but this one not as easily or satisfactorily enough to be content (I've come up with things like helicopters photographing from way up and basically comping the country  and if they are able to do it in the US could they do it to other countries etc.) but nothing strong enough to be content with my answer or that I would feel comfortable using in a debate.

Hello, first time poster here.
I have a genuine inquiry,
when I was 23 I sailed around Antarctica for 89 days. I was an engineer hand on the Steve Irwin for Sea Shepherd.
We kept Melbourne time on the ship so we could coordinate with home base.
When patrolling for the Japanese whaling ships we moved down through the latitudes and then across many longitudes close to the coast of Antarctica.

I struggle to comprehend why the sun would stay up for almost whole day, then other times it would be night for extended periods (compared to the usual ~12 hours in summer where I call home).
I recall one time watching the sun come down and kiss the horizon, then after about 2 minutes it started to rise again.
I need a link to an illustration that explains this in a flat earth context, because I can only make sense of the daylight with the changes in latitude and longitude on a 1-sided 3-D object with a tilted axis of rotation? Im seeking to understand, lets communicate clearly and kindly.

I have heaps of journaling, photos and videos to support my experience if people want data.

Love and light all.

Sure. When I was there I noticed much of the published data did not match the measured data. Was this your experience as well?

Never the less, this is completely predicted in relativistic models of the flat earth.