Can you prove that you are not wrong?
A) Ask me to prove something specific rather than just ‘not wrong’
B) I will assume you mean prove the systematic error yes?
Ok first we need to lay down some axioms
----Pythagoras Theorem is true
----The radius of the earth if it was round is 6,356km
If you use Pythag with a tangent to a radii of length 1km then draw a right-angled triangle then;
6,356000m
2 + 1000m
2 = 6356000.079m
Hence a curvature of 7.9cm over one km
Then
6,356000m
2 + 9650m
2 = 6356002.832
7.33m over six miles
So far so fine for his experiment. However omitted from the text on this site but included elsewhere is the tiny fact that the telescope was not levelled. Hence all manner of things can occur.
The first one being that the level of water in the canal changes from one end to the other and is not equidistance in height above sea level even though the canal is of equal depth along its length. This height gradient along the canal is 0.0007m^1 as to allow a gentle flow of water to prevent stagnation.
Thus over 6miles or 9.65km the cannel drops in height by about 7m hence negating the curvature of the Earth. So of course he sees the straight line by eye because everything is within 0.5m lined up.
This is why I proposed a larger scale test which doesn’t involve waterways but perhaps a body of water like a lake. Plus use a much more accurate laser beam to test the level.
The error is in the experiment had a sprit level been used this error would have been omitted as the gradient value too small to detect by eye would have been showed up.
Is that proof enough?
Genmotty