In The FAQ of this forum, it asserts that all photos showing the Earth as round are a conspiracy by NASA. Then as to the reasoning for said conspiracy, the FAQ claims not to know.
Well NASA isnt the only ones invovled in space travel now adays as it is also becoming privatized and no one whose been in space has reported the Earth as flat, none of the millionaires who paid to go into space, nor the pilots of Spaceship1, the first private craft to enter orbit around the Earth.
Also I have seen some pictures on here that seem to mock gravity, saying "MASS + magic = gravity" with illustrations of the Earth. The reasoning behind why mass gives gravity would only seem like magic to someone who doesnt understand physics, but yes, you at home can duplicate the effects of gravityin your own little experiment. First, get a large peice of cloth or fabirc or a out stretched bed sheet and if necessary have someone hold it out. then drop say a baseball or ome such into it. The baseball will sink, creating a dip in the fabric. now if you drop something lighter then mass, onto the fabric say a tennis of golf ball, it will be attracted toward the dip and if it gets too close it will sink into it hitting the baseball. This is how gravity works. The baseball represents a planet and the sheet represents the fabric of space. The more massive the object, the deeper the dip, and thus the widr its area of effect will be. If you did the same sheet exeperiment but say dropped a bowling ball in, the dip would be much dipper and the area it spreads of the sheet much wider.
Another thing, if the Earth was flat we would all see the same night sky. But in the Northern hemisphere we can see Polaris, the North Star. They how ever, can not see this in the Southern Hemipshere.
The modern day proponents of flat Earth all stem from a series of experiments and books written by people who did curvature tests on lakes. These experiments how ever have been refuted many times because they had errors in them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Level_experimentFurthermore, measurng the curvature of something is kind of hard if your on the same angular plane.
Oh and for those who think the flat Earth idea is biblical, it is not.
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-aig/aig-c034.htmlBible Verses specifically calling the Earth spherical:
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-c015.htmlAlso as a former member of the US Navy, I can tell you out on the ocean, looking on the horizon, it appears circular.
Also the notion that NASA is engagd in a conspiracy to conceal a flat Earth is ridiculous, but even more so is the fact that no one can come up with a motive for doing so.
Furthermore, the toughted author, "Samuel Birley Rowbotham "
Also made other assertios, such as that the Sun, stars moons and planets were all only a few hundred miles above the Earth. This , is obviously also untrue as our space probes which travel at about 25,000 MPH take years to reach some of the planets.
Furhtermore, this man lived 1816-1884 and had no access to the knowledge we have today.