I am not here to steal anyone’s thunder so before you read this or TL:DR please note that about 95% of this information came from cpt_bthimes old posts. The other 5% came from WIKI and other sources. I do not know where cpt_bthimes got his information but for the most part I feel like it’s what us RE believe.
I am pretty sure this post will not become a sticky but I remember Professor Gaypenguin asking for a RE FAQ, and I drafted one. There are things I will add as time goes by if it doesn’t get locked in 5 mins like my other post.
If you feel there is a lack of scientific information on these facts (not theories), please feel free to “lurk” the internet.
Round Earth FAQ:
Q: What is the Sun?
A: An ordinary star powered by fusion; earth and other planets orbit in a non-geocentric universe.
Q: How does sun set occur?
A: Earth rotation makes it visibly rise from and set below horizon without changing size, just as observed.
Q: What causes a Solar eclipse?
A: Moon passes in front of sun as predicted in advance by well-established orbital mechanics; only happens during new moon.
Q: What causes a lunar eclipse?
A: Earth aligns between moon and sun as predicted in advance by orbital mechanics; only happens during full moon.
Q: What is the shape of the earth?
A: Spherical, slightly oblate due to rotation, finite mass and gravity.
Q: What is the shape of the Sun, Moon and other planets?
A: Spherical.
Q: What about other stars?
A: Similar to sun, of varying size and mass, scattered throughout the milky way in various non-random densities.
Q: What about other galaxies?
A: Similar to the galaxy in which we reside, the milky way; scattered throughout the known universe; formations of stars, gas, and dust; having various sizes, shapes, and aggregate masses; complies with observational evidence.
Q: How did our solar system form?
A: Condensed out of gas and dust, orbits and rotations preserving original overall angular momentum
Q: What is the sinking ship effect?
A: Through high magnification, the tops of sails of sailboats appear below surface of even calm water due to curvature of earth, partially compensated for by terrestrial refraction.
Q: Why do some high clouds seem to light up just after dusk or right before dawn (Noctilucent cloud and Cirrus cloud)?
A: At sunset or just before dawn the clouds are angled slightly away from sun due to curvature of earth, furthermore crystal-clear evidence that the sun gets "below" the level of clouds as it sets.
Q: Are there man-made satellites? Are they visible?
A: There are man-made satellites in orbiting around the earth; they reflect light from the sun when it is well below observer's horizon, during a range of time between dark, and before the satellites fall behind earth's shadow; usually dim (depending on satellite) but easily visible in motion against background stars with the naked eye
Q: Why does everything north of the celestial pole complete an orbit once a day?
A: An easy-to understand artifact of earth's orbit; requires nothing extra to explain, and no magical physics that every object in the observable universe must obey.
Q: How about the south?
A: Same as north, but in southern hemisphere; like the north, it's relative location in the sky is the same, at any time, any month, any place in southern hemisphere.
Q: Why do we see the same face of the moon?
A: Like every major moon in our solar system (and mercury with the sun), our moon is tidally locked with its orbited planet; like the other moons, "locked" is a slight misnomer as there is a slight wobble throughout the course of a lunar month.
Q: How do the moon phases occur?
A: The unlit side of the moon as we see (the shadow) from 360 degrees, one night at a time, throughout the moon's orbit of earth.
Q: Why do hurricanes rotate in different directions depending on the hemisphere they are in?
A: Corilois effect as result of a rotating round earth.
Q: How are we able to predict the wanderings of other planets?
A: Round-earth orbital mechanics, of which earth is part of. People worked this out hundreds of years ago, and with highly predictable precision decades ago.
Q: How do the tides work?
A: Gravitational effect readily predictable based on location of sun and moon relative to earth, and earth's rotation.
Q: Why is there a midnight sun in Arctic and Antarctic circles?
A: Tilt of earth's axis relative to its position in orbit.
Q: What is gravity, and how does it work?
A: Gravity is one of the fundamental forces of physics responsible for keeping the Earth and the other planets in their orbits around the Sun; for keeping the Moon in its orbit around the Earth, and It pulls us down to earth’s surface. The question of why atoms attract one another is still not understood. Gravity’s work is observed everyday through the orbit of other planets around the sun and moons around planets.
-This also remains to be answered in the FE FAQ. Gravity through acceleration is possible but the cause or fuel for this constant acceleration on a Flat earth is unknown.
Q: Why do things weigh less on tall mountains?
A: Slightly smaller effect of gravitational attraction farther from the majority of earth's mass.