So far I have found explanations for Sunrise/sets in the FAQ to be unsatisfying. Bendy light sounds ludicrous, and I don't see an explanation for why the sun should appear bigger in the distance as it sets.
Then it hit me. When we look at the sun we are not seeing the object itself but the wavefront of the light generated by the sun. This wavefront will spherically diverge and thus grow larger with distance. Since the energy becomes more diffuse as the wavefront grows larger, the sun will also appear dimmer at the same time it appears larger.
But what about it's appearance to sink into the earth completely? This would again be explained by the spherical divergence of the wavefront. Since the sun is moving horizontally across the sky, it will appear lower in the sky with distance. Once it has traveled far enough, and grown large enough, the bottom portion of the wavefront will no longer be viewable by an observer in the distance, only the upper part, which will appear to grow even larger, until finally it has moved far enough away that the energy is so diffuse by the time it reaches an observer, it is no longer visible to the human eye.
Let me know if this theory is not new here.
Sorry! not an explanation. good try though.
the wavefronts from any object expand outwards with distance, but next time you look at say a car, when its 10 metrees away, 20 metres away, 30 metres away? notice it dosent looker bigger!!!
yes wavefronts expand out. but a distant object, as you look at it you detect only a part of its overall wavefront, say from one end of the car, and a bit of a wavefront from the other side of the car. both are coming in at you at a similar angle from a similar point in distant space i.e. youre looking at a distant object making a small angular size to you.
A person standing close on the other hand, observes lgihts form other ends of the car, incoming at radiacally different angles i.e. it look big angular wise.
There is no physics that can explain why the sun and moon are the same size as they move through the sky, if we assume they are small objects moving around a flat earth. Tom Bishop says glaring makes it bigger but the image as the sun moon move aren't glared much, certainly it would be biazarre glare that maintains the same size all the time lol crazy glare.
The round earth solar system model explains sunsets etc in about 3 millioniths of a second.