I knocked this one down in another thread. Their FAQ says the Sun is 32 miles in diameter and is 3000 miles above the Earth. Well......
OK, 32 miles across and 3000 miles away. A ratio of 4/375. You could also as that the distance is 93.75 times greater than the size of the object. Let's apply this ratio to something else. Hmmm, I know! A frisbee. A regulation frisbee, used in sports, measures 10.75 inches across. Now, let's apply the ratio. 10.75x93.75=1007.8125 That means to observe the frisbee at roughly the same distance FE'ers say we observe the sun and moon, you would need to be 1007.8125 inches away, or 83.98 ft. Now 3000 miles equals 15,840,000 ft. So that means our scale is 83.98/15840000, or 188,617.337:1. Now, lets apply that to the surface area of the "flat Earth". Using A=3.14*r2, we can figure out that the area of the flat Earth is 65,563,985,000 square miles. We reduce that number with our ratio, and we get 347,603.174 square miles. That's a circle measuring 664 miles across.
Now, you mean to tell me a light the size of a frisbee could even think to illuminate even part of the state of Texas form only 83.98 feet away? Have fun with that one, guys.
I hope that puts their "spotlight theory" into some better perspective.
This mathematics is wrong. You've applied a linear ratio to a measurement of area, which is incorrect. If you double the side length of a square, the area multiplies by four, not by two. You need to square the ratio you calculated for the distance from the Earth to the Sun before applying it to the surface area of the Earth.
You're right. It dawned on me earlier today, so here are the new calculations for everyone.
You claim the Sun is 32 miles across, and that the Earth is 24,900 miles across. That means the Earth is 778.125 times larger. Now, if we scale down the Sun to something a little more manageable for out little experiment, let's say, the size of a U.S. Quarter. The quarter measures 31/32 in across or .96875 inches across. Now, let's use our multiplier of 778.125 to figure out the size of our scale Earth. We get 753.809 inches, or for easier reference 62.817 ft. Now that we have our diameters properly scaled down, again, sorry for the mistake earlier, we can figure out our surface areas. The quarter's would be A=3.14*0.484375^2, which equals .7367 square inches, and the scaled down Earth would be A=3.14*31.4085^2, which equals 3097.59 square ft.
Now my math on the distance scale was correct, so we're keeping the 7.57 ft from an earlier post. So, for this experiment, you need a light source no bigger that a quarter to illuminate at least half of a circle measuring 62.817 ft across. Go try it and get back to me. Please be sure video tape it so you can prove it's possible.