Just one thing first. It would be easier to read the discussion if everyone would start with "I'm an FE-er" or "I'm an RE-er". And I'm an RE-er...
Interesting discussion... I read part of the thread, and actually I like the sentence "There is no sunset". This is true in the same sence as that the coriolis effect is not a real force. Or even a centrifugal force is technically not a real force. It all has to do with relativity and perspective.
Yes, we see the sunset everyday, but this quote of sceptimatic is actually correct:
So basically there is no sun SET. It's merely (by your indoctrinated universe and Earth/sun) your Earth spinning around a central sun.
It's called a sun set and sun rise which implies that the SUN is doing the work and yet we are to believe that the Earth is doing it all.
...
There's still no setting sun though. A setting sun is the wrong term.
I think I'll make up a new term because we need more reality.
Interestingly, a lot of people make another wrong claim by trying to fix this issue. They say "the sun looks like it sets because the earth is spinning around the sun". That is wrong. The earth spinning around the sun results in summer/winter cycles. It is the earth spinning around it's own axis, which makes the sun look to set and to rise. And we see that, because we are on the earth. But the sun stands still in the solar system (Even though it spins around the center of the Milky Way, but let's ignore that as it is confusing and not relevant). So the sun doesn't do anything in the rising and setting issue...
The correct term in stead of sunrise would be "we are turning towards the sun", and the correct term of sunset would be "we are turning away from the sun".
Another issue that is brought up here:
The sun has been mathematically calculated to be 3000 miles about the Earth's surface.
And how did YOU calculate that?
Just by looking at it and saying "Yes, that's 3000 miles"?
No, It was calculated by Wilbur Glenn Voliva and even published in a magazine. You can even do the math for yourself...you do know how to do math, right?
This works only for 2 points. Let's assume a flat earth, and the sun is at 3000 miles directly above you. The horizontal distance is then 0 miles, and the vertical distance is then 3000 miles. You can use this site to calculate the angle.
https://www.functions-online.com/atan2.htmlIt's in radians though... to get degrees, the answer must be dived by pi, and then multiplied by 180 (or multiplied by 57.29577).
So when you fill in y = 3000, and x = 0, you get 90 degrees (= 1.5707963267948966 * 57.29577)
Then you'd move away for 3000 miles. y is still 3000, and then x = 3000 too... You'd get 45 degrees. (= 0.78539816339744828 * 57.29577)
But then a third point. When you walk away ANOTHER 3000 miles, y is still 3000, and x = 6000. Then the angle is about 26.5 degrees...
This does not confirm with observations. The real angle is 0 degrees: the sun is at the horizon. So the sun isn't 3000 miles away, and the earth is not flat.