A few thousand years ago we know that the earth is round, however the idea that the earth was flat It has become quite fashionable lately and there is even a group of people who seems to be very sure that our world is completely flat. How you hear it!
This is, without a doubt, a ridiculous idea but it poses to us, as curious minds that we are, some interesting questions. What would happen if those people were right? What would happen if the earth were really flat? Scientists have a pretty accurate answer to how things would change.
If the Earth were flat ...
The sun would fry the planet
Let's imagine that we do not have the problem of gravity because we started using suction cups that grab us to the ground. Even if we were not being dragged to the north pole, we would have another problem, if the Earth were flat, it would not have a magnetic field . Our planet is protected from cosmic flares and solar radiation by a magnetic field. That magnetic field only exists because the Earth rotates.
The first problem that the Earth stopped spinning would be that would begin to bombard the solar radiation, tearing the ozone layer and destroying our atmosphere little by little , that would end up disappearing completely.
We would have problems with gravity
The function of gravity is to attract people to the center of the earth, that makes no one "fall" on our planet. On a flat planet, however, gravity would push you to whatever was in the middle of the planet , that in most of the flat maps of the Earth that is the North Pole . That means that we would feel strongly attracted to the north pole in addition to attracting you to the ground and that the farther you were from that point, the stronger the attraction to the middle would be.
Not many could stand it. The water would come out of the oceans and the trees and plants would tilt diagonally.
The tectonic plates would stop moving
The tectonic plates of our planet are curved and only work in a sphere. All are connected to each other and when one moves, it interacts with another plate located on the opposite side of the planet. If the Earth were flat, none of this would work. We do not really know how the tectonic plates would work but we are pretty sure they would stop moving.
The consequence of a planet that did not have tectonic changes would be that neither valleys nor mountains would exist and, therefore, the planet would be completely flat. Nor would there exist oceans, only a constant set of water that will cover the planet equally.
The stations would not exist
If the Earth were flat, we would not have seasons . Our planet has seasons because it is tilted on its axis and that is why it is summer in the northern hemisphere when it is winter in the south.
On a flat Earth this tilt would not work, especially if the North Pole is in the center as we have discussed previously. The whole planet would always have the same station.
There would be no rain
If the Earth were flat, the wind would only blow in two directions; North and south. The rotation of the Earth causes the winds and ocean currents to move from east to west, so if our planet stops spinning, these winds would stop and all storms would also stop. There could be life along the coast, but the rest of the planet would be completely dry.
The sun would crash against the earth
The worst consequence of the earth being flat is that the sun would end up crashing against us . In our round planet, a combination of impulse and gravity has us in orbit around the Sun. As we said earlier, if the Earth were flat we would not move at all. There would be nothing to stop the gravity that would take us direct against the burning sun.
Anyway, we are more than convinced that the Earth is round and we have been for many thousands of years. The first time there is evidence of this fact is recorded in the Hindu text Surya Siddhanta, in the s. XX a.C.
In the 4th and 3rd centuries BC were Plato , Aristotle and Eratosthenes who defended the same fact, although the Church was responsible for covering it. It would not be until much later, in the s. XVI and XVII d.C., and thanks to Copernicus and Galileo , that the human being understood what our planet was like and the whole universe that surrounds it.
Have you ever wondered what the Earth would be like if it were flat? Tell us what fantasies occur to you about it, we will be happy to read you!