Flat Earthers Disprove Own Theory In Netflix Documentary

Have you ever sat there and thought, 'I bet the Earth is flat'? No? Well, the chances are you're in the majority.

However, there are some people who genuinely and passionately do believe in the Flat Earth concept - but in an embarrassing turn of events, it seems they have managed to disprove their own theory. How unfortunate.

The cringeworthy moment comes in Netflix documentary Behind The Curve when Bob Knodel, a host on the Flat Earth YouTube channel, tries to use a laser gyroscope - a device used to detect rotation - to help their cause but instead does the exact opposite.

Unsurprisingly, the $20,000 piece of kit behaves exactly as expected, showing the movement of the Earth, leaving Bob a bit red-faced.

He says: "What we found is, when we turned on that gyroscope, we found that we were picking up a drift. A 15 degree per hour drift.

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"Now, obviously we were taken aback by that - 'Wow, that's kind of a problem.' We obviously were not willing to accept that, and so we started looking for ways to disprove it was actually registering the motion of the Earth."

But Bob has devoted a lot of time to this cause and is in no hurry to back out because of a little thing called science.

"We don't want to blow this, you know? When you've got $20,000 in this freaking gyro. If we dumped what we found right now, it would be bad. It would be bad," he tells another Flat Earther.

He then adds: "What I just told you was confidential."

And if that wasn't bad enough, towards the end of the doc Bob's co-host, Jeran Campanella, tries one more demonstration.

He sets up two Styrofoam panels - at the same height - and cuts holes in them both. He then sets up a camera up at one end before shining a light through the holes.

The theory: if the camera picks up the illumination, then it indicates that a light, set at the same height as the holes, travels straight across the surface of the Earth - which would mean that the planet is flat.

However, this doesn't happen. Instead, the person shining the light has to raise their hands higher to counteract the curvature of the Earth - a fact acknowledged by Jeran, when he says: "Lift up your light, way above your head. Interesting. That's interesting."

Somehow though, funny as it is, I don't think this is going be enough to convince the hardline Flat Earthers.

Topics: Science, TV and Film, Interesting, Technology, US Entertainment

Dominic Smithers

Dominic graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in French and History. Like you, Dom has often questioned how much use a second language has been. Well, after stints working at the Manchester Evening News, the Accrington Observer and the Macclesfield Express, along with never setting foot in France, he realised the answer is surprisingly little. But I guess, c'est la vie. Contact us at [email protected]

@SmithersDom