We're all fundamentally aware that Earth is tennis ball shaped and rotates around the sun like the rest of the planets in our solar system.
This is something which has been proven by scientists, astronauts and viral YouTube experiments time and time again (hate to break it to you Flat Earthers but the world is round). Sorry.
So how then was a Flat Earther able to win an argument over a selfie taken on Mount Everest?
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Here's how.
Just because the Earth is round, doesn't mean us so-called 'Round-Earthers' are right about everything, as this unfortunate soul on Reddit discovered.
Taking to the thread r/pics, user u/amazed_spirit shared an apparent selfie on the tip top of Mount Everest, which stands at 29,030ft.
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"Checkmate Flat Earth Society," the caption read. And fair enough, the Earth's horizon in the background does look pretty round.
But it didn't take long for the original poster's argument to be disproven, as you'd need to be at a height of 35,000ft minimum in order to see the Earth's curvature.
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Which means that summiting Everest means you're still about 6000ft off.
U/SadConfiguration said: "You can’t see the curvature of the earth from the top of Everest. That’s a fisheye lens. Flat Earthers are a waste of skin but don’t be fooled into thinking you can see the curvature of the earth from 29,000ft. If that were true you could see it from plane windows."
A user - who's since deleted their account - wrote: "There is better evidence of earth being a globe than a fisheye-lens photo (namely science done thousands of years ago & verified ad nauseum)."
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World Atlas also backs these arguments up, as a person standing on the summit of Mount Everest would be able to see 230 miles into the distance - which is not enough to see the curvature of the Earth.
Emboldened by the original faux pas, Flat Earther, Pete Svarrior took the opportunity to get a rare win over his adversaries and did a 'quick Google reverse image search' which came up with the 'original photograph'.
Revealing his findings in Flat Earth Society forums, Svarrior wrote: "Sure enough, it wasn’t taken in 2018, and sure enough it has nothing to do with the Reddit user. It was actually taken in 2012 by Dean Carriere.
"More importantly, Dean was kind enough not to strip EXIF data from the photograph. A copy of the (seemingly) unaltered original file can be found here.
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"Anyway, let’s finish stating the obvious, now that no speculation is required. The photo was taken with a GoPro Hero3-Silver Edition with a (35mm-film-equivalent) focal length of 16mm. It’s an ultra wide-angle lens, and so the entire image is distorted."
And as you can see in picture post adjustment, well, the curve is nowhere near as dramatic as the Reddit user's post or the photograph with the lens effect still in play.
Although, the remaining slighter curve Svarrior puts down to an 'irregular' occurrence which he attributes to 'imperfections in both the lens and the correction algorithm' of course.
We'll get 'em next time.
Topics: Conspiracy Theory, Community, Mount Everest