Inside weird group of ‘flat earthers’ who now apparently believe world is ‘donut-shaped with giant hole in the middle’
A NEW subset of flat-earthers has emerged in recent years who believe that the world is shaped like a donut with a hole in the middle.
The conspiracy theorists claim that as light bends, the “real” shape of the earth is not visible to humans on its surface, as they argue against the idea of the planet as a sphere.
The idea that the world is torus-shaped (like a donut) first emerged in 2008 as an apparent joke on FlatEarthSociety.org, Vice reports.
A user named Dr. Rosenpenis started the thread.
Yet it was fleshed out in 2012 by a flat-earther named Varaug.
“Light bends and follows the curvature of the torus, making the hole ‘unseeable.’” he wrote.
The user even claimed to have an answer as to how gravity works if the earth is shaped like a donut.
“Imagine a donut. Imagine a jam donut. Gravity acts towards the jam,” they wrote.
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The strange theory received another boost in followers in 2016 when the thread on Flat Earth Society was rediscovered.
“I am glad to see other supporters of toroidal earth theory here,” wrote user Dinosaur Neil.
“I have been promoting it for a long time but nobody ever seems to back me up. I can’t understand why.”
The theory is easily disproven, however.
If the Earth was in fact torus-shaped, sunrises and sunsets as we know them would not work.
The 24-hour rotation from night to day would also be impossible, Dr. Tabetha Boyajian explained to Vice.
The season would vary widely as it would be dependent on the way that the donut was angled toward the sun.
And the winds on a planet shaped like a donut would also make life on earth impossible, Dr Boyajian added.
DOUBLE SEASONS ON THE DONUT
Oxford professor Dr Anders Sandberg told Vice that the shape of a donut means that those living near the hole would experience double seasons each year such as a second winter in July.
The shape would also lead to noticeably weaker gravity on the inner and outer equators.
And, of course, there’s the fact that if you do happen to live on the inside of the donut, you would expect to see the other side once you looked up to the sky – which has not once yet been reported.
Despite the argument that light bends on the Flat Earth Society thread, Dr Boyajian said that this only happens next to large bodies in the universe such as supermassive back holes.
“Any of those claims is just saying, ‘You know what, I’m going to just come up with a new idea with no motivation for it. Just eight things that can possibly be consistent with it,’” Dr. Boyajian claimed.
“And that’s not how we develop theories.”
In recent years there has been a growing community of people who reject “globehead” thinking and insist that the world is flat.
FLAT-EARTHERS’ CLAIMS
Leading Flat Earthers believe the planet is actually a disk with the Arctic circle in the middle.
They claim Antarctica is actually a 150-foot-high ice wall that has been put in place to stop us all from falling off the edge.
These “Flat Earthers” believe the giant ice wall is heavily-policed and that gravity is just an unproven theory.
They believe that the earth being round is a lie put out by the government – making it into a conspiracy theory.
They also claim Nasa is a fraudulent organization and that all the photographs and video footage we have from space are computer-generated imagery (CGI).
And while their views may sound far-fetched, the movement has attracted a number of celebrity followers in recent years.
The wacky theory’s famous adherents include rapper B.o.B. and ex-reality TV star Tila Tequila.
The idea was first seen in ancient cultures including the Romans until the classical period.
However, most people do not believe these claims that the earth is flat.
The theory is generally accepted as being disproved by Aristotle in 330BC but the idea of the earth being round was suggested by Pythagoras in the 6th century.
Scientists, stargazers, and most other people agree the world is, in fact, spherical.
However, the flat earth theory still holds weight today with some sects in society such as the Flat Earth Society.
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