Does a jet plane constantly adjust its nose down to follow the curvature of the earth?

In fact, there is no real “level flight”.
Every flight path is a curve line.
What we should consider a “level flight” is the one when the atmospheric pressure remains constant keeping the plane at the same height all the time.

I’m afraid I’m still a little confused.

The earth is 25,000 miles in circumference curving 8inches per mile squared. If a pilot wanted to maintain altitude at a typical cruising speed of 500 miles per hour you’d have to constantly descend 2777 ft (over half a mile) every minute otherwise you’d be way higher than expected. If as you say this adjustment is performed automatically by the autopilot surely as a passenger you’d be aware of the constant descent? 2777 ft every minute is a considerable drop and would not in my opinion go unnoticed.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Dharmabro

But wouldn’t the passengers feel the constant “dip down” of the plane as the pilot constantly makes adjustments? The speed a plane travels would, I imagine, mean the plane would be gaining hundreds of feet in altitude every few seconds.

any word from the captain?

no its not. its 8 inches per mile squared. if it was just 8″ per mile it would be a long downward plain. the formula for the curve for 1 miles is 1x1x8=8 inches. for 2 miles its 2x2x8=32 inches, for 3 miles it is 3x3x8=72 inches. it gets real big real fast. for 10 miles it would be 10x10x8=800 inches or 66.66 ft.
flying from seattle, wa to new york city is 2857.6 miles by air. that is 1031 miles of curvature the plane would have to encounter in a 6 hour flight. that means the plane would have to descend i have talked to several arline pilots. they said once the plane gets to crusing altitude they make no corrections, as if they were flying on a flat plain. they do not make constant downward corrections in altitude at least not of that severity

An aircraft flies at a constant pressure altitude and thus maintains the same relative distance from sea level at all times. If it were to climb as it flew along it would be registering a decreasing pressure which it does not.

Okay, Similar question…. How does an airplane’s Gyroscopic Artificial Horizon account for the Earth’s curvature? As I understand it – a gyroscope keeps absolute position and the aircraft rotates around it, allowing the instrument to show the plane’s attitude on the artificial horizon… But, logic would dictate that if I flew around the world, the artificial horizon should show me upside down half the time… What does it do to account for this, and prevent erroneous readings?

Steve In Indiana

Okay, Similar question…. How does an airplane’s Gyroscopic Artificial Horizon account for the Earth’s curvature? As I understand it – a gyroscope keeps absolute position and the aircraft rotates around it, allowing the instrument to show the plane’s attitude on the artificial horizon… But, logic would dictate that if I flew around the world, the artificial horizon should show me upside down half the time… What does it do to account for this, and prevent erroneous readings?

Steve In Indiana

Curvature is approximately 8″ per squared mile so in 3 miles it will drop 6 ft.

The curvature is not 8 inches times the distance since you cannot form a sphere that way. Only the first mile is 8 inches then it grows exponentially. The correct math is 8 inches times the distance squared. So three miles would be 3 x 3 x 8 = 72 inches. At 500 miles the earth will fall away 166,495 feet. If the plane is traveling 500 mph, the earth is falling away at a rate of 2,775 feet per minute. If autopilot is off, the pilot must reduce altitude by 2,775 feet per minute or 46 feet per second to maintain 35,000 feet. Isn’t that much greater then descent rates when landing?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

500 miles an hour divided by 60 mins per hour=8.33 miles a min multiped by 8 inches a mile =66.67 inches a min = 5 and half feet per minutes downward descent needed

Say the plane is traveling @ 600mph. That means they are traveling 10 miles per minute. With a curvature of 2′ per 3 miles, the plane would need to descend a little over 6′ per minute to maintain altitude. I doubt passengers are going to feel that.

Curvature equation under 1,000 miles is: miles squared times 8 divided by 12 for answers in feet.
For a distance of three miles the curve results in a ~6 foot drop. 3X3X8/12=6 feet. Did you follow lakawak? A linear drop in 8 inches per mile is the slope angle not a curve. A curve is inversely proportional to the distance.

Seeing as we’re on this topic, I will try and help with the basic arithmetic part. I realize it’s been a while since anyone’s responded to this thread, but I figured I’d give something for people who keep trying to ‘prove’ (poorly) that the earth is flat

When it comes to the curvature, if the estimates that you have to account for approximately 8 inches for every mile…

Traveling at 500mph, that’s approximately 8.3 miles per minute. Which means that at a curvature of 8 inches per mile equates to a change of 66.7 inches every minute. VERY different than the claim that you’d have to move 2777 feet to account for curvature every minute.

if the plane is adjusting its height to the curvature of the planet why are persistent contrails always perfectly horizontal?

Newtonian gravity – a cannon fired will not continue in a linear direction due to the constant pull of the Earth’s gravity. To break from the Earth’s gravity, an aeroplane must achieve higher speed, which is not possible if the aircraft is on autopilot.

Does a gyroscope on a normal global commercial flight adjust it’s attitude to the curving suface of the Earth (Gravity) while underway or does it remain in the same (horizontal) attitude as takeoff and then have to be readjusted upon landing

Highseascaptain@yahoo.com

Some of you people responding have a shoddy grasp at science. The same reason your eyes see a flat earth in the distance is why you see contrails as being horizontal…..they are very slightly curved, too imperceptible for the eye to discern

Everything is relative.
What do you have as a point of reference when on a plane?
How would you possibly be able to perceive such a gradual descent? And you aren’t even descending relative the ground.
It’s not as if you have a perfectly straight line drawn in the sky outside the plane window to judge your exact flight path.The altitude is judged by the planes distance from the ground, so as the earth drops away enough thrust is applied to maintain a set distance from the ground until you want to get closer to the ground to land at which point the thrust is decreased.

Dear Captain,

How do pilots account for the Earth spinning when landing the plane in a north or south direction? Or are there no runways running north or south?

The maths is not the same on the paper as the human perception. If you have a starting point (lets call it A), and after every mile there is a next point B, C, D, and so on..even though a drop on a curve is 8in per mile squared, after you reach point B, the drop is only 8in for you after next mile..and at point C it is again 8in per mile and so on. At every respective point, you are completely leveled out. That is why you should not look at the starting point A, but only drop from your present position. That is why 8in per mile squared argument is not valid in respect to one’s perception.

Ok…The earth is a ball of sorts.. it curves… I dare everyone to go find a long flat road…say one mile worth… have an object or person 6 feet tall stand at the one mile mark. Look at that object/ person with binoculars and you will see their feet/ shoes/ base.. curvature…. 2 ft per mile? You should not be able to see their feet.. ok… go two miles.. you will see their feet..ok three miles… you will see their feet.. on lake Michigan I can see lake shore drive from new buffalo mi with binocluars…30 miles x 2 ft.. 60 ft.. 3 stories .. doesn’t happen. Don’t just believe what you are told. go test it for yourself..

Level flight is flight that maintains a set distance from the center of gravity, it is not flight in a straight line. Gravity and lift are opposing forces that raise or lower the plane until it reaches an equilibrium, from then on the plane will fly level (baring a change in lift) so the plane’s path will follow the curve of the earth.

How does the giroscope that senses the horizontal for an artificial horizon cause the aircraft to make a level flight over say 1 mile or more of flight path? The flat earthers don’t need a correction of 8ins per mile, but I do!
Help!
Sincerely Aldred

You aren’t DESCENDING at all, you are flying a smooth geodesic line which is a curve because of Gravity, which maintains a constant altitude level MSL (Mean Sea Level). This geodesic follows the line of constant acceleration due to gravity (technically, density changes in the Earth would cause it to vary slightly but these changes are microscopic compared to the buffeting the plane receives from the air itself – it takes extremely precise measurements to detect these subtle differences such as being done by the GRACE project at NASA). http://www.nasa.gov/audience/f…Grace.html

Because the Earth has curved space around itself, due to mass, it bends the very concept of a “straight line” into a circle around itself. If the plane didn’t follow this geodesic it would be climbing or descending. This is what DEFINES ascending/descending.

Ignoring secondary changes such as the weight of the plane (as it burns fuel) and the atmosphere itself (air density is constantly changing) then to remain at a fixed altitude the plane (pilot or autopilot) has to adjust the controls to maintain a specific amount of LIFT to offset exactly the constant acceleration due to gravity — that amount of LIFT doesn’t change as you fly around the world. The plane cannot tell the difference between “straight-and-level” and this geodesic – it IS straight-and-level from that inertial reference frame. Every bit of excess LIFT causes the plane to climb and any shortage causes it to descend, that is all there is to it.

You guys talking about having to descend so many thousands of feet per minute are completely and utterly confused about how gravity works – what an incredible indictment of our educational system. I weep.

There are planes going 2000 mph. Do they need to adjust down ? If no, at what speed is direct adjustment necessary ?

So if a plane can move up/down left and right at speeds of 500miles per hr then it would have overthrown gravity in the first place.If the plane engines shut off at some point gravity would overpower the plane and take over pulling the plane to the ground. To overcome the gravity the plane must gain speed and create lift.At the moment the plane wheels leave the ground gravity is no longer effecting the plane.As we all know a very large amount of speed is required to defy gravity as im sure each of you has experienced sitting in a plane as it takes off.
That being the case a plane flying horizontal at 60000 ft moving at 500 miles per hr would have to have its nose pointing down to maintain any elevation if the earth is round because there is no gravity force in effect based on the objects weight and speed.a 100 mile long flight from sea level produces 6700 vertical ft of drop to sea level 100 miles away. a plane flying at 500 ft has no gravity acting on it as it has already defied it.the plane would gain altitude of 6700 ft in 60 minutes. (single engine cessna). the planes altimeter would rise at a rate of 110ft per minute. in 5 minutes the altimeter would read 1050ft.
of course the planes altimeter does not do this because sealevel is flat everywhere.

There are 4 types of gyros. One is called a Earth Gyro: “Earth gyro has freedom of movement in all three planes but is held in one plane by Earths gravity. You will find this gyro in an Attitude Indicator.” FYI, attitude indicator = artificial horizon in an airplane instrumentation. See:
http://www.experimentalaircraft.info/articles/aircraft-gyroscopic-principles.php

And the question was quite reasonably: “Does the autopilot compensate, and if-so – does the pilot compensate when autopilot is off”?
In any case, ‘thrust’ is not used to maintain a set distance from the ground, thrust is used to maintain a set speed.
The altitude is judged by the planes distance from the ground? WTF? Altitude IS the planes distance from the ground!
If you constantly reduce thrust to maintain distance from the ground – you’d soon be at zero thrust due to the exponentially increasing distance from the ground (1st mile .6ft, 10 miles 66ft, 20 miles 264ft, 30 miles 595ft, 40 miles 1,060ft, 100 miles 6,610ft).

I realize this is an old thread but the captain is wrong here by suggesting if the plane had thrust and no corrections were made, the plane will not gain altitude. Gravity and centripetal force are at play here. An example is that of tether ball where the plane is the ball and the rope gravity. Same thing is happening with a satellite otherwise it would float off into space rather than orbiting the earth.

A gyroscope will maintain its position in space and any change to the gimbal position will not alter it . Any plane auto pilot relying on a gyroscope horizon can be sure that a gyroscope never lies. People lie , a gyroscope not only proves positive all the nonsense of a ball earth also shows the impossibility of any spinning of the ground . Pause , take a breath and take in the the facts a gyroscope is the ultimate lie detector

Yes the aircraft does have to pitch down to follow the curvature of the Earth. But the rate of pitch is so slow it is imperceptible and absorbed completely by maintaining altitude by reference to the Altimeter and Vertical Speed Indicator.

At 450 Kts it takes 48 hours to fly around the Earth. A circumnavigation requires the Aircraft to pitch down 360 degrees.

Pitching at the rate of 360 degrees every 48 hours is four times slower than the movement of the hour hand on a clock. You cannot see the Hour hand moving at normal speed. Much less when it moves four times slower.

It equates to 1 degree of pitch down every 8 minutes (flying at 450 Kts)

This slow rate of movement cannot be seen or felt by any person on Earth.

As for the Artificial Horizon. Yes it does contain a gyroscope that remains rigid in space but it also contains correcting mechanisms that can correct many degrees of error each minute. Again the small adjustment of 1 degree in 8 minutes is completely absorbed by the smaller more frequent corrections.

I refute your claim Well. I am a 10,000 hour pilot and fly Corporate Aircraft that operate up to 51,000 Ft. From the high 40’s the Earth’s curvature is clearly visible.

Additionally you would benefit from researching the word “Cabotage” which explains the reason for many non direct routes.

Finally, try to understand the formula for calculating a Great Circle. This is based on Spherical math and works perfectly for the Southern Hemisphere. This is actual proof the Earth is not Flat.

Also, the human body adjusts over time to the inputs (pressures, forces from angles) and a person “normalizes”. If you fly in a bank, long enough, without visual points of reference, it seems normal to you as if you are in straight and level flight. This is why pilots are strenuously trained to trust the instruments. You ARE always climbing, falling, banking etc. during flight, but if done gradually and in relation to the earth surface, it seems very normal and is not greatly noticeable.

This is silly math being done. On pure geometrical terms, drawing a straght line away from the circle will result in the distance increasing squared. However the plane moves still relatively slow. Basically inch per inch or foot per foot. So any curvature adjustment would be done on that level. Also please note that the virtual horizon actually would fall down if you ascent upwards (or straight as oyu would like it) calling for a (auto)pilot adjustment.

Able to see aircraft flying at 45000 feet 350 miles away on the scope, thats impossible on a globe. My friends on this show, talked to them 10 mins before the broadcast and one is an owner of his own aviation school, and Dale FAA Certified Ex Navy Traccon Air Traffic Controller confirms No Coriolis effect and Earth Stationary Flat Level Plane. The End. #GlobeEarthDecimated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jML1pH0CX0

What ridiculous answers. Let’s just face facts, huh? I hate it just as much as you do, but we are living in the “Earth Realm” or “Third Dimension” if you will; not on a planet. Just ask Nikola Tesla.

in other words, just call it gravity and go back to sleep, don’t think about it.

The object moving from its own thrust on a flat earth would be built to stay strait wile flying while being pulled down from bouient force. Why cant the same be said of the plane being built for the globe model? I guess im asking someone who knows how planes are built?

Seattle to NY is 2831 miles. Vertical drop is 1017 miles(2831x2831x0.67ft(8inches)/5280ft per mile
4hrs flight time equates to 4.24 mile per minute or 22374 ft per minute or 373ft per second of vertical drop due to earth curvature.I challenge any pilot or aerospace engineer to specify what mechanical system on an airplane automatically adjusts for this constant vertical drop requirement.The pressure reading thing is an accuracy reading for calibrating the altimeter because pilots discovered that the altimeter reading changes with pressure. If the pressure reading changes the pilot will adjust the altimeter to account for the new pressure. For example the reading is 30000ft at xxx pressure.
The pressure reading is based on the takeoff airport location and altitude at that location.

After 10minutes of flying at 600miles/hr. horizontally there is 223740ft(40miles)of vertical drop from curvature. It would take the plane 7minutes with it nose down at 600miles/hr to get back to the 30000ft.

I have never been on a plane that goes on a rollercoaster ride up and down every 7 minutes for 4hrs.

This is simple science and math.

Since the plane is already defying gravity by lifting into the air and maintaining a speed gravity has no effect.

Gravity would takeover and pull the plane towards earth when the speed reduced to a place where the airplane weight fall force is greater allowing gravity to takeover.

Calling all pilots and aerospace engineers to specify the mechanical system required to balance the rollercoaster.
pressure and gravity science is not relevant.

If you fly from north to south in a perfect line at 500 MPH and travel 500 Miles not including take off and landing this will take you 1 hour after 1 hour you wont of travelled in a straight line as the earth would of rotated between 700 and 1000 miles away from you correct or not

The correct math is not 8 inches per mile squared, it is Pythagoras.

Subtract the hypotenuse from the radius.

Although 8 inches per mile squared is close for shorter distances, it doesn’t work for long distances like 1000 miles.

Guys, gravity acts radially away from the center of the earth. So a plane flying at a set altitude will not have to adjust anything because he will always be pulled to the center of the earth.

Think of ball swinging around on a string.the ball does not need to take any action to keep spinning other than moving forward.

You guys are all ignorant and not answering the REAL question. I’m not a flatard and I do observe the earth to be a sphere (almost a sphere) based off of rational and logical reasoning. But this is one area I’m actually trying to figure out myself but just don’t know enough of the science to explain it properly.

All you guys are saying is what the plane might or might not be doing. Example the only thing i keep seeing is the autopilot keeps it level, or the plane maintains a optimal pressure so it knows how far away it is from sea level. THESE DO NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS to people who are confused about this stuff when they’re all caught up in flat-earth conspiracies!!

You cannot explain this with Newtonians cannon ball because the ball doesnt have fucking wings.

If a fighter jet is flying at a cruising altitude and keeps his hand steady on the control stick would the jet slowly gain altitude??? That’s the question. Of course they have instruments helping them TO KEEP their altitude but are they pitching downwards in doing so??? If not then how does the science work in that?

I don’t expect any of you to explain because frankly I don’t think no one here is smart enough to know the real question in the first place.

Ciao

Dear Capt.:

Although you were right about both the altimeter and vsi working solely on air pressure differences, you implied these instruments somehow track the earth’s center of gravity when you stated: “In reality, a constant altitude must be kept using the standard pressure and that means a fixed distance to the earth center of gravity is maintained…”

Actually, neither instrument tracks the earth’s center of gravity, nor is either instrument effected by it. The instruments merely sense pressure differences to that found at sea level. The aircraft’s elevator keeps it at a constant altitude, not “standard pressure”. Air pressure is sensed by the altimeter, which then converts it into a visual indication of altitude above sea level (or vertical speed, in the case of the vsi).

The bottom line is, the operation of the altimeter remains an un-debunked fact that tends to prove the earth is flat.

Globalists have their own un-debunked arguments that tend to support a spherical earth – trying to explain away the true nature of an altimeter is silly (especially for a pilot) and, ultimately, undermines globalists in general.

BTW, I am a pilot. However, the altimeter basics that tend to prove the earth is flat are simple enough for pretty much anyone to understand.

You stated: “He will adjust the controls very slightly by use of the elevator and trims. This can be performed automatically by the autopilot as well. As such, the flight controls are constantly moving very subtly to maintain the correct altitude.” In autopilot the control surfaces may be constantly moving, however, that is not what happens when a plane is trimmed with autopilot off.

All trim does is keep the elevator in a fixed position during flight. With a pilot’s hands off the yoke or trim, a plane on a fixed heading would generally gain altitude over time if the earth were a globe – but this does not happen. An observant pilot knows that fact – however, whether that pilot is in a position to admit that fact publicly or not is a whole other discussion.

I’ve read the entire thread twice and an disappointed that amidst all the math discussion, no one has bothered to answer the critical question poised by “Steve in Indiana” on 12/01/15 regarding the functioning of a gyroscope. Assuming a gyroscope actually functions the way EVERY text book says it does, the simple answer to Steve’s question is “Yes, if you fly around the world the gyroscope will show you upside down half the time.” Now, since it obviously doesn’t, think about WHY it doesn’t…

There is almost no curvature, because the Earth is flat, simple as is. Look at the so called New Standard Map of the World published in ENgland in 1892. North pole is the centre , all around the flat surface is Antarctic Rim or wall of ice. Matrix is over.

If you set the auto pilot and have the plane perfectly level, it’s not just going to fly away from the earth you fools. It will fly level in relation to the damn earth, (which is round) a little thing called gravity is at work… Seriously though, when did the world turn into a bunch of tin foil wearing wackos.

Have you ever been in a car on the freeway, and had a fly on board with you?

In these cases, the fly can fly back and forth from the front to the back of the car and vice versa.

Let’s say the car is traveling at 65 MPH.
When the fly Flys from the back to the front of the car, it is not actually flying at 68 MPH, nor is it slowing down to allow the back seat to catch up to it when it Flys from the front seat to the back seat.
This is because the inside of the car is an isolated environment – the atnosphere in the car ia moving with the car. This is the same for the earths atmosphere – it is spinning with the earth.

And for those of you who think that water always lies flat, I would ask if you have ever seen a cloud. Clouds are water that is absolutely not flat.

Just wondering why the Captain isnt talking anymore. Probably coz he doenst know the answers? .. Mr, Captain.. i know it is shocking to doubt everything you ve learned.. Dont worry, everybody is full of disbelief in the beginning. 😉 Just be honest.. What do you KNOW and what have you been tought to be the truth. make up your own mind.

I’m going to try to make this post as simple as possible, with commonsense applications of basic physics and math.

1) If a plane is flying perfectly horizontal in a straight line, what would the curvature of the Earth be after 1 mile, 100 miles, and 500 miles?

ANSWER: As some have suggested, the curvature of the Earth increases exponentially when traveling in a horizontal line. This requires Pythagoras Theorem to solve properly. To make this simple, I gave you set values for the planes distance (1 mi, 100 mi, 500 mi).

Radius “r” = 3,963 miles (radius of Earth).
Distance “d” = 1 mile, 100 miles, and 500 miles (horizontal distance of airplane).
Curvature “c” = ???

Here is the equation (it’s 2 parts):

Part 1: (r^2 + d^2 = c^2)
Part 2: (c – r) = Curvature in miles

Step by step for people who aren’t good at math (using 1 mile as distance “d”):
Step 1 – (r^2) 3963 x 3963 = 15,705,369
Step 2 – (d^2) 1 x 1 = 1
Step 3 – (add step 1 and 2) 15,705,369 + 1 = 15,705,370
Step 4 – (solve for “c” by taking square root of step 3) 15,705,370^(1/2) = 3963.000126
Step 5 – (now subtract “r”) 3963.000126 – 3963 = .000126 miles

c = .000126 miles (Curvature)

So, if a plane travels 1 mile horizontally, the Earth’s curvature is .000126 miles, or .665 feet, or 7.98 inches.

It looks like the people claiming the Earth curves 8 inches in 1 mile are correct, but remember, the curvature increases exponentially. I will now calculate the curvature if the plane flies horizontally for 100 miles. I’m not going to do the step by step because hopefully you got the idea (if not, here’s a diagram – http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/…dyck2.html). I will “show my work”:

Part 1:
(r^2 + d^2 = c^2)
(3963^2 + 100^2 = c^2)
(15,705,369 + 10,000 = c^2)
(15,715,369 = c^2)
(15,715,369^(1/2) = c)
c = 3964.261

Part 2:
(c – r)
(3964.261 – 3963)
Curvature in miles = 1.261

So, if a plane travels horizontally for 100 miles, the curvature of the Earth is 1.261 miles, or 6,660.56 feet, or 79,926.7 inches.

Okay, I’m just going to give you the curvature for 500 miles. I’m not going to show my work, you’ll have to trust me on this one. I’m using the same method described above, with 500 as “d”.

For a plane traveling horizontally for 500 miles, the curvature of the Earth is 31.42 miles.

Several comments use the speed of the aircraft as 500 mph. Extrapolating from the answer above, the plane would be descending 31.42 miles each hour. This breaks down to approximately 0.5 miles per minute. Surely, the passengers would notice such a steep descent!

Here is the reality – the plane is flying horizontally, but is also descending 31.42 miles down the curvature of the Earth. Kaboom! That was your mind exploding. Now I know you Flat Earth theorists hate gravity, but the simple fact is, the gravity of Earth is strong enough to bend space, which is why we don’t experience any plunge in altitude on an airplane. I am not going to go into detail because the comment made by DimSum, near the top of the thread, is the perfect response. He/she is exactly right, and explained it beautifully (“I weep” haha).

Okay, so I’ve done the math, and DimSum explained why the nose of the aircraft doesn’t need to be pitched downward. If you guys don’t like the explanation, well, I’m sorry. That’s reality.

I don’t know anything about gyroscopes, but the majority of assumptions made in nearly every comment is incorrect.

To respond to some of the top posters – Dharmabro, Ben Richardson, and many others, I’m sorry, but your math is just incorrect. Your approach was incredibly simplistic, as was many of the other approaches on this page. Shout out to Eric, a poster near the bottom, who mentioned that Pythagoras Theorem is required.

I’m going to try to make this post as simple as possible, with commonsense applications of basic physics and math.

1) If a plane is flying perfectly horizontal in a straight line, what would the curvature of the Earth be after 1 mile, 100 miles, and 500 miles?

ANSWER: As some have suggested, the curvature of the Earth increases exponentially when traveling in a horizontal line. This requires Pythagoras Theorem to solve properly. To make this simple, I gave you set values for the planes distance (1 mi, 100 mi, 500 mi).

Radius “r” = 3,963 miles (radius of Earth).
Distance “d” = 1 mile, 100 miles, and 500 miles (horizontal distance of airplane).
Curvature “c” = ???

Here is the equation (it’s 2 parts):

Part 1: (r^2 + d^2 = c^2)
Part 2: (c – r) = Curvature in miles

Step by step for people who aren’t good at math (using 1 mile as distance “d”):
Step 1 – (r^2) 3963 x 3963 = 15,705,369
Step 2 – (d^2) 1 x 1 = 1
Step 3 – (add step 1 and 2) 15,705,369 + 1 = 15,705,370
Step 4 – (solve for “c” by taking square root of step 3) 15,705,370^(1/2) = 3963.000126
Step 5 – (now subtract “r”) 3963.000126 – 3963 = .000126 miles

c = .000126 miles (Curvature)

So, if a plane travels 1 mile horizontally, the Earth’s curvature is .000126 miles, or .665 feet, or 7.98 inches.

It looks like the people claiming the Earth curves 8 inches in 1 mile are correct, but remember, the curvature increases exponentially. I will now calculate the curvature if the plane flies horizontally for 100 miles. I’m not going to do the step by step because hopefully you got the idea (if not, here’s a diagram – http://mathcentral.uregina.ca/…dyck2.html). I will “show my work”:

Part 1:
(r^2 + d^2 = c^2)
(3963^2 + 100^2 = c^2)
(15,705,369 + 10,000 = c^2)
(15,715,369 = c^2)
(15,715,369^(1/2) = c)
c = 3964.261

Part 2:
(c – r)
(3964.261 – 3963)
Curvature in miles = 1.261

So, if a plane travels horizontally for 100 miles, the curvature of the Earth is 1.261 miles, or 6,660.56 feet, or 79,926.7 inches.

Okay, I’m just going to give you the curvature for 500 miles. I’m not going to show my work, you’ll have to trust me on this one. I’m using the same method described above, with 500 as “d”.

For a plane traveling horizontally for 500 miles, the curvature of the Earth is 31.42 miles.

Several comments use the speed of the aircraft as 500 mph. Extrapolating from the answer above, the plane would be descending 31.42 miles each hour, if traveling at a horizontal rate of 500 mph. This breaks down to approximately 0.5 miles per minute. Surely, the passengers would notice such a steep descent!

Naturally, the question becomes, if the Earth is round, why doesn’t the ground fall away from you when keeping the altimeter level? Now, I know that gravity is not the most popular theory on this thread, but the simple fact is, the gravity of Earth is strong enough to bend space, which is why we don’t experience any plunge in altitude on an airplane. The comment made by DimSum, near the top of the thread, describes this phenomenon in an elegant and accurate way.

I appreciate this question, as the concept is difficult to grasp, and no one experiences the curving of space in an obvious way.

To respond to some of the top posters – Dharmabro, Ben Richardson, and many others, I’m sorry, but your math is incorrect. A common mistake was taking the distance in miles squared, then multiplying by 8 inches for the curvature. It’s just not that simple. Kudos to Eric, a poster near the bottom, who mentioned that Pythagoras Theorem is required.

In response to Dan’s question about the Earth’s spin, I’ll paraphrase – “If a plane is flying in one direction at a given speed, but the Earth is spinning below the plane at a given speed, how does the plane make progress?”

A fair question. Without getting into too much detail, the answer has to do with momentum. Consider this – you’re on a bus that’s travelling 60 miles per hour down the freeway. If you stand up in the aisle of the bus and jump in the air, you don’t fly towards the back of the bus. You actually stay fairly stationary and land approximately where you took off. Your moving with the bus. Although it seems like you’re sitting perfectly still, you’re actually moving 60 mph down the freeway. Additionally, if the bus were to crash into a wall, you would fly forward at approx. 60 mph! When in motion, an object will tend to stay in motion (this is one of Newton’s laws). The same concept applies to an airplane. If the Earth is rotating at 1,000 mph, and the plane is flying 500 mph in the direction of the rotation of the Earth, I suppose you could say the plane is flying 1,500 mph, if you want to think of it that way. If it is flying against the Earth’s rotation, it is traveling at 500 mph (1,000 – 500). Hopefully this clears things up for you.

Anyways, interesting topic and very good questions! Thanks for posing these questions everyone.

Earth is flat. Simple explanation to complex problem is always right 

so the captain answered one question, was overwhelmed with responses he could not answer and hasn’t replied to anyone else’s comments. why do we only see one side of the moon, why are nasas photographs of earth all different in ratio (country to country) for the last 30+ years ? why hasn’t there been one since 2015. why does the sun create hotspots if its 93000000 miles away. when nasa openly admits to photoshopping its images why are we so quick to believe everything they say. Im pretty sure we were told Columbus found, and im sure they told us that 2 planes flown into building caused them to miraculously crumple … its very obvious to see the lies and deceit. but we must do better to look deeper into what we are told. and approach new findings with an open mind

captain ?????

Get ready ladies I am wayy too far into this one.
Its is not complex. It is not a tangent, it is a plane. it exists along the curve of the earth. front wheels and rear wheels along the ever so slight curve of the earth. The gyro spins up on that horizon. The pilot, plane, gyro, cabin, crew, wings, wheels, luggage, nosecone, instruments yes everything is facing directly towards that horizon at the initiation of gyroscopic motion. You take off, the gyro shows the earth below you. as you adjust for the curvature which is realistically not something that happens frequently as many factors are used in preference to elevator altitude deltas. As you travel higher the air around grows colder and less dense. This is not science fiction. Even high altitude balloonists know this to be true. Lift requires air flow. That is the definition of a wing: It is something in the shape making it so the air flow passing above the wing will cover an arced and longer path than the air that flows below the flat underside of the wing. The air at higher velocities is functionally less dense. But as altitude increases the air gets to be less dense i general making the amount of lift available unable to continue climbing… or in this case maintain flight in a linear path. it will always correct itself briefly, unless the pilot is so dense he falls asleep and ends up stalling the engines out. this thinning of the air is a tenet of flat earths bad math, as they don’t seem to understand they argue in direct alignment with as they contradict rocket propulsion as the air begins to thin of its ability to oxidize combustible carbons.That said, there is another, very common way to slow an aircraft that is used in every flight by every pilot, which is method and means number two by which they DO adjust altitude without a dip of the aircraft towards the horizon. Planes travel at much greater speed than needed for appropriate lift patterns up to a certain altitude. Lift is a function of air speed as well as the change in density over the wings, so all the pilot need do is throttle down and his aircraft will dutifully abide his wishes and ‘magically’ i suppose would be your defined value of this but in any event, it isn’t magic. the pilot only needn’t nose down really at al during flight because as stated he took off at the same angle at which he travels. His gyro stays the same so long as does his altitude. I know it is hard to conceptualize for people, and I don’t blame you.

What’s more!?!? There is a third method of lowing elevation ( and fourth but I will spare you all because that is to actually rudder up nose down which) and this third very effective way of increasing or decreasing lift is not often thought to be a part of flight but oh is it ever. Most common of the three I would deduce from my roughly 15000 hours of flight logged to date while chewing the fat with the air force flyboys at the stick… they flap up or down, respectively, increasing and decreasing lift value. and trust me those boys know their beans from their franks when it comes to flying level. its far more efficient to fly in a level horizontal vector than to be using the elevator on the aft of the plane to do that for you. Why not use what nature provides for you? Here’s a little tidbit from a website… Pretty good source, USMC pilot manual:

Flaps (green) are used in various configurations to increase the wing area and to increase the lift. In conjunction with spoilers (red), flaps maximize drag and minimize lift during the landing roll.

A wing is a type of fin with a surface that produces aerodynamic forces facilitating movement through air and other gases, or water and other liquids. As such, wings have an airfoil shape, a streamlined cross-sectional shape producing lift.

As for the Gyroscope, You don’t have to take my word for it, get up on a plane, feel for yourself how much time you spend feeling like the pilot is plummeting towards the earth. you wont. there is minimal movement, only large turns around landing are typically felt while the traffic of the other craft sorts itself out. The most typical feeling of drop in the air is free fall. Even if the nose went down it wouldn’t feel like free fall until you would be craping your pants. Trust me, I know for sure, I can also tell you that jumping from a plane at altitudes above 15000 feet is suicide without a gyro and altimeter. I was an intelligence officer attached to a squad as their air to ground coordinator. We fell independent from the craft with gyros that were stable. They would certainly not have shrugged off a thousand mile miss for my inability to calculate a flat earth! And if you call my men conspirators in this great game I will not take kindly to it. You can go find out for yourself. even in freefall we would cross many miles of earths surface more than had we jumped out over a plane vs. sphere. often several kilometers more. depending on our attitude it could be as many as twenty at times having moved literally miles away from our origin. Real talk men. I am not a nutjob I can do this math, in their effort to not get us all killed The Marines in their wisdom sent me out to a fine school to educate myself on this mathematical system of quandary. I am accredited by Dartmouth as a master in both Non-Linear Statistical Matrices and Tangential Analytics. I do so hope you don’t mind if I boast a bit because you fellas need a stern talking to but not from me. But If you want to hear it from the source You can feel free to contact me. not sure a good way, but how bout hmmm. damn robots aren’t my suit but yeah

gr363@yahoo.com

Don’t hate the playa hate the game. I like the sense of purpose you guys have but not a singe person from the fat earth camp mentioned lift once. It was a loaded question that turned into a bum rush… if you want to believe the earth is flat that is fine, I am doing a little project on this right now. It is respectful to your theories despite my rough edges as a human. But if you read this far maybe you’ll shout at me. we can do some deliberating. My project attempts to only argue with answers to questions I have heard without going into to much high level math. I know the argument is important to you that it not be too confusing, even though the flat earther who wrote about Descartes kind of messed up that whole thing.

ANYWAYS! RESPECT yawl be good to yourselves and hit me up for any explanation you want to see. but even better just hop on a plane and feel for yourself the lack of descent!
Respectful to the Efforts,
GR

as an addendum to the curvature question. the planet rotates at a little over 1000mph, so, If I leave Melbourne, Australia on a flight to Auckland New Zealand, traveling in a boeing 777 with a cruising speed of 562mph then when do I get to Auckland? the planet and therefore wellington is rotating ‘away’ from me faster than we are flying. question 2. If I want to fly from Melbourne Australia to Durban South Africa, connecting at Johannesberg, a total distance of 10, 827 k’s I have to travel via Qatar. (melbourne, doha, Johannesberg, durban) a total distance of 18693k’s. doesn’t it strike anyone as strange that the flight needs to cross into the northern hemisphere and be some almost 8,000k’s further, not to mention the extra 12 hours of flight time.

Pendulous vanes. In vacuum driven attitude indicators a system of pendulous vanes at the bottom is used to erect the gyro. … When the gyro tilts for any reason to left or right the vanes of the ports fore and after will move and either close or open port fore or aft..

This is how ARI’s work and why when a plane fly’s the earth it will self level to remove the whole flying into space issue albeit it a plane cannot reach escape velocity so moot point regardless.
Next this happens very slowly so it does not affect the reletively quick actions (by comparison to flying long distances) pilots make ie climb, decent or banking. You can find diagrams or if you want to waste cash rip one open and they are there.

Yes pilots adjust trim so they don’t have to keep making manual corrections and newer aircraft have auto trim because believe it or not people walking from the front to back of an airliner changes the weight balance requiring trim change so the computer generally does this to help reduce pilot fatigue.
On the same note a pilot will adjust trim for many reasons ei plane keeps pulling left/right due to cross winds or even the plane keeps pitching up or down due to weight balance issues so if a pilot is trying to keep flying level and his plane keeps trying to pitch up in reference to the air (planetary curve) they will adjust the trim so they do not have to (many aircraft default setup counts trim at 0 degrees to incorporate the earth curve by default)

And lastly no pilot knows exactly 100% how everything works or only very basics. Do not trust them that’s why they are not the technicians. I have been fixing aircraft for 7 years and I still have to dig through technical manuals if something strange I’ve never seen before happens. It’s a ton of material.

I absolutely love what Sam I am said!

Someone who has access, just go out there, get in your plane, fly level then just hold forward on and keep going, it makes sense that you should gain altitude.

If no altitude is gained, the earth is flat! Aimple

The artificial horizons are gyro stabilized levels. The plane will remain level at the assigned altitude and the instruments will reflect that. The big issue is the Flat Earth morons don’t believe in gravity so yes if there is not a local downward vector the gyro would not stay level. Pretty sure they don’t understand how an airplane actually flies given their misunderstanding of density and associated topics like buoyancy. I am unsure but I understand they believe in unicorns as well.

the flat earth retards are spreading their retard virus. i see more and more of them every year.

I am no mathematical genius, but if we think of the basics of physics, in that a plane appears to be flying straight, is because we simply can not notice the minute change unless it is dramatic.

It may appear we are still, sitting in our seat, with the reference as the interior of the plane. We simply don’t notice, as we are travelling at the same speed as the plane, and any other reference is to far away looking out the window, to notice a small change.

Gravity is also constantly pulling the plane down to earth. The plane maintains its altitude only by creating a lower pressure above the wings, than below, without any adjustments, gravity will pull the plane to earth.

The point is, the plane is constantly making adjustments on auto pilot to maintain a specific distance from the earth, or a specific altitude based on a very variables and references.

When in manual control, the pilot is going straight, either ascending or descending, but will then level off, and will make adjustments to maintain a specific altitude.

As far as comments the earth is flat, well, is the moon flat, no. Is the shadow cast on the moon flat, no.

Think of it this way, when we walk over and ark bridge, we don’t dip our body forward or backward as we walk over the bridge.

The plane doesn’t nose down, it simply adjusts its altitude ( up or down vertically) while maintaining a level plane and a constant distance from the earth’s surface.

“Ok…The earth is a ball of sorts.. it curves… I dare everyone to go find a long flat road…say one mile worth… have an object or person 6 feet tall stand at the one mile mark. Look at that object/ person with binoculars and you will see their feet/ shoes/ base.. curvature…. 2 ft per mile? You should not be able to see their feet.. ok… go two miles.. you will see their feet..ok three miles… you will see their feet.. on lake Michigan I can see lake shore drive from new buffalo mi with binocluars…30 miles x 2 ft.. 60 ft.. 3 stories .. doesn’t happen. Don’t just believe what you are told. go test it for yourself.. ”

The first problem is that no-one lays down on the ground, you stand up. That puts your eyes at a height of around 5 feet. At 3 miles, you will lose a whole 0.547 inches due to the Earth’s curvature.
As for seeing across Lake Michigan, this is not possible without the aid of refraction. A large body of water is an ideal scenario for refraction (bending of light). The cold water, cold air at water level and warmer air above are ideal conditions for light to be bounced off the boundaries between densities – aka refraction.

“I’ve read the entire thread twice and an disappointed that amidst all the math discussion, no one has bothered to answer the critical question poised by “Steve in Indiana” on 12/01/15 regarding the functioning of a gyroscope. Assuming a gyroscope actually functions the way EVERY text book says it does, the simple answer to Steve’s question is “Yes, if you fly around the world the gyroscope will show you upside down half the time.” Now, since it obviously doesn’t, think about WHY it doesn’t… ”

Because, in universal terms, there is no such thing as “upside down”.

“There is almost no curvature, because the Earth is flat, simple as is. Look at the so called New Standard Map of the World published in ENgland in 1892. North pole is the centre , all around the flat surface is Antarctic Rim or wall of ice. Matrix is over. ”
There are so many things wrong with FE maps that they can’t all be listed on a forum.
Here’s just one of them:
We know the distance between Perth, Australia and Tierra del Fuego. Those distances are not reflected on the FE maps, which show those two places at opposite ends of the Earth.
To fly from Australia to South America, the FE map shows the shortest route to be vis Europe, which can be achieved in just short of 30 hours with a minimum of one stop. QANTAS flies from Perth to Santiago de Chile (QF27) in around 12.5 hours non-stop, which would be utterly impossible on a flat Earth. From Sydney to Santiago (QF2 in 14 hours non-stop, again impossible on a flat Earth, based on the Gleason map.

“Actually, neither instrument tracks the earth’s center of gravity, nor is either instrument effected by it. The instruments merely sense pressure differences to that found at sea level. ”
Flat Earth does not recognise gravity, just density and buoyancy. Neither of these permit pressure difference within a single environment. Density forces the entire atmosphere to have a single pressure from top to bottom – higher pressure lower down is caused by gravity that you FEers don’t accept.
FE dogma is unable to explain what causes density and buoyancy and why light things go up and heavy things go down. “It’s due to density and buoyancy” they cry. They have no answer for why heavy things don’t go up and light things don’t go down.
They like to claim that gravity doesn’t exist because no-one can explain how it works – yet their ignorance of how density and buoyancy is supposed to work is perfectly acceptable to them.

Earth is flat.

So many nonsense here… Earth isn’t flat. Period. aeronautic gyroscope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwJI-7W-c4 adjusts itself to the gravity vector….

Reading through the comments was both entertaining and sad. It is sad that in the 21st century there are so many people who can believe the ludicrous notion of a flat earth. No the pilot doesn’t not have to correct for anything. It’s all taken care by gravity. The explanation is very simple but it requires basic knowledge of physics. Reading the comments of the flat earth enthusiasts it is clear that none of them has that knowledge.

Flat-Earthers: reminders that space travel isn’t cheap enough yet.

Most FE “refutations” I’ve ever read are actually questions of confusion about a subject that could be remedied by reading, just asked in a way as to be heard as rhetorical refutations. The reason there is so much out there about a round Earth (why it’s “everywhere”) is because there is a large volume of evidence from many fields that can only be tied together with the notion of a Round Earth. Under FE thinking, they are all unrelated phenomena. Occam’s Razor, once again, points us to the most elegant – yet non-intuitive – truth: the Earth, like all other large celestial objects, is roughly spherical and its motion is dictated by gravity in exactly the same way. Sorry, FE theorists: the Earth isn’t that special.

At least we don’t have people parading around talking about Miasma theory of disease!!!!

The airplane, traveling at a constant speed, floats on the air, so to speak. If air pressure drops, such as gaining altitude, the plane will drop to thicker air that can support the wings at that speed, then plane will return to neutral buoyancy. As the earth falls away, so does the atmosphere. As the air gets thin, the plan falls – no correction is needed, the plane just skips along at the steady altitude.
If you have been on a plan, remember how many bounces and bumps occur, you will not notice curvature over the confusion of a turbulent atmosphere at 500mph.

From what I understood Flat earthers are just uneducated people that genuinely believe that they are on to something BIG (worldwide conspiracies and coverups). They jump into their arbitrary conclusion that the earth is flat and cannot see or accept any explanation (i.e. effect of gravity on mass) which was systematically and repeatedly proven. Unfortunately they are so uneducated to the point that they cannot even formulate proper questions (normally their ”questions” follow naive and false assumptions that they themselves have introduced). Even when the explanation is provided in the simplest terms, they cannot evaluate them as they will stubbornly stand by to what a random youtuber said who for them is more credible that the entire scientific community. Finally, their ignorance and twisted understanding of the physical world makes them unable to conduct any credible research themselves so eventually they are lost into their ignorance.
Dear flat earthers just stop embarrassing yourselves and wasting yours and our time.
This website btw is not about proving or disproving the shape of the earth. Every question relevant to aviation i.e. level flight, gyroscopes etc) has been answered. If you don’t like the explanation I m sorry but not understanding basic physics doesn’t mean the earth is flat. The captain is absolutely right when he stopped paying attention and answering to this thread.

Hm. It takes a Boeing 747 about 180 Nm or just over 200 miles to get to cruising altitude at which point the bring out the carts and people walk around. So, am I to believe that I would not feel a correction of going downward to compensate for the significant change in being off course of going “north” of the “curve”? We are talking 25 minutes of flying at a 9–20 degree angle going away from the earth. The correction would need to be greater to get back on course. I sure as hell don’t ever feel that anything remotely going half of what you do going up. So, common sense says the curve is BS, but yeah, keep peddling your daft beliefs.