All aboard the flat earth cruise – just don’t tell them
about nautical navigation
A group of people who believe the Earth is flat have
announced their “boldest adventure yet”: a Flat Earth cruise
scheduled for 2020. Flat earthers will enjoy swimming pools
and perhaps even an artificial surf wave. There’s just one
problem for those celebrating the flatness of the Earth. The
navigational systems cruise ships, and other vessels, use
rely on the fact that the Earth is not flat. “Nautical charts are
designed with that in mind: that the Earth is round. GPS
relies on 24 main satellites which orbit the Earth to provide
positional and navigational information. The reason why 24
satellites were used is because of the curvature of the
Earth,” said Henk Keijer, a former cruise ship captain who
sailed all over the globe during a 23-year career. “At least
three satellites are required to determine a position. But
someone located on the other side of the Earth would also
like to know their position, so they also require a certain
number of satellites. Had the Earth been flat, a total of three
satellites would have been enough to provide this
information to everyone on Earth. But it is not enough,
because the Earth is round.”
(Adaptado de https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/09/flat-earth-cruisenautical-navigation. Acessado em 20/08/2020.)
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