Introduction

One of the world’s most famous basketball players, Kyrie Irving, believes in the “Flat Earth Theory”.  In 2018, Kyrie publicly announced his belief on a podcast causing his fans to become outraged. People began commenting on this subject making it a hot new topic. Left and right you would have heard conversations about Kyrie’s beliefs. Student fans of his even questioned their teachers asking if the earth was flat. Kyrie then apologized to his fans and the science teachers for commenting. One of the largest supporters of this movement is Eric Dubay. Eric Dubay has made countless videos on evidence of a flat earth. He created an audiobook called “200 Proofs that the Earth is not a spinning ball” which gives us 200 uncomplicated reasons why the Earth is flat. A majority of the information in this book has no scientific backing and is blankly false. Many people disagree with Eric’s claims and have proven him wrong countless times. 

1. If the Earth was a sphere, pilots would have to constantly rotate the plane downwards so they don’t fly off the Earth.

In a video on Eric’s channel named “How does Gravity Work on Flat Earth?”, Eric explains that “the natural physics of density and buoyancy already perfectly [explain] why apples fall[.]”. After making only a few claims, Dubay states, “If the Earth were truly a sphere […] airplane pilots would consistently have to correct their altitudes downward so as not to fly straight off into “Outer Space.”. In this claim, he is saying that gravity does not exist. Eric believes that gravity is a myth and that an apple falls because it is denser than air. In his book, Dubay makes many claims regarding this belief: “If the Earth were truly a sphere […] airplane pilots would consistently have to correct their altitudes downward so as not to fly straight off into “outer space”[.]”. Dubay displays a picture for us to see in his book (see Fig. 1), that shows us what would happen to an airplane on a globe. Based on his belief that gravity does not exist, Eric claims that if the Earth were truly a sphere airplanes would fly off of the Earth.  Eric has mentioned airplanes on his channel before but in a different matter. Dubay makes the objectionable claim in a video called “Earth’s Curvature Visible from Your Airplane Window?” stating, “[A]irplanes are called airplanes because they are flying over a level plane rather than being called “air globes” and flying over a sphere.”. Dubay does not speak of any justification to this claim leading us to believe that he made it up. An airplane was originally called “aeroplane” but changed over time into “airplane” due to historical linguistic evolution. An issue with Dubay’s claim about airplanes descending downwards and not flying off into space is that gravity is real. Level flight and constant altitude come from the aircraft being “acted on by four forces: lift, gravity, thrust, and drag.” When these are equal (lift, weight, thrust, drag) this creates the plane to fly level flight, meaning constant altitude. As the plane flies level it follows the curvature of the earth. An airplane is unable to fly into space, even if the pilot deliberately attempts to do that. The higher the altitude the less air density, and therefore, the smaller the lift an airplane gets. At some point, it would not be able to generate enough lift to counteract its weight, and the aircraft could not go any higher. The higher the altitude, the amount of oxygen becomes smaller. As a result, the thrust generated by the engines will also be lower. Because of the above reasons, an aircraft will fly along the curvature of the earth and can never fly away into space. You could never fly into space “by accident”, it’s not that easy. 

Fig. 1 Dubay’s picture explains planes if we were on a globe.

1. The stars do not move relative to a rotating Earth, but rather to a stationary Earth.

Dubay makes a statement, claiming, “Airy’s Failure” proved that the stars move relative to a stationary earth and not the other way around.”. When Dubay makes this claim, he refers to the “Airy’s failure experiment”. Dubay explains that this experiment “failed to prove the heliocentric theory”, which is the idea that the sun is at the center of our solar system. Following this claim, Eric guides us through the process of the experiment: “[F]irst [fill] a telescope with water to slow down the speed of light inside, then calculat[e] the tilt necessary to get the starlight directly down the tube[.]”.  What Dubay is claiming is that the “AIry’s failure experiment” was an experiment that was done to prove the heliocentric theory. This is false. This experiment was done in 1871 by Sir George Airy and what he was trying to do was prove the existence of the aether. According to Britannica, “[Ae]ther, in physics, a theoretical universal substance […]to act as the medium for [the] transmission of electromagnetic waves[.]”. This experiment was the first direct evidence of Earth’s motion around the sun. This experiment assisted in the process of ruling out the existence of the aether. Eric claims that this experiment was done to “prove the heliocentric theory”. As said earlier, this theory places the sun at the center of the solar system and maintains that the Earth revolves around the sun. Now we know that the “Air’s failure” experiment was completed to substantiate the existence of the aether, which does not exist, and not done to prove the “heliocentric theory”. 

1. When an object is thrown vertically, it should land due West.

Later in the video, Dubay makes a controversial claim stating, “If the Earth were truly constantly spinning Eastwards at over 1000mph, vertically fired cannonballs […] should land significantly due west.” (Dubay, 10:34). Shortly after making this claim, Dubay states that “this has been tested” (Dubay, 10:48) and that the result is that the cannonball “often [lands] directly back into the muzzle.” (Dubay, 11:00). The muzzle of a cannon is “front-end of the barrel where the [cannonball] emerges from the [cannon].” (US Concealed Carry). Eric claims that if we were to shoot a cannonball straight up into the air, the cannonball would land in a different place because the earth is spinning. Essentially, since the cannonball lands straight back into the muzzle, the earth is not spinning and flat. First of all, Dubay shows no evidence of this experiment and after researching, no evidence of an experiment like this with a cannon has ever been performed. Another problem with Dubay’s claim is the fact that Conservation of Momentum exists. Conservation of momentum states: “[T]he amount of momentum remains constant; [and] only changed through the action of forces as described by Newton’s laws of motion.” (Conservation of Momentum, NASA). Since this law exists, the cannonball lands directly back into the cannon because it retains the earth’s momentum. A YouTuber named “Professor Dave” comments on this claim in one of his videos called “Eric Dubay Sucks at Life (200 Flat Earth “Proofs” Debunked)”. In this video, Dave explains this law and shares with us that this is “why a skateboarder lands right back on the skateboard when they jump in the air for a trick. They travel forward with the skateboard even though from their reference frame they are jumping straight up and falling straight down. Same with the cannonball.”. The cannonball lands right back into the cannon because of the conservation of momentum, not because the earth is flat.

1. Due to the Earth spinning, an object falling from a moving vehicle should land East of the take-off point.

Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian skydiver, daredevil, and base jumper. He is widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on October 14, 2012, and landing in New Mexico. Dubay makes a claim mentioning Felix, challenging the fact that the Earth is spinning: “If Earth truly were spinning at over 1000mph […] Felix […] should have landed 2500 miles west into the Pacific Ocean but […] landed a few dozen miles East[.]”. The balloon Felix was on was rotating with the Earth, and he maintained that lateral velocity as he fell, much like a plane dropping a bomb. The bomb does not fall directly down and land on the exact spot below where the plane was when it opened the hatch. Again, the bomb maintains the velocity of the plane, moving forward as it falls. The law of inertia is Newton’s first law, stating, “An object will […] continue moving at a constant velocity in a straight line unless acted upon by an eternal force.” (NASA).  The Earth rotates once per day. Eric tries to use tangential linear velocity, the linear speed of any object moving along a circular path, to make this sound unreasonable. In actuality, the Earth is rotating half as fast as the hour-hand on a clock, Earth spins on its axis once every 24-hour day. At Earth’s equator, the speed of Earth’s spin is about 1,000 miles per hour (or 0.000694 RPM).

1. If the Earth is truly spinning, the clouds can’t move in different directions.

After Dubay makes many claims about the Earth, he argues that because the clouds are moving in different directions, the Earth can’t be a rotating sphere: “If the Earth and its atmosphere were constantly spinning eastwards over 1000mph, then clouds, wind and weather patterns could not casually and unpredictably go every which way, with clouds often traveling in opposing directions at varying altitudes simultaneously.”. He claims that the planet’s clouds and atmosphere would not be spinning with the Earth but going around randomly at high speeds. This claim is proven incorrect in an article from New Scientist; “Earth’s rotation has some influence on the direction in which the clouds move, but isn’t the cause of their movement. Fortunately for us, the main bulk of the atmosphere moves in sync with Earth itself.”  This quote explains that the clouds are in the Earth’s atmosphere and are moving with the Earth, making it seem like they are moving slowly. This phenomenon can be explained by relative motion, “Relative motion is defined as the motion of one object concerning another object.” This quote from study.com explains that relative motion is how we perceive motion compared to another object. This would mean that if we are moving at the same speed as the clouds and the rest of the earth it would be perceived as moving slowly or not moving at all. But if we were to be on a spaceship looking down at the Earth it would look faster. 

Conclusion

Dubay has made countless claims about the shape of the Earth. Despite him being proven wrong for almost everything he says, he still fights for the “Flat Earth Conspiracy”. No matter how many times his theories are said to be incorrect, he continues to recruit and manipulate followers. In conclusion, Dubays claims are misleading and easily proven wrong.