Flat Earthers consist of a group of people who believe the Earth to be flat. Their argument being that when a human is standing on Earth, the land around them appears to be be flat. In their argument against a round Earth, the claim is that if the Earth was round and you were standing on it, you would be standing at a tilt and you do not.
Stereographic projection, in my opinion, helps the flat earther's theory ever-so slightly. The idea that a spherical, round, globe can be projected onto a 2-dimensional, flat map comes from the idea of stereographical projection. And that, in turn, could be why the flat earther's continue to push their theory.
What the flat earther's might not be smart enough to fully grasp the concept of, is the actual idea and specific details of stereographic projection. They see a 2-dimensional map of the Earth and they're sold on the idea of a flat Earth, but what they don't notice are the size differences between countries and continents on a map versus a globe. Since it's impossible to perfectly represent a 3-dimensional object in 2-dimensions, we need stereographic projections. These give us the ability to visualize a sphere projected onto a plane. The size differences occur because when an object is not projected onto another object exactly with no obstacles, distortions are bound to occur. The angle at which the projection occurs determines what size the object should be on the sphere in order to correctly project the actual size of the object in 2-dimensions.
When trying to think of another example besides a map and globe, the first thing I thought of is a child's night light that projects the night sky onto the ceiling. (pictured below for purchase on Amazon)
Children, much like the flat earther's are amused by the fact that such a small sphere can project objects across their entire ceiling, and this is because they don't understand how stereographic projection works.
For my projection, I wanted to mimic a night's sky like the children's night light. While in my head this was going to be so cute and fun, after hours of trial and error and more error, I decided that stars were not in fact meant to be in my sky. Instead, I decided to go with a sky in a big city that has a little more of a polluted and cloudy sky, where you can't see the stars. I decided to print a sphere that would project an array of clouds as pictured below.
Personally, I didn't have one of these night lights as a child and I fell asleep better when it was rainy and cloudy and I turned out just fine, so the cloud night light won't be then end of the world for this made up child.
When I was convinced stars were better than clouds, I couldn't quite figure out how to make a star. And then when I got a fairly solid, simple star, I had trouble hulling it to a single point. Another solid issue I had when working on this project was that it literally took hours to render and while I was waiting I would get frustrated and distracted. The clouds made a little more sense to me, but still took what seemed like years to render. I thought of this idea at the last minute, so I haven't had time to test it, but I'd like to go back and attempt to build a sphere that is able to project a recognizable constellation.
My print will be a sphere, a little more than an inch in diameter, and when a light source is placed on it, it should project my array of clouds about 20 units away. I should be able to print my object with minimal supports, but only time will tell. The final object will look similar to the picture below.
Stereographic projection, in my opinion, helps the flat earther's theory ever-so slightly. The idea that a spherical, round, globe can be projected onto a 2-dimensional, flat map comes from the idea of stereographical projection. And that, in turn, could be why the flat earther's continue to push their theory.
What the flat earther's might not be smart enough to fully grasp the concept of, is the actual idea and specific details of stereographic projection. They see a 2-dimensional map of the Earth and they're sold on the idea of a flat Earth, but what they don't notice are the size differences between countries and continents on a map versus a globe. Since it's impossible to perfectly represent a 3-dimensional object in 2-dimensions, we need stereographic projections. These give us the ability to visualize a sphere projected onto a plane. The size differences occur because when an object is not projected onto another object exactly with no obstacles, distortions are bound to occur. The angle at which the projection occurs determines what size the object should be on the sphere in order to correctly project the actual size of the object in 2-dimensions.
When trying to think of another example besides a map and globe, the first thing I thought of is a child's night light that projects the night sky onto the ceiling. (pictured below for purchase on Amazon)
For my projection, I wanted to mimic a night's sky like the children's night light. While in my head this was going to be so cute and fun, after hours of trial and error and more error, I decided that stars were not in fact meant to be in my sky. Instead, I decided to go with a sky in a big city that has a little more of a polluted and cloudy sky, where you can't see the stars. I decided to print a sphere that would project an array of clouds as pictured below.
When I was convinced stars were better than clouds, I couldn't quite figure out how to make a star. And then when I got a fairly solid, simple star, I had trouble hulling it to a single point. Another solid issue I had when working on this project was that it literally took hours to render and while I was waiting I would get frustrated and distracted. The clouds made a little more sense to me, but still took what seemed like years to render. I thought of this idea at the last minute, so I haven't had time to test it, but I'd like to go back and attempt to build a sphere that is able to project a recognizable constellation.
My print will be a sphere, a little more than an inch in diameter, and when a light source is placed on it, it should project my array of clouds about 20 units away. I should be able to print my object with minimal supports, but only time will tell. The final object will look similar to the picture below.
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