Published abstract of a paper presented to:

European Geophysical Society

XVII General Assembly

Edinburgh, Scotland

April 9, 1992

Dr. David Thorndill

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS WHICH HAVE BEEN USED TO CONFIRM A SPHERICAL GEOID ALSO FIT A CUBOIDAL MODEL

The development of new technology and instrumentation has allowed us to fine tune theoretical geoid determinations the past few centuries. Yet the first major geoid model simply assumed a spherical earth. The proofs used by Aristotle, Ptolemy, and Copernicus for this model are based on the observation below. This paper will show that the first four observations are also consistent with a flat earth model, specifically a cuboidal model. It will show that from Aristotle to Hawking, the direction of gravity vectors, and thus the zenith, has been incorrectly assumed to be perpendicular to the flat surface of the earth model. It will present a corrected flat earth model and conclude that these four ancient spherical earth proofs (which are still widely accepted) are invalid; that is, they are not exclusive to a spherical model. The five observations used by Copernicus are:

1. The north star appears to climb higher in the northern sky as one travels north.

2. New stars appear on the southern horizon as one travels south.

3. Specific lunar eclipses have been recorded at earlier local time in more westerly locations.

4. Ships appear to sail away over a curved sea; the top of the mast disappears last.

5. The shape of the shadow of the earth during a lunar eclipse always has the arc of a perfect circle.