Rapper BoB's Epic Fundraising Fail in the Name of Flat Earth 'Science'

I've been writing a lot lately about the meteoric rise in numbers of flat earthers in my Flat Earth debunked series. As of writing, there are many Facebook groups with as many as 100,000 members, and many of the YouTube videos being used as 'proofs' of a flat earth have hundreds of thousands of views.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Rapper B.o.B. outed himself as a flat earther, and recently started a GoFund Me campaign to raise a cool $1 million to send a satellite into space to prove that the earth is flat! This was right on top of a D. Marble stunt where he took a level on a plane to 'prove' the plane flies level. We'll discuss that issue in another article about why the test was destined to have the exact outcome it did regardless of whether we are on a plane or a sphere, but for now, back to Rapper B.o.B.

Why Doesn't He Just Look at NASA Photos?

Well, flat earthers believe in the world's largest and longest conspiracy in the history of the world. They believe that every space agency, every government, every airline pilot, every satellite manufacturer, every shipping company, every maker of globes, every teacher, every scienitist, and every other private or government company that has anything to do with navigation, satellites,space, etc. are all in on a conspiracy to hide the TRUE shape of the earth from them for some nefarious purpose they can only speculate about.

Therefore, NASA and ISS photos are out as evidence of a sphere earth, as is the Live Feed from the HImawari Satellite and even the Raw Open Source Data from the Copernicus Satellite. So, they have decided that they have to see it themselves to believe it, and what better way to find out than to send a satellite into space and prove once and for all whether the earth is flat or not.

Flat Earthers Committed to the Cause

After B.o.B.'s announcement, dozens of major news media ran the story, announcing his campaign:

• Time Magazine
• CNN
• Salon
• Huffington Post

It was shared on all over Facebook and Twitter, and flat earthers have answered the call to find out the truth! In 5 days, he raised a grand total of $2626. Yes, you read that right, flat earthers are so incredibly dedicated to finding TRUTH and adding to our scientific understanding with "Real Science", and not the fake science that created computers, the electric grid, skyscrapers, and brain surgery, that the hundreds of thousands of flat earth believers across the globe (pun intended) rallied together in vast numbers to support finding out the truth.

Image credit: GoFundMe

Even with all that media coverage, even with B.o.B.'s celebrity status, even with this campaign being in the name of true observable, repeatable, measurable, and falsifiable science that flat earther claim to clamor for, they managed to raise a grand total that would barely even get B.o.B. a transatlantic coach class flight! Now, that is dedication to the scientific method! In comparison, a card game called Exploding Kittens raised almost $9 million! Yes, flat earthers are obviously dedicated to scientific inquiry and want to find out the truth.

Someone Doesn't Know How to Bargain Shop

Now, on top of that terrible fundraising effort, the fact that B.o.B is asking for a cool $1 million just shows how utterly out of touch with scientific inquiry he is, and what a TERRIBLE bargain shopper he is.

Flat earthers seem to think that they are the first people ever in the world to think about the nature of the universe and our earth, and as such, they must think no one has ever sent a satellite into space before (they actually do think that, as I point out in my [5 Insane Things Flat Earthers Believe] (https://steemit.com/science/@kerriknox/5-insane-things-flat-earthers-believe-besides-just-believing-in-a-flat-earth) article), and so they must be under the impression that they need to hire a designer and an engineer to create everything for a satellite from scratch.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

But nothing could be further from the truth. Creating and launching satellites is big business. And just like many other high tech businesses, technology often start out with expensive products designed for specific applications in companies or government with millions or billions to spend, then it will gradually get less and less expensive until it becomes affordable for smaller businesses, groups, or even just the average person.

Well, we are quite far along in that common progression, and a company called TubeSat now offers Personal Satellites for the low low price of $8000, and that includes the launch! Someone should teach B.o.B. how to bargain shop, because his estimates are off by an order of magnitude.

Why This Campaign is So Idiotic

But this campaign is idiotic to start with. No, there is nothing wrong with personal inquiry, however, sending a satellite up, even to the approximately 200 miles up in orbit that TubeSat now promises, is probably not going to convince a flat earther of anything they are not already convinced of.

This is because, while 200 miles SEEMS really high, and most people would believe you should be able to see the whole earth from that, that is just not the case. In my article, If the Earth is a Sphere, Why Does it Seem So Flat?, I explain how unimaginably large the earth is, and how a high altitude balloon at 19 miles really will hardly show any curvature at all.

In fact, a group of flat earthers called the GlobeBusters already sent up a high altitude balloon to around 19 miles about (100,000 feet) and it showed exactly the amount of curvature you'd expect to see at that altitude, which is not very much, but still measurable. You can only really see the curvature when you see it in comparison to when there is no apparent curvature, as I show you in the GIF below.

IMAGE CREDIT: Finding the Curvature of the Earth

While the curvature was certainly there in their own video, just like it is in the image above, they 'eyeballed' it instead of measuring it with a straight edge or one of the thousands of computer programs out there designed to measure just such things, including this Earth's Curvature Graph Overlay and declared the earth is flat!

Because of the immense size of the earth and the nature of the curvature, it will be easy for B.o.B. and his followers to do the same thing even with a satellite. That's because the curvature, even at 200 miles, which is the altitude the TubeSat goes, still just does not show that much curvature, as you can see below.

IMAGE CREDIT: Finding the Curvature of the Earth

That amount of curvature is approximately what we see when we get satellite photos of earth, and is certainly measurable, and certainly enough to convince anyone rational that the curvature exists. However, it's just not dramatic enough to convince anyone who does not want to be convinced. And flat earthers are such that facts don't get in the way of their beliefs anyway.

Again, 200 miles may seem REALLY high, but it's not on the scale of the size of the earth. Think about it, 200 miles is only about a 4 hour drive. The distance as the crow flies from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. It's a tiny amount of the earth, a height at which you should not expect to see the entire earth. In fact, at that height, you can only see approximately 7% of the earth!

Additionally, since flat earthers believe there is a giant impenetrable dome approximately 300-500 miles above the earth, even sending a satellite into orbit will be unlikely to convince them that a dome doesn't exist since the SatTube doesn't go that high, and they would make the case that it would only still have been 'orbiting' within the confines of their mythical dome.

Image Credit: Flickr

I wish B.o.B. good luck, and I hope that he launches these satellites and shows the images publicly, regardless of what they show, because I'm confident they will show the exact curvature of the earth that would be shown with the calculator we provided.

Perhaps some flat earthers will be convinced as to the true nature of the shape of the earth, but I suspect any curvature will be ignored or explained away, or B.o.B. will just get accused of being a shill that infiltrated their ranks in order to discredit them, and that his images are fake too! That seems to be the logic of most flat earthers. If it were not, well, they simply wouldn't be flat earthers. However, with the zeal at which flat earthers are donating to the cause of finding out the truth, I don't suspect we'll have to worry about B.o.B. disproving the globe model once and for all anytime soon.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this article and will upvote, resteem, and comment, in order to support rational articles that debunk this crazy flat earth phenomenon that is on the rise.