Why can we not see the roundness of the earth?
Answers
Answer:
48 years ago last week Apollo 11 landed on the Moon. There is another anniversary last week that seems appropriate to mention at this point: On July 20th of 1925 the greatest scene in American legal history took place, and it was an astronomy lesson.
Answer:
We can’t “feel” it. Although the Earth spins quickly and more so at the Equator, we cannot feel it due to the huge size of the Earth relative to humans. Some people say if one lies in an open and quiet area, shuts their eyes and relaxes, one can feel the Earth spin. I personally have tried and never felt this, but each to their own.
However we can see that the Earth is round. All of us can see as far as the horizon with the naked eye, assuming we are not vision impaired.
When an object reaches the horizon, on land or sea, it slowly disappears from view - it looks like it is moving downwards then it disappears over the horizon.
The object is actually following the curve of the earth. We can’t see over the curve of the horizon. If the Earth was flat, this would not happen. We could see the object, which would become smaller with distance, but it would not disappear due to the lack of curve. If one looks at the sky in an open area, it looks slightly dome-shaped between the horizons, which is curvature, the same as looking on the land or sea.
The distance of the horizon is and looks to the naked eye, further away at the equator and closer at the poles, because these are the Earth’s widest and narrowest areas, respectively, due its spherical shape. I personally noted this when in northern Sweden, close the the North Pole, compared to Australia, the location I’m used to.
Also at night when observing the stars for an extended period, it looks like the nightsky is moving in a circular motion , but in fact it just looks that way - the Earth is what is moving due to it’s constant spin (24 hours = 1 full 360 degree rotation), and it’s slower orbit around the sun ( 365 days).