Quick Debunk: The Flat Earth "Little Piggy" and "Cockermouth" balloon flights
Flat Earth'ers frequently post extracts from this 'Little Piggy' video series and claim #1 that the video isn't distorted, and #2 that it's proof the Earth horizon is 'flat' at 120,000 feet. #CheckMate Ba'al worshippers!
Um...
Original uncut video is broken into many parts, starting with part 1 (playlist):
First of all, we can see very clearly this IS a fisheye lens:
Ok -- so that means all the images are distorted as per the curvilinear distortion field:
This is why the horizon bows down here -- it is below lens center (technically everything is squished in towards center to make room to "see more stuff").
ONLY along the horizontal lens center will the vertical distortion be minimized (as I covered in great detail here).
And yes, the lens IS what is warping the antenna. We know this because we can see it in the later part of the video after the balloon pops.
So Flat Earthers are just lying when they selectively show segments of this video with lens distortion and then LIE to your face and tell you the antenna isn't straight.
Ok -- so other than Flat Earthers are uneducated, parroting, liars, what can we learn from this video?
Here is a frame from Pt 10 4:33 where the horizon comes very closer to lens center and the remainder is all BELOW lens center, which means the lens is bowing that section of the horizon UP -- working against seeing the horizon curvature and yet, we still can see very strong curvature:
If some Flat Earther can demonstrate to me (not merely assert, provide detailed evidence in an experiment that can be replicated) that shows that a GoPro camera in wide-angle mode would make something FLAT look exactly like this then I'll re-evaluate.
The evidence I have shows that a GoPro lens would FLATTEN this out
Until then -- Flat Earthers OWN videos show proof of the curvature of the Earth.
So thanks for the evidence (link to Horizon Calculations):
Another video I've seen less frequently referenced by Flat Earth (eg on reddit) is the "Cockermouth" video which Flat Earthers claim is a DIY balloon launch "using a non fisheye lens". Unfortunately they also give any details about the camera and lens actually used so we really don't know what to expect here. If it's a narrow field of view lens then we would expect to see only very slightly curvature of maybe a handful of pixels.
But what I do know is that Flat Earthers dishonestly claim that the footage that IS in that video shows the Earth being flat. It simply doesn't and I'll show a technique here where you simply resize the width of an image to make the vertical changes stand out.
Here is the raw frame from the posted video where Flat Earthers CLAIM this proves the Earth is flat (sadly it is low-resolution):
Yeah -- that LOOKS flat. So I can completely see how, if you were driven by confirmation bias and not doing research and actually seeking the truth, you might not bother to check it.
But a simple width compression (10x here) shows there absolutely is a curve in that image of several pixels (10ish) -- which gives us an estimated 30-40° camera FOV. If you can find any details I'll happily reevaluate and revise my data.
And here is another balloon with seemingly little or no fisheye, curve confirmed.
and121,000 feet & still flat.— Gospel Truth (@BadBuc99) July 26, 2017
The horizon would be fading downward on a globe, but it don't.
Video proves everything NASA says is a lie! pic.twitter.com/mhrTuECAQm
— Michael Davino (@davino1959) July 3, 2017
Um...
Original uncut video is broken into many parts, starting with part 1 (playlist):
First of all, we can see very clearly this IS a fisheye lens:
Ok -- so that means all the images are distorted as per the curvilinear distortion field:
This is why the horizon bows down here -- it is below lens center (technically everything is squished in towards center to make room to "see more stuff").
ONLY along the horizontal lens center will the vertical distortion be minimized (as I covered in great detail here).
And yes, the lens IS what is warping the antenna. We know this because we can see it in the later part of the video after the balloon pops.
So Flat Earthers are just lying when they selectively show segments of this video with lens distortion and then LIE to your face and tell you the antenna isn't straight.
Ok -- so other than Flat Earthers are uneducated, parroting, liars, what can we learn from this video?
Here is a frame from Pt 10 4:33 where the horizon comes very closer to lens center and the remainder is all BELOW lens center, which means the lens is bowing that section of the horizon UP -- working against seeing the horizon curvature and yet, we still can see very strong curvature:
If some Flat Earther can demonstrate to me (not merely assert, provide detailed evidence in an experiment that can be replicated) that shows that a GoPro camera in wide-angle mode would make something FLAT look exactly like this then I'll re-evaluate.
The evidence I have shows that a GoPro lens would FLATTEN this out
Until then -- Flat Earthers OWN videos show proof of the curvature of the Earth.
So thanks for the evidence (link to Horizon Calculations):
Another video I've seen less frequently referenced by Flat Earth (eg on reddit) is the "Cockermouth" video which Flat Earthers claim is a DIY balloon launch "using a non fisheye lens". Unfortunately they also give any details about the camera and lens actually used so we really don't know what to expect here. If it's a narrow field of view lens then we would expect to see only very slightly curvature of maybe a handful of pixels.
But what I do know is that Flat Earthers dishonestly claim that the footage that IS in that video shows the Earth being flat. It simply doesn't and I'll show a technique here where you simply resize the width of an image to make the vertical changes stand out.
Here is the raw frame from the posted video where Flat Earthers CLAIM this proves the Earth is flat (sadly it is low-resolution):
Yeah -- that LOOKS flat. So I can completely see how, if you were driven by confirmation bias and not doing research and actually seeking the truth, you might not bother to check it.
But a simple width compression (10x here) shows there absolutely is a curve in that image of several pixels (10ish) -- which gives us an estimated 30-40° camera FOV. If you can find any details I'll happily reevaluate and revise my data.
And here is another balloon with seemingly little or no fisheye, curve confirmed.
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