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So I have seen the never ending clash between those who believe in a Spherical Earth and those who believe in a Flat Earth. It thus made me wonder what a Flat Earth would even be like. One of the things I wondered and want to find answers to is its gravity, specifically its nature.

For this question, I will give some context.

  1. The Flat Earth has the same overall mass as the Earth we know.
  2. The entire surface area of the Flat Earth is equivalent to the surface area of Earth at Ground Zero. Of course, due to mountains and cities, there might be some uneven ground, just like our Earth.
  3. The other end of the Flat Earth is just ice and rock. This will weigh the same as the mass of the rest of our Earth (i.e. Core and Mantle). Most of this is evenly spread out, just like the other side.

So, something like this picture below:

So, something like this.

With this in mind, what would gravity be like on this Flat Earth? It will certainly not be 1 g anymore, that is for sure. Would there even be gravity? Can the structure even hold?

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    $\begingroup$ Science based ? Impossible. There's even confusion between weight and mass. If it's the mass of a planet it'll be in hydrostatic equilibrium (round). I fear there's no science based anwser here. $\endgroup$
    – user78828
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:19
  • $\begingroup$ I agree with a_donda, there's no way this can be possible. $\endgroup$
    – The Darke Lorde
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:46
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    $\begingroup$ Sorry, mass, not weight. Always been mass. $\endgroup$
    – CYCLOPSCORE
    Dec 10, 2020 at 1:01
  • $\begingroup$ Not sure if I made this understood: this shape can not exist on any scientific base. That's what makes the answers piffle. A planetary mass will be (that's even part of the definition) drawn into a spherical shape from its own gravity. Without the "science based" tag you're free to go anywhere :-) $\endgroup$
    – user78828
    Dec 10, 2020 at 9:26
  • $\begingroup$ A flat Earth is not possible in any form with modern science and fundamentally violates principles found in relativity, classical gravitation, cosmology, dynamics and the planetary sciences (geology, etc.). It is a conspiracy theory because it requires all relevant data used in those fields to be falsified in a concerted effort to hide the truth. Of course this leads to the issue of extraordinary claims and all that. Flat Earth physics would need to be very different which is why adherents usually go to strange fringe hypotheses (electric universe, density dynamics, conscious universe...etc) $\endgroup$
    – user110866
    Dec 10, 2020 at 23:41

4 Answers 4

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what would gravity be like on this Flat Earth? It will certainly not be 1 g anymore, that is for sure. Would there even be gravity? Can the structure even hold?

If you start with a disc satisfying your specs, our science tells you that it will exert gravity. As a consequence of this gravity and the finite resistance of the materials it is made of, it will crumble into a spheroid and turn into the planet we know.

Yes, the rearrangement would liberate enough energy to mess up with water and life on the surface, so forget of the greenery for a while.

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    $\begingroup$ Imagine a molten hellhole, thats what it will look like $\endgroup$
    – Sync
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:19
  • $\begingroup$ also, i wonder if certain parts of the disk will be broken off and maybe create our moon... $\endgroup$
    – Sync
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:20
  • $\begingroup$ @Sync That would require an external force. Everything on the flat earth would be pulling things together. $\endgroup$
    – Mary
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:45
  • $\begingroup$ true, but the irregular structure of the disk may result in something like what happens when you crack a cookie in half $\endgroup$
    – Sync
    Dec 9, 2020 at 13:46
  • $\begingroup$ @Sync except the quote on quote "crumbs" would just be pulled in and added to the rest of the planet $\endgroup$
    – Firestryke
    Dec 9, 2020 at 14:33
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If you had a disc shaped earth that somehow doesn't collapse into a ball, it would still exert gravity towards its center. As a consequence, the direction of the force you feel would tilt as you move towards the rim, and it would feel like the inside of a bowl. There's a visualization of that on the vsauce youtube channel.

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  • $\begingroup$ That kinda sounds like Minecraft UHC. $\endgroup$
    – CYCLOPSCORE
    Dec 10, 2020 at 1:00
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One option circulating in the worldbuilding community of flat earthers is to create gravity not by mass but by acceleration. The world is constantly accelerated upwards with an acceleration of 9.81 m/s². What causes that acceleration? Why does it only affect Earth and the rest of the solar system but not the things on Earth? Where is the solar system going? That is left as an exercise to the reader.

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If you're going with an Earth-sized disc, the problem is, the gravity will still go towards the center of mass, so unless there's such thing as a technology that allows gravity to go in one direction for the inhabited side, the atmosphere and oceans will pool up around the center. And that's assuming that the structure is stable in the first place.

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