Is Earth Actually Flat?
Why Worldbuilding Stack Exchange recommends it
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answerers point people to it for the gravity simulation showing that on a flat disc world the ground would feel like a steep slope as you approach the edge.
Recommended by 4 people across 4 different months, 2015 to 2020.
What it is
A Vsauce explainer by Michael Stevens that asks what Earth would be like if it were a flat disc rather than a sphere. It includes a gravity simulation of a flat Earth showing how the pull of gravity would tilt toward the center the farther out you stand, plus a look at how flat or round Earth really is.
What people said
Recommends Michael Grant · 2015-01 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Can a nonspherical planet exist and can it be habitable?”
I don't think this rises to the quality of an answer, but this Vsauce video [this video] shares some interesting analysis of what it would feel like to be on a flat, disc-shaped planet.
Recommends PlanetalFlame · 2015-06 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Gravity on a Minecraftian world?”
What about the fact that the further outwards you go, the stronger gravity would pull you back to the middle? This is explained in this video: [this video]
Recommends Jonah Cote · 2016-05 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “What would make scientists realize they were on a flat world?”
There would be a few things, but one of the major ones would be an appeared incline as you moved away from the center. There is a great youtube video on this topic, and it's how I got this idea. [this video] The main point is up to about 1:53.
Recommends John · 2017-09 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “If my world is flat (obviously not possible) how would I explain the edges?”
I can think of at least two reasons. The physics answer, If your disk is massive enough you get an interesting effect that causes it to behave more like a bowl than a disk even though it is flat, at least as far as gravity is concerned, the closer you get to the edge the steeper the surface feels. to a person on the surface it would feel like climbing a very steep mountain. Try this [this video] vsauce video (0:30 to 2:00) for a more visual feel for what I am talking about. the discworld answer, the edge is entirely one giant ocean waterfall going over the side, anyone who sails too close to the edge gets dragged over the side to their doom. So it is not that no one has ever tried it is just they
Cites PipperChip · 2015-05 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Could an Alderson Disk be habitable?”
As a general rule, gravity pulls you to the center of gravity of the most gravitationally influential object for your position. In this instance, it seems like it would be the ring. The center of gravity for the ring is... somewhere in that star. This means your people, unless they have things to brace themselves against, will fall into the star. Given that a habitable zone is usually on the order of ~1 AU for a star like ours, I'm willing to say that this will very likely be the case. Vsauce [this video] did a video on a "flat earth" which has a simulation of a flat earth. It displays the problem with living on any disk-like object; the further from the middle you are, the more gravity pulls you
Cites Evil Marshmalow · 2019-11 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Days and Seasons via Daily Eclipses in a Flat World”
I don't mean to be obvious but there are flat earth theorists who have theories on this in the real world. The way I understand it is that basically the sun is a spotlight and points at different parts of the earth at different times, the moon and stars are points on a black background that move in odd ways and I am not sure how they explain seasons. I would suggest that you research that stuff to get some kind of scientific logic in a flat world scenario. I just want to point out that I do not believe in this crap, I have an uncle who does and will not shut up about it. The reason I mention it is that they have, at least, semi-plausible explanations for inconsistencies. The biggest problem
Cites ths · 2020-12 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Gravity in a Flat Earth”
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 [this video] .