Why some Flat Earthers believe the Earth is shaped like a doughnut

A Flat Earther believes the planet is actually doughnut-shaped. Photo / 123rf

Flat Earthers have a theory for the shape of the Earth and this one at least is delicious.

It all started in 2012, when a Flat Earther posted on the Flat Earth Society forum that he didn't think the Earth was flat but, rather, doughnut-shaped.

He sounded like he'd put a lot of thought into his theory too:

"I was wondering how a theory like FE theory gets formed, and I came to the conclusion that someone must've thought of the original idea, and then it must've been followed by a long series of people pointing out flaws and then re-adjusting the theory (or thinking of new ideas) to iron out the flaws in the theory," the man, username Varuag, wrote.

"So, I thought it might be fun if we emulated that here.

"I will state my theory, and then we can adjust it by pointing out flaws and seeing if we can think of arguments that will counteract these flaws.

"I have a theory that the Earth is in fact shaped like a torus (a donut-shape). However, light is curved so we cannot tell."

He prepared a list of 11 FAQs to tackle any doubters.

Those (assumed) frequently asked questions including why nobody has seen that supposed hole right in the centre of the Earth.

And how come we can always see the sky, was another one of the questions he tackled preemptively.

"When you look up, you are decreasing the amount of distance the light travels to reach the atmosphere, so it diminishes less.

"In these cases, it is not diminished enough to be reflected by the atmosphere, and hence we can see the stars.

"When you stand in the middle of the TE and look up, the light passes through the first atmosphere it reaches.

"However, by the time it reaches the second atmosphere (the one to re-enter the atmosphere of the TE) it has diminished enough to be reflected and gets reflected into space, so you see space.

"Light bends and follows the curvature of the torus, making the hole 'unseeable'," he explained.

Another potential question was "how would you experience any kind of night and day if you were in the inside of the hole?"

He had an answer ready for that too: "Lay a torch horizontal on a table and turn it on. Now, get a donut and place it on its side, with the hole perpendicular to the torch.

"The side that is illuminated by the torch is in day. Over 24 hours, the donut performs one complete revolution.

"Spin it half way around, this signifies the passing of 12 hours. Now, the side that WAS in day, is facing away from the torch and is in night.

"The side that WAS in night, is now facing the torch and is in day."

Oh and in case you're wondering about how we determine the north and south pole if we live in this supposedly doughnut-shaped planet, fear not, it actually sounds quite easy:

"Place your donut on its side. The side that touches the table is the south pole, the side on the other side is the north pole."

If you want to read the entire explanation, click here.

In any case, just to be clear, the planet is definitely not flat and also definitely not shaped like a doughnut, no matter how attractive the idea of living in a gooey ball of fried dough could sound.