YouTuber on a mission to prove earth is round
Sundial experiment will measure length of sun’s shadow in two different locations
A year ago, Vancouver resident Kurtis Baute decided to quit his job as a science teacher, and in January moved full time into making YouTube videos for his science oriented channel.
Now he hunts for massive science projects to take on in the name of increasing science literacy and excitement in young people about the field.
“Whatever the craziest science projects I can come up with that I think are at the border of possible for me to do, I’m looking for those sorts of projects,” he said.
Cycling 140 kilometres with a sundial to prove the Earth is round was one of his first ideas.
“We’re in an age now where we have more science and a better understanding of the universe than ever before, and yet ... flat Earth is a movement that’s gaining traction somehow,” he said.
He blames a lack of public science literacy for the growth of this movement, and decided he would replicate a 2,200-year-old experiment to measure the Earth’s circumference.
“It’s not complicated that the Earth is a sphere,” Baute said. “That’s something that you can test just with two sticks and a bike.”
And that’s exactly what he plans to do. Leaving early on Wednesday morning, Baute will cycle approximately 140 kilometres along Highway 33 from Regina to Stoughton, one of the longest straight stretches of highway in the world. Baute said it’s important that the road is straight because it makes measuring the exact distance between locations much simpler.
In Stoughton, Baute will set up a sundial using a metre-long stick attached to a wooden base. In Regina, Casey Sakires, manager of programming at the Saskatchewan Science Centre, will set up an identical sundial.
“We’re going to make sure they’re level so they’re pointing perfectly away from the centre of the Earth,” said Baute. “If the world is round, the shadows that they cast will be different lengths.”
Then on Thursday at precisely 10:59 a.m., when the shadows cast by the stick are perfectly lined up with the sundial base, both shadows will be measured using a metre stick. Knowing the length of both shadows and the exact distance between the sundials (measured by a tire rotation counter on Baute’s bicycle) will allow Baute to use trigonometry to calculate the Earth’s circumference. But there are a lot of uncontrollable factors in this experiment.
Baute estimates the bike ride will take eight or nine hours, and he’s hoping he won’t have to deal with strong winds or extreme heat.
Either of these would slow him down, although he said he’s not considering splitting the journey over two days.
Cloudy skies could also interfere with the project. If it’s overcast in either location on Thursday morning during the brief moment when the shadows need to be measured, he’ll have to wait in Stoughton an extra day.
Despite the hurdles, these types of projects are a worthwhile endeavour to Baute.
“People need to see those sorts of experiments done in away that they can comprehend,” he said. “That’s why I take on projects like this.”