Originally Posted By: AndyinAL
Ships do not disappear over the horizon. They get smaller and smaller due to perspective. When you think a ship has disappeared, just use a zoom camera or telescope and you can bring the entire ship right back into view. Hull and all....
Actually, it does disappear over the horizon. After standing many dozens of topside conning watches in the Navy it's pretty clear that the driving factor to seeing the far away ship is your mast head height and your own height above the water line. At some point, they're no longer tall enough to be seen, under any magnification. If it were just optics, we could "see" those ships thousands of miles away across the flat ocean..and certainly would take advantage of that spy technology. Alas, we never have.
After punching holes in the oceans in subs for 10 yrs, we never once popped out of the side of the earth and fell into space...nor has any other sub that I'm aware of....lol. Where would they go? The only other option is that the earth is an infinite plane. Pretty cool concept since that would mean the moon is an infinite plane as well. Since we don't intersect with the moon's plane, the only option are 2 parallel infinite planes. Now my head hurts as we bring other planets and the sun into the discussion...........