For those of you who don’t follow rapper B.O.B. on Twitter (read: most likely all of you), you may not be aware that he adamantly believes that the Earth is flat. Yes, you read that correctly, and yes he is a rapper currently alive.
So in the hopes of enlightening him, I’m going to use astronomy to help him realize that the Earth is in fact round! Particularly through using the moon and lunar cycles. You see B.O.B., the reason the moon looks slightly different every night as the month goes on is because we are oriented at a different angle as the moon orbits around the Earth. The moon is always half-illuminated, but the fact that it rotates around the Earth shows that the Earth is in fact round. If the Earth were flat and the moon were directly above us, then we would see the same moon every night, and there would be no lunar cycle.
(Photo from moonconnection)
So what do you think? Is B.O.B. a revolutionary thinker ahead of his times? Or does he need to understand how the lunar cycle works in order to better understand the Earth? Let me know in the comments below!
-Astrologan
astrologankeller 
There’s a great deal of scientific misconceptions that go around all the time – the age of the earth and the universe, misconceptions about the process of evolution, “climate change is a hoax!!” etc etc. This is the first time I’ve heard of this happening in recent times and with an (arguably) high-profile individual. Which gets me thinking: what is the role of celebrity in promoting and disseminating science literacy? It’s different with politicians – those people MUST be scientifically literature (lololol) – but no one is forcing rappers and EDM artists and jazz players and Beyoncés to know about the phases of the moon and the seasons. BUT… there is a certain social responsibility that comes with celebrity – like not saying stupid things. This one is an extreme case because people understand the stupidity, but in general people in positions of celebrity should always be cognizant of what they’re talking about – feminism, social justice, and yes, even science – because of the social capital that they have.
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Wow, this is a very interesting post mainly because I didn’t think that there was anyone that legitimately still thought that the earth was flat. I think that he is a revolutionary thinker ahead of his time musically, but on the astronomical level he is apparently lacking! I think that he needs to better understand the lunar cycles. I think it’s very interesting that you used the lunar cycle of the moon to explain that the Earth was round. I never would have thought of that!
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I also agree with Rani, politicians and celebrities need to be more cognizant of the role that they can play in education–or miseducating– the public.
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Nice job Logan – one can hopes he reads this! I hadn’t thought much about using the Moon’s phases to help but hey, that does work too 🙂 I think you might like this article called “Top 10 Ways to Know the Earth is Not Flat” – pretty fun!
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