I’m interested in exploring the implications of a flat earth with a sun much smaller and closer to the earth than our Sun, and which moves from east to west each day. Gravity just pulls down; it’s not an attraction between masses.
How the sun gets back to the West by morning is out of scope, as is “what holds up the world”.
The technology of my setting is that of the Han dynasty, more or less, so no modern or Renaissance science is available.
Any interesting implications would be welcome. Some particular questions I have in mind:
- Clearly the middle/“equator” under the path of the sun is hottest and the far north and south, further from the sun, are coldest. But is there more to say about temperature than these broad strokes?
- What are the implications for the winds? What (if anything) are the prevailing winds without a rotating Earth? I’d expect the cold, dense air from the south to blow toward the middle (and likewise from the cold north), but there are probably also effects from the path of the sun. Maybe in the south the prevailing winds are to the northeast in the morning and northwest in the evening, following the sun?
