Need help with a flat earth

[Astner]

The things I need help with are the following:

1. The Sun/Moon System - How does the sun and moon work in this universe?
2. Seasons - How do seasons work in this universe?
3. Different Climate Systems - The story is set in the modern day USA where they discover other civilizations living beyond the current known world. How do I work with climate systems?

I'm really having trouble thinking up explanations to give for these problems that aren't just hand waving. Can anyone help me out?

1. Consider the following (shitty) sketch modeling sun-moon orbits.

The squares represent vast (yet finite) areas of land, when the suns are far away not looming over a certain area the light disperses (Rayleigh scatters) into the invisible spectra and it's dark. Yet the reflection of the light on the moon travels a shorter distance though the atmosphere and thus moon-light is visible.

The world is obviously made of infinitely many of these square segments aligned next to each-other as illustrated in the picture above. So you'd have infinitely many suns and moons in orbit. But they are so far away from each-other that I'd be surprised if anyone has actually seen more than one sun.

2,3 . Some areas, like the center of the orbits, may be extremely cold and always dark. But it depends on the suns (which can be stars of different sizes and different energy-outputs), the seasons and climates are practically arbitrary to design with this model.

 

[Zander]

If the world is infinitely flat why not have some sort of massive landmark (s) that are sufficiently high as to block out the sun? As the sun moves about the sky, around these landmarks (mountain ranges, etc), a sort of day night cysle could result.
You could explain the motion of the sun and other celestial bodies by the influence of demons and gods and so on. They could even have a sort of astrological influence on the world.

 

[gavintonks]

if it was infinite then the sun would travel in a circle infinitely over the landscape so either you have infinite suns which pass over till there is darkness

 

[Astner]

If the world is infinitely flat why not have some sort of massive landmark (s) that are sufficiently high as to block out the sun? As the sun moves about the sky, around these landmarks (mountain ranges, etc), a sort of day night cysle could result.

So the habitable part of the world would be a massive sundail. I like this idea. It would do well in a fairy tale-esque setting.

 

[Vinegar Tom]

I assume that, since an infinite land-mass is scientifically unfeasible, this is pure fantasy, and no science need be applied. However, infinity always causes problems. Gravity is easily dealt with - if the entire universe has a floor, then presumably there's a universal down, and that's why things fall. In fact, if gravity existed as we know it, your infinite land-mass would have infinite mass, and gravitational forces would warp the whole thing into first a sphere, and then it (and the rest of the universe) into one huge black hole. And it would be a very short novel.

The thing is, how could the sun and moon (assuming you have one) possibly illuminate an infinite surface? There are only really three possibilities that make sense. Firstly, the sun and moon are the same body, which remains permanently over in more or less the same place, illuminating a circular area about the size of the Earth. If you want day and night and seasons, the Sun, which is probably fairly small and maybe a few thousand miles away at most, might slowly circle the middle of this area over the course of a year. Thus the centre of the world would always have exactly the same climate, which, if the sun's path was very long, might make it a permanent ice-cap, or it could be a temperate land with no seasons where the world's greatest civilization has developed. The lands directly under the sun's path would have ferociously hot summers, and would probably be a circular desert. land inside and outside the solar path would have less severe wather, but if outside, it would have much colder winters. A long way away, it would be colder all year because it got less sunlight even in summer, and eventually you'd come to an outer area not unlike Siberia that got almost no sun at all, and beyond that, an endless frozen waste. If you wanted day and night, the sun could be a rotating globe with light and dark hemispheres.

That would work quite well because there might be other small, low suns illuminating distant areas which could be seen with a really good telescope. However, going there might be a problem if they were at least as far away as Mars. Though it wouldn't be quite as difficult, since you could drive there, and at least you'd be able to breathe along the way. And since all these places would be part of the same planet, you could be pretty sure they'd be habitable.

The other alternatives basically amount to either having infinite numbers of sins moving over this infinite area in all directions, perhaps in an orderly row at regular intervals, or to have the entire sky get brighter at intervals. But that's a bit contrived. And even though they would allow the entire infinite world to have day and night, why bother? That way, the only point of the story is that the world is infinite and flat. Well, so what? If, on the other hand, only a few widely separated areas are illuminated, and the next one is on the far side of ten million miles of Siberia, you've got a better set-up for an alternative world than one with no wars or conflict between nations because everyone has limitless living-space, agricultural land, mineral resources, etc., which is what you get if the world's surface is infinite and all of it is habitable. Which makes for a rather dull story with a central gimmick which doesn't really motivate anyone to do anything.