Flat Earth numbers: every published figure in one table

Models · Updated 24 October 2026

The Flat Earth Society puts the Sun about 3,000 miles (4,800 km) above the Earth and gives the Sun and the Moon a diameter of 32 miles (51 km). Samuel Rowbotham (1881) put the Sun 700 miles up. The usual flat Earth map, Gleason’s from 1892, is about 40,000 km across with an ice wall at the rim. This page collects every published figure with its source.

Astronomy and geodesy describe the Earth as a slightly flattened sphere about 12,742 km across, with the Sun about 150 million km away (NASA: Earth facts). FlatAtlas shows the published flat-Earth models next to that, so you can compare both with what you see.

Published figures by source

Figure	Flat Earth Society	Rowbotham, 1881	Rowbotham, 1865
Sun height	about 3,000 mi (4,800 km); about 6,000 mi if light bends upwards	700 mi (1,100 km)	under 4,000 mi
Sun diameter	32 mi (51 km)	—	—
Moon height	“several thousand miles”	“nearer than the Sun”	—
Moon diameter	32 mi (51 km)	—	—
Stars	in a layer above the Sun, Moon and planets	all visible luminaries within 1,000 mi	within 6,000 mi
Ice wall	about 150 ft high, around the rim	—	—

FlatAtlas draws the Moon at the Sun’s height and the planets at 5,000 km, just below the stars, because the wiki gives no figures for them. The map itself comes from Alexander Gleason’s New Standard Map of the World (1892): a north-polar azimuthal equidistant projection, with the North Pole in the centre and true distances from it.

What follows from the figures

These values are calculated by FlatAtlas from the published figures above, with the same formulas the app uses.

Value	Result	How
Map diameter	about 40,000 km (24,900 mi)	twice the pole-to-pole distance, 2 × 20,000 km
Rim of the map (ice wall)	about 125,700 km around	circumference of a 40,000 km disc
Circle at 70° S (typical Antarctic coast)	about 111,700 km around	radius 17,778 km from the pole
Sun size seen overhead (FES)	about 0.6°	51 km seen from 4,800 km
Sun angle 4,800 km away (FES)	45°	arctan(4,800 ÷ 4,800)
Sun angle 10,000 km away (FES)	about 26°	arctan(4,800 ÷ 10,000)
Sun angle 20,000 km away (FES)	about 13°	arctan(4,800 ÷ 20,000)

The same quantities in astronomy

Quantity	Astronomy
Sun distance	about 150 million km (93 million mi)
Sun diameter	about 1.39 million km
Moon distance	about 384,400 km
Moon diameter	about 3,475 km
Earth	a slightly flattened sphere about 12,742 km across
Sun and Moon size in the sky	about 0.5°, all day

Download the data

The figures on this page are available as a CSV file: flat-earth-numbers.csv. You may reuse them with attribution: “FlatAtlas (2026), Flat Earth numbers, flatatlas.app/guide/flat-earth-numbers”.

See them in 3D

FlatAtlas draws the Sun, the Moon and the planets at these heights above Gleason’s map, and shows next to them where astronomy puts the same bodies for your place and time. Read more about the Sun’s height, the map and the ice wall.

Frequently asked questions

How high is the Sun on a flat Earth?

About 3,000 miles (4,800 km) according to the Flat Earth Society, or about 6,000 miles if light bends upwards. Samuel Rowbotham wrote 700 miles in the 1881 edition of Zetetic Astronomy.

How big is the Sun on a flat Earth?

The Flat Earth Society gives the Sun and the Moon a diameter of about 32 miles (51 km). Rowbotham gave no size.

How big is the flat Earth map?

Drawn with true distances from the North Pole, as on Gleason’s 1892 map, the flat Earth map is about 40,000 km (24,900 miles) across, with Antarctica as a ring of ice around the rim.

Open the 3D flat Earth map