Talk:water seeks its own level

"Water seeks its own level" is missing etymological reference

This term "water seeks its own level" comes from a classic "snake oil salesman" named Samuel Rowbotham in 1849. At that time atmospheric science was in its infancy and man had not even ballooned higher than he could climb (e.g., mountains) yet. They had no idea as to the extent and weight of the atmosphere (now estimated at roughly 5 quadrillion tons) and that this weight is what caused all surface liquids to conform to the ground and objects, unless disturbed by forces like wind and such.

Now the term is used by Flat Earthers, especially the 2004 progenitor of the modern variant of that movement(Eric Dubay). In fact, the original viral YouTube and self published digital book materials liberally plagiarized the works of Rowbotham. 2600:1700:B9D0:5F00:19E:620B:B97B:81AB 21:20, 20 January 2024 (UTC)