Bonneville Salt Curve
Bonneville Salt Curve is a curvature test set for the week of 16 to 20 November 2026 at the Bonneville Salt Flats
. It redoes the helicopter test from the PBS series Genius by Stephen Hawking.[1]
The test
The test runs the week of 16 to 20 November 2026 on the Bonneville Salt Flats. The likely date of the test is Nov 18. The plan is the documentary's helicopter test again, this time on the water covering the salt flats instead of on a lake.
The benefit is that the water is similar depth everywhere so the temperature gradient is more consistent across the entire line of sight. It's easy to walk out on the line of sight area and measure things in the middle of the area. The helicopter can land on the surface in a couple inches of water.
The Participants
Globe:
- MCToon
- Jeran
- Will Duffy
- AstroKate
- 5 globe proponents accepting the free hotel rooms
Flat:
- Maybe IrishDad from TikTok
- Maybe Randy
Refused:
- Kyle Adams
- FamoustlyBlocked
Would go but have Schedule conflicts:
The offer
To encourage participation there is an offer for up to 5 hotel rooms for globers and 5 for flattys. This will be in the hotels in Wendover, NV. Get yourself there and feed yourself, your lodging is covered.
As of 2026-11-06:
- 5 globers have expressed interest in accepting this offer.
- 2 flat earther has expressed a potential interest in accepting this offer.
The documentary test
"Where Are We?" is season 1, episode 6. PBS aired it on 1 June 2016. Three volunteers are sent to a lake in Nevada to measure whether the water is flat.
A laser throws a level beam, and a boat takes the readings. At 3 miles the beam reads about 6 feet higher than it did near shore, so the lake surface has dropped relative to that straight line.
The second pass swaps the tools. A telescope takes the place of the laser, and a helicopter takes the place of the boat. The show says that at 6 miles the helicopter stays hidden until it is 24 feet above the lake, four times the drop from the 3 mile reading.[1]
That shoot was the Nevada lake, not the salt flats. Bonneville Salt Curve is the same helicopter test, moved to the flats.
Modelling
Bert Rickles modeled this test: Predicting MCToon's planned redo observation
Watching the flats
University of Utah MesoWest cameras on the salt:
Sentinel-2 moisture index of the same area in the Copernicus Browser, 26 October 2026:
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Where Are We?, Genius by Stephen Hawking, season 1, episode 6, PBS, 1 June 2016. Series page.