Many supposed ‘scientists’ insist that our world is a sphere or a ‘globe’ with very little in terms of actual evidence. There are others who assert that the earth is flat – these thinkers are very brave to go against Big Science but again they are wrong. The really truth lies, as is often the case, between these two theories. The world is not a sphere, nor is it flat. It is instead tube-shaped, like the cardboard insert inside a roll of toilet tissue.

There are many pieces of evidence that disprove the widely-accepted theory that the world is round.

However, there is also evidence that disproves the theories that the world is flat. There are two distinct flat earth theories, which I will talk about now. First, is the theory that the world is essentially a piece of A4 paper. For me, the most convincing evidence against this is that I have flown from Japan to the West Coast of America, which according to many flat earth theories should be impossible without flying across the middle of the Earth, something that would take a very long time. Of course there are some intriguing theories that seek to appease these concerns, however most of these rely on all airline pilots being in on the secret and I’ve met many pilots who are terrible at keeping secrets, particularly when they’ve had a few drinks in the airport bar before piloting a long-haul flight to Dallas.

The second flat earth theory is that the world is a disc with the arctic at its centre, and the antarctic around the outside. This theory relies on what we see as straight lines to destinations actually being curves, again most prominently involving aircraft but also roads, railways and all other routes. For example, the world’s longest completely straight road is Highway 10 in Saudi Arabia which stretches for 256km through the Rub Al-Khali desert. If you believe the theory that the world is a disc then a road this long would need to be subtly curved, but if you drive along it or view it from above then it is obvious that it is completely straight.

So now we can be sure that the world is neither round nor flat, let’s talk a bit more about its true cylindrical shape. Now the easiest way to recreate the true shape of the earth is to take a normal map and join the two short ends together to create a tube. Now fill this tube with soil and that’s almost exactly what the world is like.

No one has ever truly been to the North Pole or the South Pole because they don’t truly exist. However, the truth is too complex for these explorers to understand and the embarrassment of not reaching their goals too great, so they buy into the general perception that they succeeded and the plaudits that come with it.

So, other than avoiding confusion, why are we not told the truth about the shape of the world. The reality is that the ends of the world (the caps) were only discovered in the Cold War with the advent of satellites. Seeing an opportunity the American and Soviet governments each claimed a cap to build secret bunkers safe from the reaches of the other nation’s nuclear weapons (the USA took the Southern Cap, while the Soviets claimed the Northern Cap). On these caps each nation created a new society with which to repopulate the world, should everywhere on the surface of the cylinder be annihilated. These societies are still continuing today – and rumour has it that most of the citizens have no clue of the existence of the wider world, with only a few leaders knowing of the real reason that they exist.