What I don't get about the flat earth model

[Colonâ„¢]

How did people explain the fact that water stayed on the surface instead of falling off the edges?

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Does the water fall of the edge in your bath?

[Uncle Sparky]

Water did fall off the edge. If it didn't, after a big rain storm the oceans would flood out all the land, like it did when it rained for 40 days and nights... that produced too much water to drain properly.

[Al B. Sure!]

The dome of firmament.

[Colonâ„¢]

Does the water fall of the edge in your bath?

So it's more of a giant bathtub model then.

[Colonâ„¢]

Water did fall off the edge. If it didn't, after a big rain storm the oceans would flood out all the land, like it did when it rained for 40 days and nights... that produced too much water to drain properly.

But surely people could have observed from watching rain fall on tables that water doesn't stack up to a meaningful degree before flowing off the edges.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

So it's more of a giant bathtub model then.

A flat bathtub, not sure how could they cope with the proposal that the bathtub is round.

[Lorizael]

(This answer contradicts other answers given about how gravity works on a flat earth but) why should the water "fall off" at all? What gravitational source beyond the Earth would be pulling on the water?

[Sava]

if I dig deep enough, will I eventually break through the bottom and fall as well?

[Lorizael]

Long before you do, you'll run into these guys.

[Sava]

is there anything I can offer them in exchange for safe passage?

[I AM MOBIUS]

Ur Butt

[Sava]

eh, while not my first choice, that wouldn't be so bad

[N35t0r]

But surely people could have observed from watching rain fall on tables that water doesn't stack up to a meaningful degree before flowing off the edges.

Now get a table with a very rugged surface. Also, as you make the 'table' larger and larger, the amount of rainfall received increases with area (square of radius), whereas the area through which the water falls off is proportional to circumference (which grows linearly with radius) and water height at the edge. To balance off, water level must be higher.

Also, what amounts to a thin layer of water in a table could pretty much be a fathomless ocean in the scale of a flat earth.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

In other words - a bathtub.