If the Earth was flat, could you fall off the edge?

If the Earth was flat as was believed hundreds of years ago, you would not be able to fall off the edge into space.

That is according to Michael Stevens in his latest video posted on the YouTube channel Vsauce, which produces educational segments that ask questions like "What's The Brightest Thing In the Universe?"

In his latest film, Stevens asks what would happen if the Earth really was flat – even though such a planet is "impossible".

"Anything as massive as the Earth shaped like a flat disk would, under its own gravity, naturally relapse back into a ball," he said. "This is why everything in space bigger than a few hundred miles in diameter is round – or so we've been told."

Physical possibilities aside, Stevens said that with the right density and thickness, living in the middle of our planet "could feel pretty normal".

"But as you moved towards the edge, gravity on a disk Earth would slightly skew, pushing at a greater and greater angle back towards the centre."

There would be an increase in diagonal gravity, so even though it looks flat, for someone running towards the edge it would feel like they were climbing an ever-increasingly steep hill. To live at the edges, buildings would have be designed so they were at right angles to the floor.

"As you get closer to the edge, things would get scary. Remember, this is a flat Earth but it would feel like a sheer drop off. What's really cool is that contrary to the 'don't fall off the edge fear', on a flat world because of gravity, the scary risk would actually be falling away from the edge and rolling all the way back to the centre."

"Once you stepped over the edge instead of falling off into space, you'd be able to relax. It would be a nice level place."