Fact Checking Challenge

Hollow Earth Challenge

The belief that earth is a hollow sphere gained popularity in the 1600's when Edmund Halley (of Halley's Comet fame) used the idea to explain the instability of earth's magnetic poles. This idea is still popular with some people today, who insist that inside the earth is land that supports life, illuminated by a small sun and accessible through holes to the surface at the North and South poles.

Use reliable Internet sources to Fact Check the following five claims about Hollow Earth, indicating whether supporting evidence exists or not.

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Fact	Claim	Supporting Evidence
Edmund Halley	Halley proposed the idea of a hollow earth in 1692	Yes	No
Magnetic Fields	Unusual properties of Earth's magnetic fields are explained by Halley's hollow earth theory	Yes	No
John Cleves Symmes, Jr.	Symmes published an explanation of Hollow Earth in 1818	Yes	No
Symmes Holes	Evidence of holes leading to earth's hollow middle have been found at the North and South Poles	Yes	No
Northern Lights	Northern Lights (aurora borealis) provide evidence of light escaping from the center of the earth	Yes	No

Hollow Earth Challenge

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