It's turtles all the way down

Tefal said:
Actually you can, if you want you can learn the maths and go out and do the experiments that the Greeks and others did to prove it's round.

That or you could just get a plane ticket and see it for your self.
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So, again, you can't. You're just relying on what you've been told not what you know yourself. This 'proof' you talk of; is it something you've read about or been told of? :)

Being on a plane doesn't prove the Earth is round, it proves that we can fly from one point to another.
 
TriedandTested said:
So, again, you can't. You're just relying on what you've been told not what you know yourself. This 'proof' you talk of; is it something you've read about or been told of? :)

Being on a plane doesn't prove the Earth is round, it proves that we can fly from one point to another.
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you don't need to be on a plane to see the curvature of the earth, there are place where it can be seen. A flat surface would not show this, evidence enough that it is not flat.
 
The biggest problem I have with the flat earth theory is this -

Flat_earth.jpg


Anyway, it's all a big hoax. Isn't it :confused:
 
This site made me LOL:

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

Ignoring the fact that the site itself bears a startling resemblence to the sort of thing you would knock together as a class project circa 1996, some of the "science" is laughably ridiculous.

For example, they've based a large part of their premise on Michelson + Morley being wrong, and that there IS an ether :rolleyes:
And to cap it all off, they claim that the theory of mavity is wrong and their summary wouldnt look out of place in the Bible:

"Obviously, the world is static, the fixed center of the Universe. The sun, planets and stars all revolve around it (although not necessarily in circular paths), in a plane level with the flat Earth."

Seriously, just LOL.
 
I thought the Earth was the centre of the (observable) universe?:confused:
And that relative to the Earth, the sun revolves around it?

Many phenomena in this universe are strange and counter intuitive, particuarly at large and small scales.
 
Reality|Bites said:
So is the Sun at a static point in space or does it move?

If it doesn't move, Why not? what keeps it in place?
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it rotates around the center of our galaxy, and our galaxy is flying off further from the center of the universe (presumably in a wobbly line as it;s affected by the mavity of other galaxy's, but mostly straight.)
 
Reality|Bites said:
So if a Nasa went off on a mission beyond the milky way, It would take them longer to get back to there point of origin than it did to where ever they decided to go to?
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as the milky way is our galaxy then it would depend as if you left it (very very very quickly) ahead of it's own direction of movement, then you would only have to stop to arrive back in the milky way, (finding earth though might be a bit of a problem).

But right now we've barely got a probe to leave the solar system (the voyager probes might make it or they might get destroyed on their way out, or run out of power) so leaving the galaxy is a long way off.
 
Tefal said:
it rotates around the center of our galaxy, and our galaxy is flying off further from the center of the universe (presumably in a wobbly line as it;s affected by the mavity of other galaxy's, but mostly straight.)
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There isn't really a centre of the universe though.
Think of it like blowing up a baloon covered in spots - as you blow up the balloon all of the spots get further apart from each of the other ones, even though there is no actual centre on the balloon's surface.
 
Haircut said:
There isn't really a centre of the universe though.
Think of it like blowing up a baloon covered in spots - as you blow up the balloon all of the spots get further apart from each of the other ones, even though there is no actual centre on the balloon's surface.
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actually it's like setting off a hand grenade, galaxies are shrapnel, they all fly away from the source of the bang.

Suposidly the universe expands uniformly too, and there is always a center to a roughly uniform 3d shape.
 
Haircut said:
There isn't really a centre of the universe though.
Think of it like blowing up a baloon covered in spots - as you blow up the balloon all of the spots get further apart from each of the other ones, even though there is no actual centre on the balloon's surface.
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What about the hole you blow into? what part of the universe is that? :(
 
Tefal said:
actually it's like setting off a hand grenade, galaxies are shrapnel, they all fly away from the source of the bang.

Suposidly the universe expands uniformly too, and there is always a center to a roughly uniform 3d shape.
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Not really, you're making the mistake of thinking that the universe is 3 dimensional.
The space that we observe is simply a 3 dimensional 'surface' there is no point in space that is the centre of the universe.
Similarly in the example of the balloon the surface is 2 dimensional and there is no point on that surface that is the centre.

There is a centre of the balloon in higher dimensions (for the case of the balloon in 3 dimensions) and so there is a centre to the universe in higher dimensions.
 
Haircut said:
Not really, you're making the mistake of thinking that the universe is 3 dimensional.
The space that we observe is simply a 3 dimensional 'surface' there is no point in space that is the centre of the universe.
Similarly in the example of the balloon the surface is 2 dimensional and there is no point on that surface that is the centre.

There is a centre of the balloon in higher dimensions (for the case of the balloon in 3 dimensions) and so there is a centre to the universe in higher dimensions.
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All thats theoretical, for the proposes of space navigation its a 3dimentional sphere. (possibly slightly lumpy/ elliptical)
 
Haircut said:
The universe is not a 3d sphere, you will not hit an edge if you keep on going for long enough.
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the edge is expanding though isn't it?

Even at the speed of light we'd never catch it now.

But like i said it's for the purposes of navigation.
 
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