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There are photos of the Earth taken from the neighborhood of the Moon. They show something that is indistinguishable from a sphere to the naked eye. Sure, with
by tzs 10mo ago
There are photos of the Earth taken from the neighborhood of the Moon. They show something that is indistinguishable from a sphere to the naked eye.
Sure, with instruments you can measure it and find that it deviates from a perfect sphere. But every object that is made of atoms multiple atoms is not a perfect sphere.
- burkaman 10mo agoI don't think it's a pedantic point, this is supposed to be a site about learning math that NASA scientists use, and the exact shape of the Earth is very relevant to them. I just think it shouldn't be used as a canonical example of a fact when you'll probably learn at some point that it technically isn't true.
- TeMPOraL 10mo agoSome point being any half-decent middle-school textbook, or any popular science space book for teens. There's usually a footnote or an info box explaining that Earth isn't a perfect sphere. It's not some arcane nerd knowledge. It's just a detail people don't remember from school because it's irrelevant to their lives.