4 ms·
This reminds me of a letter from Einstein (EDIT: It was Isaac Asimov) where he points out that saying the earth is flat is a pretty good approximation of the cu
by aninhumer 13y ago
This reminds me of a letter from Einstein (EDIT: It was Isaac Asimov) where he points out that saying the earth is flat is a pretty good approximation of the curvature of the earth.
It's also worth pointing out that educated people have known the earth is round since the classical period.
- lsd5you 13y agoIt was Isaac Asimov I believe. http://chem.tufts.edu/answersinscience/relativityofwrong.htm http://chem.tufts.edu/answersinscience/relativityofwrong.htm
- talmand 13y agoTIL that Asimov supported the notion of "nearly right", which is good enough as long as you tried really hard and could explain how you got to your incorrect answer.
- summerdown2 13y ago"Nearly right" is good enough, providing it's within the accuracy you need for any particular job.
- talmand 13y agoI suppose that depends on how the question is asked. Taking a question that has a yes or no answer with one of them being correct and changing the parameters so that nearly right is good enough doesn't seem proper to me.