Nanohedron wrote:
Okay, Ben, try this one on for size: Boffins in the news say our equator has shrunk. True story. We're nowhere even near to looking like an 8, of course, but apparently there will still be a marked increase in tectonic disturbances like earthquakes and volcanic activity, especially in Equatorial zones (around the world, I dare say), because of it.
Plenty of fodder, I should think, to gyrate your mentations over. How say you?
That one's easy. The equator is, of course, halfway between the centre of the disc (what rounders call "The North Pole") and the ice wall. I suppose it may well be shrinking. Now, that could be the whole disc shrinking (and who doesn't think the world is getting smaller these days?) or possibly a sort of crinkle in the disc. That would almost certainly cause disturbances such as earthquakes etc.
chas wrote:
benhall.1 wrote:
I routinely espouse the philosophy that the Earth is flat.
On a small scale, of course, you're absolutely right.
One way to get an absolutely flat reference surface is to use water. If you let it sit quietly long enough, it will be flat and level. This was used for a hundred years or so when optical surface measurement (interferometry) was new. A friend and colleague, around 20 years ago, tried to use this technique with a surface maybe 300 mm across. The measurements had progressed to the point where he said he wasn't measuring a perfect flat, he was measuring the curvature of the earth.
If you measure almost any body of water, there will of course, be curvature. Measuring a pool of water 300mm across is tricky. It's a bit small, really. And the edges will either curve upwards or, depending on what is holding the liquid, possibly downwards if the water is sitting on a surface - in the form of a drop, for instance.
But proper scientific people have proved that water is actually flat. You've heard of
The Bedford Level Experiment have you?
(I must admit, I'm not the best at this sort of argument yet. I probably need to practise more.

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