Is it possible to know the shape of the earth ?

[Majed]

I'm kind of confused, every time i contemplate the question, i come to the conclusion that i don't know. 

[Sucuk Ekmek]

It is, go ride your mountain bike on a dirt path you haven't been before. You will feel the shape.

Edited December 8 by Sucuk Ekmek

[Lucasxp64]

lol of what part?

It's like saying what is the shape of a human? Do we consider the hair strands at that milisecond of time? Do we consider the position of muscle, fat tissue, jiggling parts, etc?

The earth as oceans that are in constant change, the land erodes and the continental plates are slowly moving and we can see that in the scale of millions of years, even the density of the atmosphere.

It's actually a potato, if we take off the atmosphere and water 😨😂

[Apparition of Jack]

It’s round.

[Basman]

17 hours ago, Lucasxp64 said:

lol of what part?

It's like saying what is the shape of a human? Do we consider the hair strands at that milisecond of time? Do we consider the position of muscle, fat tissue, jiggling parts, etc?

The earth as oceans that are in constant change, the land erodes and the continental plates are slowly moving and we can see that in the scale of millions of years, even the density of the atmosphere.

It's actually a potato, if we take off the atmosphere and water 😨😂

It looks like a shriveled up old orange.

[Alex_R]

It was already proven that is spherical

[Leo Gura]

On 12/8/2024 at 10:27 AM, Lucasxp64 said:

 

This is fake.

[Rigel]

On 2024-12-08 at 1:27 PM, Lucasxp64 said:

lol of what part?

It's like saying what is the shape of a human? Do we consider the hair strands at that milisecond of time? Do we consider the position of muscle, fat tissue, jiggling parts

Well you’ve got your answer. If you were to take into account every single detail that makes up a shape you couldn’t call it any kinda shape anymore. Life is too complicated to fit inside our square ways of conceptualizing it. There is no such thing as a sphere in all of existence. You can kept zooming in & find imperfections in the edges. But at some point it’s « close enough ».

We have a saying in jazz culture that goes « good enough for jazz » when talking about tuning. Perfect tuning is impossible but we can get so close that it stops mattering.

So the earth is close enough to be a sphere. Casually speaking, it’s a sphere. Even though it’s not.

(Your belief of it is a sphere. Your mental image of it is a sphere, anyways)

Edited 21 hours ago by Rigel

[Starlight321]

On 8.12.2024 at 7:27 PM, Lucasxp64 said:

lol of what part?

It's like saying what is the shape of a human? Do we consider the hair strands at that milisecond of time? Do we consider the position of muscle, fat tissue, jiggling parts, etc?

The earth as oceans that are in constant change, the land erodes and the continental plates are slowly moving and we can see that in the scale of millions of years, even the density of the atmosphere.

It's actually a potato, if we take off the atmosphere and water 😨😂

The picture doesn't depict the form of the earth. It's a picture of the earths differences of gravity. If you would take all the differences of altitudes on earth it would still be smoother than the finest pollished ball on earth. However it isn't a perfect ball due to its rotation so it becomes flatter at the poles.

Edited 20 hours ago by Starlight321

[UnbornTao]

It is round and this is a known (believed) fact. Yet...

In order to practice radical honesty and openness:

Notice that, in your experience, you have no personal experience of what shape the earth is. You've just been told it is a certain way by culture, parents, scientists--this is still a belief. Even if you've seen photos, that is not the same as a personal experience; it is second-hand knowledge. For all you know, it could be photoshopped. The Earth could be any shape, whether conceivable or not. What if it's a giant taco?  

But of course, our cultural arrogance prevents us from admitting that we actually don't know personally. We take matters such as this one to be immutable and unquestionable, and that's fine too. Yet, this exists in the domain of other culturally taken-for-granted "realities" of old--it is factual so long as it comes from scientific hearsay (again, consider the "personal experience" part).

Edited 10 hours ago by UnbornTao

[Alex M]

If you are really that bothered you can create a ballon and strap a GoPro / gps to it and get it up high enough to see the roundabout shape of the earth. It will give you the same answer you already know. It’s round.

[Leo Gura]

@Alex M A GoPro would make a laser beam look round. Lol

Creating a flat lens is not easy. Which shows you the seriousness of the epistemology at work here.

And GPS assumes a round Earth.

So lots of question-begging here.

Edited 12 hours ago by Leo Gura

[r0ckyreed]

This question is pointless. The earth being round or flat doesn’t matter. The ultimate question that matters is what is god, what is existence, what is consciousness. So many red herrings that distract us from the questions that really matter.

 

Edit: I apologize for my directness.

Edited 9 hours ago by r0ckyreed

[Princess Arabia]

28 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

This question is pointless. The earth being round or flat doesn’t matter. The ultimate question that matters is what is god, what is existence, what is consciousness. So many red herrings that distract us from the questions that really matter.

In your mind. The cat up the street doesn't think so, neither does the mouse it's chasing.