Re:What is Enlightenment? (1784)
by cosmic_ape on Sunday June 10, 2018 @02:42PM
(#17279539)
That's useful, thanks.
But to be a bit pedantic, this can only show that at a particular place where the measurement is taken, the earth has some curvature, that its a bit like a hill there.
This does not show that the earth is globally a sphere, which would mean for example that if you go in the same "direction" long enough, you arrive at the same point.
Re:What is Enlightenment? (1784)
by abecedarius on Sunday June 10, 2018 @06:02PM
(#17280411)
Sure. But the game is to think of experiences that are more or less likely depending on which guess is true. Any ‘crucial’ experiment is only so given some background.
It might be fun/useful to spend five minutes writing down all the experiences like that that you can think of. (E.g. I’m writing this from a town on the edge often Rocky Mountains facing a plain. If I climb up, how would how far I can see vary with the height?)
Re:What is Enlightenment? (1784)
by LambdaComplex on Sunday June 10, 2018 @02:38PM
(#17279511)
"This video contains content from eOne UGC, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."
It’s a clip from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”[1]. Searching for “Eratosthenes” returns tons of other videos that explain the experiment.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmos:_A_Personal_Voyage
Eratosthenes needed neither[1]. With a pair of sticks and friend far away, you can replicate the experiment and conclude for yourself.
[1]: https://youtu.be/0JHEqBLG650