Re:In defense of flat earthers (2020)
by wizzwizz4 on Tuesday January 18, 2022 @11:42AM
(#29981731)
> Without any assumption about the way light moves, you can not answer visibility questions on spheres and desks.
Yeah you can: light moves the way it actually moves in real life: the way you can see with your eyes.
> Make up your mind. Does light move in straight lines or doesn't it?
I was assuming what you said to be true, and showing that it wasn't sufficient to rule out what I was saying.
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In reality, I understand how light behaves (not quite as simple as “straight lines”, but that's a good enough approximation to explain mirrors). I know that you do, too. You aren't demonstrating that, though; you're just name-dropping facts without showing why they have to be true, why that's the only way the universe can work because if it didn't work that way, observations could be made that cannot actually be made.
I have not got a complete model of “flat earth cosmology” to present you, because I believe such a thing doesn't exist. I did have a consistent, incomplete model in mind when I was writing those comments, though: one where light curves upwards in a manner that causes the surface of a plane to appear spherical. (However, objects on the horizon would be a different size to on a real sphere, which could be used to falsify my model by comparing it with real-world observation.) I wasn't moving the goalposts.
Yeah you can: light moves the way it actually moves in real life: the way you can see with your eyes.
> Make up your mind. Does light move in straight lines or doesn't it?
I was assuming what you said to be true, and showing that it wasn't sufficient to rule out what I was saying.
---
In reality, I understand how light behaves (not quite as simple as “straight lines”, but that's a good enough approximation to explain mirrors). I know that you do, too. You aren't demonstrating that, though; you're just name-dropping facts without showing why they have to be true, why that's the only way the universe can work because if it didn't work that way, observations could be made that cannot actually be made.
I have not got a complete model of “flat earth cosmology” to present you, because I believe such a thing doesn't exist. I did have a consistent, incomplete model in mind when I was writing those comments, though: one where light curves upwards in a manner that causes the surface of a plane to appear spherical. (However, objects on the horizon would be a different size to on a real sphere, which could be used to falsify my model by comparing it with real-world observation.) I wasn't moving the goalposts.