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Re: The flat earth notion
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2003 Nov 5, 04:24 -0500
From: Herbert Prinz
Date: 2003 Nov 5, 04:24 -0500
Peter Fogg wrote: > Recently I was reading another book that did its best to make clear notions > about warped time/space. Along the way it asserted that if I set off into > the universe in a straight line eventually I would find myself back here > again. Not necessarily. Curved or warped does not imply spherical. In a cylindrical universe you can follow a geodesic forever without ever coming back. > As I understand it, a Rhumb Line would only lead him to a Pole? On a spheroidal earth, if you proceed on a rhumb line with constant speed, you will arrive at a pole after a finite time. You won't be able to stop your vessel at this very moment, because of your inertia . This raises the puzzling question: Where will you be a second after you will have passed through the pole? Neither Dutton nor Bowditch has the answer. Herbert Prinz