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Sagan Killing It!!!


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When I was in elementary school, I was taught Columbus had trouble with some of his sailors because most people thought the world was flat and the sailors were afraid of sailing off the edge of the Earth.

Years later, I was standing on the main street of the ruins of Ephesus, the world's largest city two millennia ago.

I was looking at remains of the Fountain of Trajan, built by that Roman Emperor around 100 A.D., when our guide asked, "Do you know why one of his feet is standing on a large ball?"

He continued, "He's saying, 'I rule the world.'"

image.png.6d00075f5d6b3a664b6a4c4b35ae32aa.png

It instantly occurred to me that Trajan wouldn't have gone to that expense to create that propaganda message unless the average person seeing it realized the meaning - because the avg. person knew the Earth is a ball!

It was a couple hundred years earlier that the Greek Eratosthenes, living in Alexandria, Egypt, realized he could measure the angle of the sun in Alexandria at the same time the sun cast no shadow in Aswan (knowing it was on the longest day, June 21) and, knowing the distance between the cities, he could determine the circumference of the Earth. He figured about 25,000 miles. It's actually 24,889.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's science advisors knew Eratosthenes' confirmed-by-others number in 1492 and told them Columbus could not reach the Far East by sailing west for a few thousand miles. Columbus was very lucky - though apparently he knew something must be about where the Americas are because of the things that drifted across the Atlantic when he was living in the Canary Islands off Africa and by how long they appeared to have been in the water.

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1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

When I was in elementary school, I was taught Columbus had trouble with some of his sailors because most people thought the world was flat and the sailors were afraid of sailing off the edge of the Earth.

Years later, I was standing on the main street of the ruins of Ephesus, the world's largest city two millennia ago.

I was looking at remains of the Fountain of Trajan, built by that Roman Emperor around 100 A.D., when our guide asked, "Do you know why one of his feet is standing on a large ball?"

He continued, "He's saying, 'I rule the world.'"

image.png.6d00075f5d6b3a664b6a4c4b35ae32aa.png

It instantly occurred to me that Trajan wouldn't have gone to that expense to create that propaganda message unless the average person seeing it realized the meaning - because the avg. person knew the Earth is a ball!

It was a couple hundred years earlier that the Greek Eratosthenes, living in Alexandria, Egypt, realized he could measure the angle of the sun in Alexandria at the same time the sun cast no shadow in Aswan (knowing it was on the longest day, June 21) and, knowing the distance between the cities, he could determine the circumference of the Earth. He figured about 25,000 miles. It's actually 24,889.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's science advisors knew Eratosthenes' confirmed-by-others number in 1492 and told them Columbus could not reach the Far East by sailing west for a few thousand miles. Columbus was very lucky - though apparently he knew something must be about where the Americas are because of the things that drifted across the Atlantic when he was living in the Canary Islands off Africa and by how long they appeared to have been in the water.

 

Yep........all true.....and not many people know that.

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1 minute ago, smudge said:

Good question. Give it a try, and report back to us with your findings.

My Bobcat isn't up to the task, I can barely hit a foot with it anymore.  She's down on power and hydraulics need rebuilt.  

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17 minutes ago, Indy said:

If you dug a hole all the way through the earth, and then jump in it, would you shoot out the other side?

Assuming you don't brush against the wall of the hole and it's solid the whole way, you would pick up speed as gravity pulls you until you got to the center of the earth. After you passed the center, gravity would begin slowing you down.  The air in the hole would create friction so you wouldn't quite get to the surface of the earth on the other side.

The process would then repeat like a spring going back and forth, a little less distance each time, until you finally stopped at the center of the earth.

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Just now, MickinMD said:

Assuming you don't brush against the wall of the hole and it's solid the whole way, you would pick up speed as gravity pulls you until you got to the center of the earth. After you passed the center, gravity would begin slowing you down.  The air in the hole would create friction so you wouldn't quite get to the surface of the earth on the other side. 

The process would then repeat like a spring going back and forth, a little less distance each time, until you finally stopped at the center of the earth.

Getting slowly (or quickly) cooked?

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5 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Assuming you don't brush against the wall of the hole and it's solid the whole way, you would pick up speed as gravity pulls you until you got to the center of the earth. After you passed the center, gravity would begin slowing you down.  The air in the hole would create friction so you wouldn't quite get to the surface of the earth on the other side.

The process would then repeat like a spring going back and forth, a little less distance each time, until you finally stopped at the center of the earth. 

Well that is nearly as funny.  Might be entertaining and accurate, but not as funny.  I want funny.

 

Plus I don't want to have to try to climb out of that hole, that would be a lot of work.

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49 minutes ago, Indy said:

If you dug a hole all the way through the earth, and then jump in it, would you shoot out the other side?

No. You'd go back and forth like a pendulum due to gravity and friction. Eventually you'd slow down to a stop at the center of gravity of the Earth. I think that might be Cleveland.

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3 minutes ago, JerrySTL said:

Eventually you'd slow down to a stop at the center of gravity of the Earth. I think that might be Cleveland.

Don't let California see that, they might be devastated.

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