X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/text-relativity-of-wrong-asimov.git/blobdiff_plain/72349ca09947ca2640168aed3cecd34603802177..refs/heads/master:/The_Relativity_of_Wrong.txt diff --git a/The_Relativity_of_Wrong.txt b/The_Relativity_of_Wrong.txt index 5c7750e..116d536 100644 --- a/The_Relativity_of_Wrong.txt +++ b/The_Relativity_of_Wrong.txt @@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ the fact that stretches of water (ponds and lakes) looked pretty flat on quiet days. Another way of looking at it is to ask what is the "curvature" of the -earth's surface Over a considerable length, how much does the surface +earth's surface. Over a considerable length, how much does the surface deviate (on the average) from perfect flatness. The flat-earth theory would make it seem that the surface doesn't deviate from flatness at all, that its curvature is 0 to the mile. @@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ kilometers (7,900 miles). The difference between the longest and shortest diameters is 44 kilometers (27 miles), and that means that the "oblateness" of the earth (its departure from true sphericity) is 44/12755, or -0.0034. This amounts to l/3 of 1 percent. +0.0034. This amounts to 1/3 of 1 percent. To put it another way, on a flat surface, curvature is 0 per mile everywhere. On the earth's spherical surface, curvature is 0.000126 @@ -281,3 +281,5 @@ measurements have been enormously refined but the principle remains. Naturally, the theories we now have might be considered wrong in the simplistic sense of my English Lit correspondent, but in a much truer and subtler sense, they need only be considered incomplete. + +@footer@