what do you define as real knowledge? If you are given something in a book that is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt or very heavily shown to be true, do you automatically discount that?

And how do you hold "what you think to be true" to any degree of rigour?

@Drewski4343 yes that is absolutely correct

@Mathieus the Walking Witness You are often required to make inferences based on the experiences of many generations of scientists who came before you. And yes they often require you to do experiments that demonstrate that the models of reality presented in school have a basis in fact

They don't just ask you to blindly accept what they say, in other words

Also, that is a good song. David gilmour is a good guitarist

@Abe Lover well this is one of their more disco oriented songs, not their usual style

Gravity is a model that is shown to be a good approximation of reality under all but the most extreme circumstances, such as at the subatomic level. Einstein's theory of general relavity has been shown to give accurate predictions of satellites in orbit (rouge Galileo navigation satellites). It also explains with astonishing simplicity and precision the motions of the planets, the curvature of light by mass, etc.

Also, may I mention that without relativity, GPS satellites would cease to function?

GPS wouldn't work because the time signals it sends are so precise that the slight time speedup caused by its experiencing less gravity would render the system incredibly inaccurate

that's a consequence of relativity, gravity's effect on time perception

Also, yes, this server is basically a lost cause. When you've convinced yourself that the whole world is lying to you, and that scientific priciples that have been built upon and refined for hundreds of years are fake, god help you

well that was a waste of everyone's time

@SiliconBassist not in non-euclidean geometry

compasses are useful tools, I have no idea what you are talking about

yeah they're pretty cool
but once you get into the realm of geometry on curved surfaces
all kinds of crazy stuff starts to happen

I believe einstein used riemann surfaces in his theory of general relativity to explain the curvature of spacetime, and that gravity is just a natural consequence of said curvature

well did you take geometry in high school? Or ever design a building?

ah that's a shame, I only wish I could go back to geometry. Calculus is rather boring by comparison haha

I'm probably gonna leave this server, it doesn't seem like a very productive place for discussion haha

ehh when I see someone claim that satellites are weather balloons
I start to lose brain cells

@Abe Lover Earth isn't a perfect sphere, neither is your basketball, but you can't really tell because the difference is so slight. Also, I'll show you a picture that _isn't_ a composite. There's a satellite in geostationary orbit that takes pictures of the full spjere

The fact that you're using memes from a Few Good Men and The Naked Gun makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time

@Seeker of Truth You're absolutely right that Nasa launches test balloons for the purpose of different atmospheric science experiments

your mistake is conflating them with artificial sattelites

@Seeker of Truth Um they most definitely do. I have seen the ISS with my own eyes through a telescope, it shines very bright on some nights

in fact, in 2017, multiple seperate observers took photos of the ISS eclipsing the sun. Triangulation by simultanious photography in multiple locations matches up with the numbers given by NASA for the range of the ISS's orbit

I'll be right back

ok I'm back

Eh I decided to stay

when are you able to post images if I may ask?

what do you mean?