Comment on The End of an Era
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours ago
So if orbiting earth doesn’t count as “on earth”, why does sitting in a plane just couple hundred kilometers away count?
Comment on The End of an Era
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 hours ago
So if orbiting earth doesn’t count as “on earth”, why does sitting in a plane just couple hundred kilometers away count?
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
The limit of space is widely defined as 100 km, which no commercial plane even nearly crosses.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 hours ago
Yeah that’s called Kármán line, but it’s just arbitrary line. ISS is still orbiting within Earth’s thermosphere
lauha@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Yes, definitions are arbitrary but that is the definition of space.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
One can be simultaneously on earth, and in space. In fact we all are
But I’m just arguing that while orbiting earth and being within the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s pretty much still on Earth. Just like you’re still at home even if you’re at the on the yard or even just outside the gate picking up mail from the mailbox. Looking at it from distance, it really doesn’t make difference
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
What does “ISS” stand for again? I forgot.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
Imperial Starship. Wait, wrong comm.
BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 8 hours ago
Thank you for the accents
rmuk@feddit.uk 8 hours ago
Hére, håvē ßòmê mõrë.
chunes@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
My favorite fact is that earth’s atmosphere extends 95,000 miles / 150,000 km beyond the moon.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
I couldn’t find any source for that, but exosphere is considered to extend to 10,000km or 190,000km, from which the latter is about halfway to the moon.
Anyways those numbers are pretty damn tiny even on a small solar system scale
Eheran@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
But a plane is not “on earth”?
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Extremely pedantically, sure. But under that level of pedantry, the whole metric falls apart anyway because there’s surely never or rarely been a point in human history where someone hasn’t jumped/fallen (let alone this having been measurable). What about “touching”; your feet are just repelling the ground via electromagnetism.
It’s really obvious what the metric is, and trying to pedant-proof it isn’t worth bloating it into a mouthful. We can just recognize what it obviously means, say “oh, neat”, and move on with our day.
Tiresia@slrpnk.net 9 hours ago
The last time everybody was touching a solid object connected to the Earth by touching other solid objects is probably around 15,000 years ago, when humans crossed over into the Americas. Before then, it would probably occur regularly that nearly all humans are asleep and the handful that are awake happen to all be touching the ground.
Rolder@reddthat.com 8 hours ago
Does it really count as being “on earth” if you’re standing on a floor instead of having your feet directly touch the dirt?
davidgro@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I guess you could count the atmosphere as part of earth, then things over 100km are in little enough of the atmosphere that it’s not really ‘touching’ it the same way. (For example not generating significant lift)