Comment on Is this a triangle?

• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  If you were to walk this route along the surface of the earth, you would walk in perfectly straight lines apart from the three turns.

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  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    No such thing. Even if you were walking on a surface with no change in elevation, the acceleration due to gravity would cause your path to be curved as it followed the curvature of the planet.

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    • abfarid@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Curved relative to what?

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• november@lemmy.vg ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  They’re not curved; the space they’re embedded in is curved.

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  • someacnt_@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    The space itself has canonical curvature >.>

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  • Azzu@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Well that depends on your definition of curved… If I look at this image from a 3 dimensional coordinate system that includes the sphere, the edges are definitely curved. Of course, if you look at this from the coordinate system “surface of the sphere” then I would agree with you. There are 2 ways to look at this and decide if it is a triangle.

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    • bdonvr@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      I don’t think this is relevant. Using your first definition there is no possible way to walk in a straight line on a sphere. While true in that context I don’t think it’s what most people are meaning by “straight line”.

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      • Azzu@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        But it’s absolutely clear that the first definition is meant by the person that is being responded to.

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• Donkter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  The edges curve in 3d space, but not relative to the sphere.

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