Learning the truth is the worse that can happen. You might be right but you might be wrong too. Its not about clever statements. Its about the truth.
Exactly.
Experimenting and measuring for yourself will eliminate any possibility of being deceived.
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For example:
Make sure you know your latitude.
Poke (or find) in level ground straight vertical stick / pole, as big as you can measure. Make sure it is really vertical.
Each day for solar noon measure stick and shadow.
Altitude of the Sun (angle above horizon) will be ARCTAN(STICK / SHADOW).
Compare value with selected web site. ( I use SunCalc.org )
Ask trustworthy people at few other latitudes to do the same measurements.
Compare with SunCalc.org or other site of your choice (for example timeanddate.org).
Another "level of security" would be the fact that "people live there".
If there were errors they would gladly expose them.
Once you verified data, your web site is your online calculator for Sun.
For Equinox (March 21 or September 22), when the Sun is directly above Equator, Sun altitude A = 90 - L (L is latitude).
Check on SunCalc (or whichever you have chosen), if for March 21st altitude of Sun for solar noon is "90 minus latitude".
On March 21 you can also measure for yourself, just to be sure.
Now you have easy tool for Sun investigations.
You can also use Sun for on-ground measurements.
My latitude in 2008 in Belgrade was 44.765 north.
My "stick" was side pole of swing for kids, 205.5 cm tall.
Shadow for Sep 22 was 204 cm.
I didn't ask others to verify at their locations, but I used the "public scrutiny" rule to decide if SunCalc.org can be trusted.
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Another example:
If you don't know about radio ask in nearest radio club.
Using amateur radio at 432 MHz and paired helicoidal antennae you can send pulses to Moon and measure time of reflection.
It was done many times.
Radio waves travel at speed of light.
To go to Moon and back radio signal takes about 2.6 seconds.