How would you measure the distance between Washington, D.C. and Beijing?

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

But then it wouldn't be a meter stick :|

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

I'm 90% certain jroa is a troll at this point. If he isn't, he is the worst debater I hav ever seen and that explains why he believes the earth is flat.

Quote from: TheGreatGray on December 18, 2015, 04:54:01 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 04:36:56 PM

Very carefully.  Thanks for asking. 

I think that he is asking for a specific answer to the method for how it is done. Just out of curiosity, according to the Flat Earth, what is this distance? What is the radius of the Earth? What is the distance from East to West of Australia? If I took a car and drove this distance, using the amount of gas projected for the round Earth Model (based on miles per gallon) what does it mean if I didn't run out of gas because it wasn't nearly 1.5 times longer than traditional maps tell me?

Thus from purely practical data, setting all theories aside, it is ascertained that the diameter of the earth, from the Ross Mountains, or from the volcanic mountains of which Mount Erebus is the chief, to the same radius distance on the opposite side of the northern centre, is more than 10,400 miles; and the circumference, 52,800 statute miles.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/earth/za/za22.htm

OK. So because this circumference is so incredibly large, when a ship leaves the tip of south america and goes to a place in Australia (maybe Sydney), it obviously does not follow this path, it cuts across to make the most efficient path, crossing near California in the United States on the journey. This is why it is so common for ships on journey from South America to Australia pass by The United States.

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

That's a good start. Let's not worry about the logistic of building such long meter stick, and imagine that we actually put such a long stick from DC to Beijing.

Now let's invite a new friend, Paris. In the same way you can put two long meter sticks, one from Beijing to Paris, the other one from DC to Paris.

We now have 3 sticks:
Stick a: DC - Beijing
Stick b: Beijing - Paris
Stick c: DC - Paris

These 3 sticks creates a triangle on earth, with DC, Beijing and Paris as its vertices.

So far do you agree on that?

Quote from: jroa on December 20, 2015, 07:37:37 AM

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

That's a good start. Let's not worry about the logistic of building such long meter stick, and imagine that we actually put such a long stick from DC to Beijing.

Now let's invite a new friend, Paris. In the same way you can put two long meter sticks, one from Beijing to Paris, the other one from DC to Paris.

We now have 3 sticks:
Stick a: DC - Beijing
Stick b: Beijing - Paris
Stick c: DC - Paris

These 3 sticks creates a triangle on earth, with DC, Beijing and Paris as its vertices.

So far do you agree on that?

Nope, you've lost them. They're stumped
Surprising their mental gymnastics got them this far.

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 20, 2015, 09:54:59 AM

Quote from: jroa on December 20, 2015, 07:37:37 AM

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

That's a good start. Let's not worry about the logistic of building such long meter stick, and imagine that we actually put such a long stick from DC to Beijing.

Now let's invite a new friend, Paris. In the same way you can put two long meter sticks, one from Beijing to Paris, the other one from DC to Paris.

We now have 3 sticks:
Stick a: DC - Beijing
Stick b: Beijing - Paris
Stick c: DC - Paris

These 3 sticks creates a triangle on earth, with DC, Beijing and Paris as its vertices.

So far do you agree on that?

Nope, you've lost them. They're stumped
Surprising their mental gymnastics got them this far.

If I lost them I do apologize. I'm not a native English speaker so I'm clumsy with my words.

I guess you've seen my point. I encourage people to think about the sum of the internal angles of this triangle (DC - Beijing - Paris). What if it's not 180?

Quote from: jroa on December 20, 2015, 07:37:37 AM

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

That's a good start. Let's not worry about the logistic of building such long meter stick, and imagine that we actually put such a long stick from DC to Beijing.

Now let's invite a new friend, Paris. In the same way you can put two long meter sticks, one from Beijing to Paris, the other one from DC to Paris.

We now have 3 sticks:
Stick a: DC - Beijing
Stick b: Beijing - Paris
Stick c: DC - Paris

These 3 sticks creates a triangle on earth, with DC, Beijing and Paris as its vertices.

So far do you agree on that?

You can place 3 sticks in any orientation that you want.  Was there a point to your thought experiment? 

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 20, 2015, 09:54:59 AM

Quote from: jroa on December 20, 2015, 07:37:37 AM

Quote from: luxq2170 on December 19, 2015, 09:51:29 PM

Quote from: jroa on December 18, 2015, 05:09:48 PM

Distance can be a subjective thing.

Thanks for answering. It might be or might be not. I didn't claim that it is objective.
However I would really appreciate if you could provide your method to measure the distance, or give a definition.

A long meter stick, perhaps?

That's a good start. Let's not worry about the logistic of building such long meter stick, and imagine that we actually put such a long stick from DC to Beijing.

Now let's invite a new friend, Paris. In the same way you can put two long meter sticks, one from Beijing to Paris, the other one from DC to Paris.

We now have 3 sticks:
Stick a: DC - Beijing
Stick b: Beijing - Paris
Stick c: DC - Paris

These 3 sticks creates a triangle on earth, with DC, Beijing and Paris as its vertices.

So far do you agree on that?

You can place 3 sticks in any orientation that you want.  Was there a point to your thought experiment?

Yes there is a point, I'll get there. I'm taking this step by step just because I believe it's most efficient.

Would you mind explain what you meant by "You can place 3 sticks in any orientation that you want."? I'm really confused, because I thought if you want to use a certain meter stick to measure the distance between A and B, you need to place the stick along AB, which fixes the orientation.