ThinkFast
Live Long
So I’m messing around with my laser level to hang some blinds in our living room. The thing shoots this beautiful red line across the entire length of the wall. So I eyeball the alignment of the line to the window casement and then notice the casement has a slight slope on it. The bubble level on the side of the gadget confirms that I’m just a p.h. out of level, the casement sloping consistently about 2mm across a 16 foot span of windows.
And then I start thinking - and this is the (really) rando part - about our ride in the Outback in Australia when we lived there, and going to Silverton. On that road there’s slight rise in an otherwise dead flat desert expanse. So flat, in fact, that when you’re on this little rise in the road you can literally see the curvature of the earth. (This spot was used in a scene from Mad Max).
So there I was in my living room with my laser level thinking about that rise in the Outback and the earth curving and my 2mm drop, and I start wondering that maybe the 2mm drop isn’t really a drop at all. Maybe it’s just that my living room is following the curvature of the earth. And if that were true (ok, let’s just admit that it isn’t), then what is a straight line anyways? I mean, that line from laser was for sure dead straight. And the lines in my house are good and straight, too. Or are they? Maybe there’s no such thing as a straight line on earth because really they’re either all tangential, and therefore never square; or they’re all plumb and square, but they’re never straight.
They didn’t cover this very well in geometry - and I sucked at that anyways.
Ok - how’s that for random?
And then I start thinking - and this is the (really) rando part - about our ride in the Outback in Australia when we lived there, and going to Silverton. On that road there’s slight rise in an otherwise dead flat desert expanse. So flat, in fact, that when you’re on this little rise in the road you can literally see the curvature of the earth. (This spot was used in a scene from Mad Max).
So there I was in my living room with my laser level thinking about that rise in the Outback and the earth curving and my 2mm drop, and I start wondering that maybe the 2mm drop isn’t really a drop at all. Maybe it’s just that my living room is following the curvature of the earth. And if that were true (ok, let’s just admit that it isn’t), then what is a straight line anyways? I mean, that line from laser was for sure dead straight. And the lines in my house are good and straight, too. Or are they? Maybe there’s no such thing as a straight line on earth because really they’re either all tangential, and therefore never square; or they’re all plumb and square, but they’re never straight.
They didn’t cover this very well in geometry - and I sucked at that anyways.
Ok - how’s that for random?
