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[-] addmen@lemm.ee 142 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)
[-] nutsack@lemmy.world 36 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Damn that was fast I was just going to link a picture of my mons wagnus

[-] Cornucopiaofplenty@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago
[-] Thassodar@lemm.ee 30 points 8 months ago

His mom's wangus, pay attention.

[-] bloom_of_rakes@lemm.ee 26 points 8 months ago

When you zoom in on those pristine facets it looks like a gravel driveway

[-] meekah@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago

I mean, if you zoom far enough, its just a few atoms floating around in mostly nothing.

Define "flat" and "straight"

[-] BugleFingers@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Okay! Can do!

Defnitions: Flat (adjective), My chest. Example My chest was flatter than an angle measured at 180°

Straight (adjective) anything that has perfect parallelism to my chest. (See notes)

Notes (Straight): Straight cannot be used as an adjective to describe my sexuality.

Additional information some users may find helpful: This is satire

FAQ: Is this commentary on anything political? A: No, this is typically considered bad humor.

Is this a joke? A: yes, this is a joke just as much as the author of the joke is -entirely.

Why did you write this? A: I thought of this stupid joke and have no impulse control on writing dumb comments (see previous question)

What is the meaning of life? A: 42

Do dinosaurs really exist? A: I had Dino nuggies last night and do not believe big chicken would lie to me about making up dinosaurs, so yes they are real

Has this joke gone too far? A: This joke is for me, I need to make myself laugh

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[-] Thavron@lemmy.ca 60 points 8 months ago

It depends on where you draw the line (heh) on "straightness" and "flatness". Some planes on gems or geodes are pretty flat, but probably not perfectly flat. Another example is a spider's web between two points. That's a pretty straight line if it's taut, but again, probably not exactly perfect.

[-] DarkThoughts@fedia.io 48 points 8 months ago

Nothing is perfectly flat, neither in nature nor man made. It's purely a mathematical concept as every surface has some form of texture if you look close enough.

[-] Thavron@lemmy.ca 19 points 8 months ago

Well, yes. My point exactly.

[-] Steve@startrek.website 2 points 8 months ago

Right, atoms are not flat

[-] neptune@dmv.social 8 points 8 months ago

A string with weight will be a pulled under gravity. Yes even a taut spider web.

[-] maryjayjay@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago
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[-] tobogganablaze@lemmus.org 31 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Lines and planes in the mathematical sense are 1 and 2 dimensional. They don't have any height (and lines also no width). So they can't exist as a physical object made out of atoms as they are already 3 dimensional.

They only exist as a concept.

[-] bloom_of_rakes@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago

Then, o pedant, do straight or flat objects (thus linelike, planelike) exist?

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 19 points 8 months ago

Why ask a pedantic question and be upset by a pedantic answer?

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[-] pennomi@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Graphene is a great example of a planar molecule, within 1 atom of tolerance. Graphene is found in naturally occurring graphite rocks.

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[-] inlandempire@jlai.lu 2 points 8 months ago

Their manifestation in our world was limited, they have already gone to another plane of existence

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

The fact that something isn't a 3d object doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Does a line of contrast between 2 colors exist? Does a movie projected at a wall exist?

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[-] Paragone@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago

maybe somebody else pointed this out:

Light ALWAYS travels in its idea of a straight-line.

Always.

It doesn't matter whether it is bent by gravity or refraction, from its perspective, it kept going straight.

Only an "outside viewer" sees any non-straight-line-ness being done, but the outside-viewer isn't seeing the curved-space or the curved-refractive-index that the photon saw.

[-] Klear@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Well, kinda, but the trajectory of the photon is contracted into a single point from its POV. Whatever destination is has, it's already there as far as it's concerned. It doesn't experience time given that it's moving at the speed of light.

[-] neptune@dmv.social 22 points 8 months ago

You really have to declare to what degree you are asking. You could take a very carefully grown crystal and define a plane based on its lattice structure. But the atoms are not all perfectly placed on the lattice once you zoom in far enough. There's even gaps between the atoms! A "plane" of carbon looks more like a net to an observer on the scale of those atoms.

Is an electron a perfect sphere? Scientists probably thought so in 1900 but now ask a physicist and they will say "No, probably not".

And yes, as others have stated, our space time is not perfectly Euclidean so that's another level of uncertainty. How do you measure the small imperfections in a Euclidean model when actual space time isn't Euclidean?

As a professor used to tell my class, there are no 0s.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago

No, they are mathematical constructs. Everything in nature is composed of matter and the like, so there are no perfectly straight lines or flat planes.

Even a beam of light curves and refracts as it interacts with matter and space over a long enough distance.

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 10 points 8 months ago

Light is going straight from it's point of view . It is following the shortest path between two points. The transform from different reference frames is why we see it as curved.

But if that's your definition, then there are no straight lines in mathematics either because you could transform the straight line from one system into a curved line in another system.

[-] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yes, nature is not objective - it is relative. Mathematics is a discipline that is based around an objective framework. Lines and planes are mathematical constructs. Mathematics gives us an objective framework that can be used to model a natural world, but they are just models.

Some things are "line-like" or "plane-like," in that modeling them as lines or planes is helpful to describe them. You can measure a distance "as the bird flies" because birds fly in lines compared to how humans travel along roads and paths. You can describe a dense, heavy, falling object as traveling in a straight line, because air resistance may be negligible over short distances.

A model is only useful insofar as it accurately represents reality. Lines and planes are mathematical constructs, and they may be incorporated into models that describe real things. "A beam of light crossing a room travels in a straight line" is probably a useful construct because the effects of gravity and refraction of the air are probably negligible for nearly all purposes. "The surface of a pond is a plane" is probably an acceptable model for a cartographer, since the height of ripples and the curvature of the earth are negligible at that scale.

The initial question was not "Do straight lines and flat planes model anything in nature," but whether they exist in nature. They do not. They only exist in mathematics.

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[-] vrek@programming.dev 4 points 8 months ago

Unless the light is in a vacuum like space

[-] ada 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I asked my good friend gravitational lensing about light in space, and they said that light can go and get bent

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[-] june@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

Light bends in space all the time. Our sun has enough gravity to bend light.

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[-] yarr@feddit.nl 16 points 7 months ago

Depending on scale. Is the surface of the lake flat?

Once you experience true level you will never go back.

[-] bloom_of_rakes@lemm.ee 4 points 7 months ago

True level must be like true symbols (like, in the idea that there are true names and words. Like a divine language).

If you have a true level or symbol then you have something, just as good as reality, but manipulable like language. The best of both worlds.

And even better, you need never leave the confines of the inside of your mind ever again. You can live, within your construct of perfect god-language, and interact with the world from there. Safe and powerful.

[-] kokopelli@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Man… are you good? You sound like a guy who showed up at my house and started saying that the pyramids and stars would aline and tell us the meaning of the universe. Also that açaí berries were the ultimate nutrition. Hope you’re doing okay there.

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[-] Spitzspot@lemmings.world 14 points 8 months ago

Neutrinos travel in a straight line.

[-] Ranvier@sopuli.xyz 17 points 8 months ago

Unfortunately (fortunately?) the space they're traveling through is curved. It was a good attempt though neutrinos.

[-] jbrains@sh.itjust.works 3 points 8 months ago

Edwin A. Abbott has entered the chat...

[-] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

It appears curved to us because we mathematically transformed the reference frame.

If you are allowed to transform your geometric space to say "no straight lines" then there are no straight lines in math either. Because you could perform a transform on the straight line into a curved geometry.

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[-] SPRUNT@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago

Cubed pyrite is one of my favorite examples of this.

[-] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 6 points 8 months ago

That's very cool, I see why you like it

[-] Audalin@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

According to mathematical platonism, yes.

Otherwise we have no idea. We have some models of physics, none perfectly describing our universe. We don't know the structure of space, or the structure of time.

Even if we did: what would it mean for a line or a plane to exist? There could be equivalent descriptions of our universe, some including those as objects and some only as emergent properties.

[-] sarchar@programming.dev 5 points 7 months ago

I think we've got enough evidence (proof?) that the universe is flat, and straight lines will continue straight forever and never intersect.

Whether there's an actual thing that exists that does this? Dunno. Two parallel particles I guess?

[-] MinusPi@yiffit.net 3 points 7 months ago

Wut? Spacetime is anything but flat.

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago

I am pretty sure we have no such evidence of the sort. Last i checked the universe being torus/donut shaped was still in the cards.

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[-] LouNeko@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

A lot of people talk about straightness and flatness as mathematical concepts. But I think OP means it in a technical sense, as in flat like your phone screen or straight as the edges of the screen but in nature. In this sense, flatness or straightness is defined as a finite number of measured points on a surface of which the coordinates all lie between 2 mathematicaly flat/straight parallel tolerance planes/lines. By that definition, depending on what a person would consider flat, say 0.002 mm between the planes/lines, there are definetly naturally occurring crystals that would pass that test.

[-] Krudler@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

Simple answer: no

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

Is the Higgs Field a flat plane?

[-] bloom_of_rakes@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago

Right after they mow, otherwise it's rather fluffy.

[-] finickydesert@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 months ago
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this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2024
116 points (100.0% liked)

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