[HN Gopher] Sunset Geometry (2016)
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       Sunset Geometry (2016)
        
       Author : Tomte
       Score  : 70 points
       Date   : 2025-03-15 13:32 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.shapeoperator.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.shapeoperator.com)
        
       | rhelz wrote:
       | Bravo. A very nice article comparing and contrasting standard
       | trig methods and geometric algebra methods.
       | 
       | And as a bonus, it compares both with Dr. Wildberger's Rational
       | Trigonometry. (Side note: I've known a few Australian
       | mathematicians who embrace some very non-standard methods in
       | mathematics, and I think it's great. We need people to shake up
       | our thinking bout Math every once in a while.)
       | 
       | A very nice piece for some relaxing weekend recreational math.
        
       | brothrock wrote:
       | awesome article. Do you know how to access the other articles in
       | the series that are linked (dead) in the first paragraph? Would
       | be great to read if still available.
        
         | showmexyz wrote:
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20160325085811/http://orfe.princ...
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20160508114924/http://orfe.princ...
         | https://web.archive.org/web/20170809073230/http://orfe.princ...
        
       | incognito124 wrote:
       | A list of urls from the beginning of post that don't seem to work
       | anymore:
       | 
       | * Measuring the Earth's Diameter from a Sunset Photo:
       | https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tex/sunset/ms.pdf
       | 
       | * The Earth is Not Flat:
       | https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tex/sunset/34-39.OPN.1108two...
       | 
       | * Sunset: https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tex/sunset/sunset.pdf
       | 
       | * The Earth is Not Flat: An Analysis of a Sunset Photo:
       | https://vanderbei.princeton.edu/tex/talks/sunset/sunsetTalk_...
        
       | antonkar wrote:
       | One year of Sun movement captured in a single long exposed photo:
       | https://wesely.org/2019/flughafen-tempelhof-berlin-1-7-2008-...
       | 
       | I wonder how 14 bln years of Sun movement will look if you stand
       | somewhere on the equator?
        
       | incognito124 wrote:
       | Something doesn't sit right with me. I would expect that the
       | semicircle would be reflected nonlinearly. That would imply the
       | reflection is not a true circle. Am I wrong?
        
         | sparky_z wrote:
         | I'm also a little skeptical with this approach, as it's not
         | taking into account the curvature of light through the
         | atmosphere. In reality, when the photo was taken, the sun was
         | already fully below the horizon. It just looks like it isn't
         | because the atmosphere is bending the light a little ways
         | around the earth. (As a rule of thumb, the amount of bending is
         | coincidentally nearly equal to the apparent size of the sun's
         | disc, so as soon as the bottom edge appears to touch the
         | horizon, that's the moment it has actually fully dropped below
         | the horizon, and would be totally obscured if the light were
         | travelling in the straight line paths assumed by this article.)
        
       | lisper wrote:
       | The flat-earth community is actually kind of fascinating. Someone
       | recently paid to fly some flat-earthers down to Antarctica to
       | witness the 24-hour sun which is impossible under most flat-earth
       | models [1]. The trip was extensively documented, and one of the
       | flat-earthers who made the trip actually changed their position.
       | The result, predictably, was that this person was ostracized from
       | the community. The intellectual backflips that the flat-earth
       | community are making to try to debunk this experiment is
       | simultaneously fun and disturbing to watch.
       | 
       | The easiest way to debunk the flat-earth model is simply to
       | observe that that 1) the sun sets below the horizon and 2) this
       | happens at different times in different locations. On a flat
       | earth, if the sun is seen at the horizon in one location it has
       | to be seen at the horizon everywhere.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | [1] https://www.the-final-experiment.com/
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | This is great!
       | 
       | I posted the following the other day -- and if you like this post
       | and the maths involved - you will really enjoy Randall Carlson's
       | Sacred Geometry lecture whereby he talks about all the Ancient
       | Sacred Geometry and how it was used to measure the earth, moon,
       | sun, stars and Earth's precession -- and how it all relates down
       | to the measurements from the Human Body - whereby the 12-inch
       | foot comes from, Cubits, etc.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | >Speaking of "feet" as a measurement - Randall Carlson has an
       | AMAZING video[0] on the source of the 12 inch foot.
       | 
       | >And how its all related to the measurement of the precession of
       | the earth. And yes - its specifically how to measure things in
       | space. And its all from Sacred Geometry.
       | 
       | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7oyZGW99os
        
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