from Hacker News

Brian Keating and Lex Fridman: Shape of the Universe

by BearsEatBeats on 1/25/22, 6:15 PM with 1 comments

• by BearsEatBeats on 1/25/22, 6:15 PM

  Curious question: we used to think the earth was flat because our measuring devices weren't sophisticated enough to identify the curvature of the earth. The range at which those devices could measure wasn't enough.

  In this video, Brian Keating talks about how we know the universe is flat because we can measure the angles between objects that form a triangle, and those angles come out to be 180deg which is evidence of a flat universe.

  How do we know our measuring devices now are sophisticated enough at scale to accurately determine this? Doesn't this feel reminiscent of the flat earth measurements?