this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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I'm thinking of things like heliocentrism where there was some modern discovery or revelation by science that invalidated a common assumption prior.

My understanding is that flat earth is more a recent phenomena but I'd love to hear some ancient ideas people now miss. Did people think trees weren't alive? Did people think evaporation was where things simply disappeared?

I'd would love to hear these ideas.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not any kind of expert, but this seems wrong to me. My understanding is that heliocentrism vs geocentrism is about the whole solar system, ie: the same frame of reference.

So if you were launching a satellite, yes, you would use earth as your reference point but that is NOT geocentrism. You would never use a geocentric model. Ever. Not these days anyway.

Again though, I'm not an expert so maybe don't take this as law

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

You're absolutely right. Heliocentrism and geocentrism aren't "questions of reference frame", they're cosmological models.

Nobody is using a geocentric model when they launch satellites, as any geocentric model that works with our existing observations of the universe ultimately does not have a functional understanding of gravity. And it will be remarkably difficult to keep a satellite in orbit if you disagree with the universe about how gravity works.