• hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    62·
    2 hours ago

    So if orbiting earth doesn’t count as “on earth”, why does sitting in a plane just couple hundred kilometers away count?

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        Yeah that’s called Kármán line, but it’s just arbitrary line. ISS is still orbiting within Earth’s thermosphere

          • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            15 minutes ago

            One can be simultaneously on earth, and in space. In fact we all are

            But I’m just arguing that while orbiting earth and being within the Earth’s atmosphere, it’s pretty much still on Earth. Just like you’re still at home even if you’re at the on the yard or even just outside the gate picking up mail from the mailbox. Looking at it from distance, it really doesn’t make difference

        • TheTechnician27@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          2 hours ago

          Extremely pedantically, sure. But under that level of pedantry, the whole metric falls apart anyway because there’s surely never or rarely been a point in recorded human history where someone hasn’t jumped/fallen/not been physically touching the ground themselves (let alone this having been measurable). What about “touching”; your feet are just repelling the ground via electromagnetism.

          It’s really obvious what the metric is, and trying to pedant-proof it isn’t worth bloating it into a mouthful. We can just recognize what it obviously means, say “oh, neat”, and move on with our day.

          • Tiresia@slrpnk.netEnglish
            1·
            4 minutes ago

            The last time everybody was touching a solid object connected to the Earth by touching other solid objects is probably around 15,000 years ago, when humans crossed over into the Americas. Before then, it would probably occur regularly that nearly all humans are asleep and the handful that are awake happen to all be touching the ground.

        • davidgro@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          2 hours ago

          I guess you could count the atmosphere as part of earth, then things over 100km are in little enough of the atmosphere that it’s not really ‘touching’ it the same way. (For example not generating significant lift)