I do have a niggle of interest that some people say we are a LITTLE bit off: enough that shadows are a bit variable from year to year -- which to be open minded, I don't discount as absolutely having to be wrong, for very little change would have to occur for that to be slightly off.
Why are you ignoring my post from last night where I demonstrate that even a few arc-seconds of change in the NCP would be immediately obvious since all photographic telescopes on the planet would then have to adjust their rotational axes...and most are set in concrete?
The FACT is that the earth's rotational axis is extremely stable on a scale that could possibly be noticed. Note that the Chandler wobble is measured in milli-arcseconds...less than one millionth of one degree. Do you think that this is detectable by eye?
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 795135Did not see your post, I guess.
I have replied to others' comments on this -- I never said I believe in it AND I said I was only being honest in an extreme sense: that I don't TECHNICALLY SPEAKING, as a human who might be wrong even about the obvious, know.
This is called philosophical doubt. It does not mean I DON'T know in the ordinary sense; it means I always know I might be wrong in spite of everything, on things they think they know.
Ultimately, we never know anything ACTUALLY -- except, as Descartes said, that we are thinking. :)
But this is a very fine, fine point; not what you thought I meant.
And on a lower level of knowing, I also don't PERSONALLY have a sextant and pendulum and so on. If you read my posts about philosophical understanding, you'd know I didn't mean I don't "know" in the ordinary sense! I mean I am being RADICALLY questioning of myself and encouraging others to try it -- not because I don't "know" in the ordinary sense that we are not stopped. I keep saying it is not my belief/ or that I know that.
But philosophically speaking, we only ever have STRONG BELIEF, not KNOWING ... and it's important to remember ...
ONLY because most of the time we do know ... but sometimes we NEED such radical openness to discover a fact we didn't know.
Best wishes,
Clare
