You just discovered the field of calculus! If you look closely enough at any smooth function it looks locally linear, and the slope of that linear function is it's derivative

Not quite what's happening here, here the problem is if you consider geodesics on a sphere to be straight. In special geometry they are, for all intents and purposes, but in higher euclidian geometry they form large circles

[–] filcuk@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't know... straight, I would assume, means that I could walk or drive a vehicle and not turn at all, ignoring any external influences like waves and currents in this case.

[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

But your vehicle would itself "curve" "downwards" due to gravity, surely a straight line means that you can point a laser, or a hypothetical 0 mass particle beam, uninterrupted from your starting point to your destination.

[–] WilloftheWest@feddit.uk 3 points 4 weeks ago

Depends on your frame of reference. When traversing the surface of a globe, your described concept of a straight line isn’t intuitive.

[–] linkhidalgogato@lemmy.ml -1 points 4 weeks ago

in ur every day life if u travel in a car without changing direction would u say that u went in a straight line or in an arc. Clearly u are just trying to be a pedantic cunt for no reason.

[–] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

It's more that 2d projections of 3d objects are wonky and unintuitive.