In actual reality there would be wind and water currents diverting any ship sailing that route from the depicted "line" anyway so the whole argument is pointless

The only straight line paths in the universe are followed by electrostatically uncharged non-accelerating objects in free fall in a vacuum. Or massless particles.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 months ago

What if we assume the ship is actually a spherical cow

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago

Nuh uh. My fifth grade math teacher told me that if I drew a line with an arrow on graph paper and no other line intersected it, that it would continue on into infinity!

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Whole Universe eh? That exists and is bounded on a curved space time.

I'm just joking, but you can really take this to the extreme lol

[–] Wilzax@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Spacetime is curved. Inertial paths through spacetime are straight.

Euclidean space is not the only space where straight lines are possible.