is there a such thing as straight?

Question

If you had a million mile pole would it hang off the earth or would it curve with the earth

Answer 1

Sure there is straight. We shoot straight to the Moon with laser light for example. That light does not bend (appreciably); so within measuring tolerances, the beam of laser light is straight. And, to a point, that's the only way we can test "straightness," within tolerances of our measuring devices.

Interestly, the ability to shoot straight is predicated on how our universe is shaped. The good news is that the universe is almost perfectly flat, which forms something called Euclidian space. That's just a fancy way of saying the sum of the square of two side of a triangle will equal the square of the third side (z^2 = x^2 + y^2). The two sides and hypoteneuse are true straight lines.

In non-Euclidian space z^2 <> x^2 + y^2. An example of non-Euclidian space would be the surface of a sphere. If you were to draw a right triangle on a sphere, you'd find that the sum of the two squares of its sides does not equal the square of the hypoteneuse...it's non-Euclidian; so a "straight" line like one side of a triangle drawn on a sphere is indeed not straight. If our universe were spherical shaped, it would be non-Euclidian; and think how good we'd be in spherical trig.

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure it would bend to fallow the curve of the Earth.
I would think to get it to hang off the Earth as you said you would have to have towers or something to hold it up Higher an higher as you built in order to keep it from curving.
Now a million miles is a very long distance.
That an I think the pole an all the braces or support towers holding it up would claps under the weight.

Answer 3

If the pole were built strong enough to withstand the gravitational pull on it, yes it would stand straight.

Answer 4

Well, gravity aside, it would just go straight, but because no material is truly inflexible, it would curve, if ever so slightly, downward, or whatever way gravity pulled it.