Q&A: Atmosphere
Atmosphere
Question
Hello Rabbi,
1) Where are the ground and the surface of our water located on the Earth, that is,
from the land up to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere—are we
living in the middle or near the edge of the sphere?
2) Regarding a curse from an elderly person, or parents, or a righteous person,
can that take effect nowadays? Can one see this
as when, for example, things are not going well for a person at work or when
troubles come upon him one after another? If not, does this include
when a person is particular about it, in the sense of "what I feared has come upon me"?
Answer
- Is this trolling? My sense is that it isn't, but the content definitely is.
- I don't believe in these things.
Discussion on Answer
Hi,
the Rabbi wasn't burdened at all; Oren's answer definitely answered the question.
I really was serious.
Forgive me, but I can't understand why such a simple question needs to be phrased in such a cumbersome way, especially since you can simply check online what the height of the atmosphere is compared to the length of the Earth's radius and immediately see the answer. That's exactly what I call trolling, perhaps unintentionally.
I entered question 1 into GPT-4 and was surprised to see that it got past the flaw in the wording of the question. This was its answer:
A person lives on the surface of the Earth in the area called "land." Land is the dry parts of the Earth, including the continents and islands. Land is dry ground above the surface of the water.
Regarding your question of where we are located between the land and the edge of the atmosphere, it can be said that we live in a relatively middle ground. The Earth is made up of several layers, including the crust (the hard outer layer on which we live), the mantle, the outer and inner core, and the atmosphere (the gaseous layer surrounding the Earth).
We live on the surface of the crust, which is the upper layer of the Earth and the transition point between the atmosphere and the ground. But relative to the size of the Earth and the depth of its inner layers, we live in a very thin area close to the surface of the sphere.
Therefore, one can say that we live relatively close to the surface of the sphere and not in the middle. Of course, this is true relative to the size of the Earth as a whole, but from our human perspective, we live within a broad range of heights and depths.