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Physics

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    $\begingroup$ I think most would agree that the geocentric model of the universe was wrong. And anyone who believes in a flat earth is wrong. So the concept does exist. However, the scientific method makes it unlikely that theories that are so wrong would achieve concensus. $\endgroup$
    – Barmar
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 14:41
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    $\begingroup$ I didn't write anything in my post that contradicts what you've just written though. My point was that "wrong" is usually a relative term in physics. Most people would agree that Newtonian gravity and the geocentric model are "wrong", in that they are outdated theories, but one is certainly "more wrong" than the other when their predictive abilities are compared. @Barmar $\endgroup$
    – Charlie
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 15:28
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    $\begingroup$ I (semantically) disagree, "totally disproved" is not a meaningful statement in physics. There of course exists a point at which any sensible person would agree a theory has zero or near-zero predictive power. The statement is meaningful in the mathematical sense, but asking someone to prove that the world definitely doesn't behave according to a particular model is asking them to prove a negative, which is not meaningful. $\endgroup$
    – Charlie
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 15:44
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    $\begingroup$ @Barmar - but "most" are also not familiar with the actual concepts of relativity, by which the geocentric model isn't wrong (at least, the idea of having the Earth at the center - the concept of celestial spheres was wrong). Neither is the heliocentric model, the galactocentric model, the acentric model, or even the egocentric model ("I'm the center of the universe"). The only difference is that the math is much easier for some models than others. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Sinclair
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 16:32
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    $\begingroup$ @Barmar Even though you're correct that the Earth isn't actually flat, we often assume it is for the sake of calculations when the curvature is negligible. The same can be said for gravity, even though Newtonian Mechanics don't accurately describe how all interactions work, it is still accurate enough in the vast majority of cases that we usually run into $\endgroup$
    – Kevin
    Commented Oct 13, 2020 at 22:58