Re: 'The Missing Day...'

George D. Parks (gdp@ppco.com)
Wed, 6 Mar 1996 14:22:21 -0600

I'm no astronomer, but I can't see how this story could be true. It seems
to me that the only way one could even begin to make this sort of claim
would be to have very good astronomical sightings on either side of such an
anomalous event (along with very precise timings) and then run a computer
model to show that somehow the motions of planets, stars, or whatever wasn't
continuous. I don't know how anyone would have such information, so it
seems to me that this is very likely to be another urban legend at best or
hoax at worst.

Maybe I'm missing something. Could someone tell me how one would even begin
to use an astronomical model to make this type of a claim?

George Parks
gdp@ppco.com or
gdparks@galstar.com
Maybe I'mAt 10:32 AM 3/6/96 -0800, you wrote:
>On Wed, 6 Mar 1996 HVANTILL@legacy.Calvin.EDU wrote:
>> This story has all of the characteristics of mischievous fabrication. And
>> when mischievously fabricated fables are presented as truth in the name of
>> Christian belief, the real Gospel gets another black eye.
>>
>> In 1970 we asked for documentation of the claims made in this particular
>> fable. In response we were told stories of the sort, "The documentation has
>> been lost. The computer program has been destroyed. ...etc."
>
>The person who posted the Spencer account found a couple of WEB references.
>
>http://bbs.cresnet.org/library/bstudy/bs/bibl22.txt
>
>This has the Spencer account as well as some followup from the
>Minneapolis Star. That quotes Hill as saying:
> . Since this event came to my attention about two years ago, I have
> misplaced the source information. I can only say that had I not
> considered the source to be completely reliable, I would not have used
> it in the first place. I am interested in facts, not fiction.
>
>http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov/~woodfill/SPACEED/SEHHTML/still.html
>
>This one uses the 'missing day' as a springboard for an educational
>exercise, with study questions (how could it happen? would the sun
>standing still be the only noticible effect? etc).
>
>
>
>
***************************|*******************************
* George D. Parks | office: (918) 661-7780 *
* 356 PL PRC | home: (918) 336-3041 *
* Phillips Petroleum | FAX: (918) 662-1097 *
* Bartlesville, OK 74004 | email: gdp@ppco.com *
* | or: gdparks@galstar.com *
***********************************************************