> Here is another twist: _If_ you are right about the anomaly,
>the Magellan result _should_ have resulted in a crisis for the Ptolemaic
>system, even if Manchester is wrong about the history & it didn't!
Not necessarily, one of the sources I consulted stated that the moon's
actual diameter had to increase and decrease every month by about 100 per
cent so that the apparent size could remain the same. The ptolemaic distance
varied that much. This apparently was known for a long time prior to
Magellan and didn't cause a crisis. Not all counter evidence causes crises.
Why doesn't the counter evidence for the young earth cause a crisis among
the young-earth creationists? Also this expectation, George, illustrates the
lack of knowledge of this system we moderns are afflicted with. I certainly
am no expert but the Ptolemaic system had far more complexity than I was
aware of until about 2 days ago.
With Magellan they could discount it by saying that the guys on the boat
lost count.
glenn
Adam, Apes, and Anthropology: Finding the Soul of Fossil Man
and
Foundation, Fall and Flood
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm