Re: [asa] geocentricity

I'm afraid that I may get to be known as a nutty advocate of geocentrism (as distinguished from just nutty), but I have to point out again that in the context of general relativity there is NO way to show that the earth goes around the sun rather than the sun around the earth. A coordinate system in which the earth is at rest is just as good as one in which the sun is at rest & requires no superluminal speeds &c. OTOH, getting rid of the earth's diurnal rotation requires that objects at a relatively small distance from the earth (about the orbit of Neptune) have speeds exceeding c, so that doesn't work. What you can have is a "semi-Tychonic" system in which the earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours, the sun revolves around the earth once a year (as does the moon once a month) & the other planets move around the sun.

But it is just as wrong to say that a geocentric model is the "right" one as it is to make that claim about a heliocentric one. General relativity really is general, & you can use any coordinates you want - although in a given problem there's usually one that makes things simplest.

I don't think that the fact that the Focault pendulum doesn't have a period of 24 hours at all latitudes changes its evidential value. It might if we were limited to doing the experiment in Paris (or wherever) but we aren't. We can get data from all latitudes.

Shalom
George
http://web.raex.com/~gmurphy/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>
To: <asa@calvin.edu>; "Randy Isaac" <randyisaac@comcast.net>
Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: [asa] geocentricity

> That's an excellent question, randy, and my research has not focused on that
> type of technical question (I've focused on biblical hermeneutical
> questions), so I can't answer it. I would nevertheless be surprised if
> someone like Bouw does not have an answer, whether or not it satisfies those
> of us who accept the earth's motion.
>
> Let me correct my own description of the Foucault pendulum. I should have
> said, that the pendulum does knock down all the pins, except right at the
> equator, but that it takes a lot longer than 24 hours to do so in the
> temperate zone. So, it suggests casually that the earth's period of
> rotation is (say) 36 hours, not 24.
>
>>>> "Randy Isaac" <randyisaac@comcast.net> 7/5/2007 10:35 AM >>>
> Many thanks, Ted. Could you please be more specific on the following
> sentences? How do the sophisticated geocentrists explain the latitude
> dependence of the coriolis force?
>
> Randy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ted Davis" <TDavis@messiah.edu>
> To: <asa@calvin.edu>; "Randy Isaac" <randyisaac@comcast.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 05, 2007 10:12 AM
> Subject: Re: [asa] geocentricity
>
>
> ....> Foucaut's demonstration is impressive, and probably convincing to
> most
> of
>> those sophisticated enough to understand the difficult physics behind
> it.
>> (The modern geocentrists are very sophisticated, and they do not find it
>> convincing.) As for the famous pendulum, it knocks down a full circle
> of
>> pins only at the poles, and at the equator it doesn't topple any pins at
>> all, but stays put. This is not a simple phenomenon. Someone living at
>
>> the
>> equator might justifiably claim that the pendulum proves geocentrism.
>>
>> ....
>
> Maybe. But the key is latitude dependence
>
>
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Received on Thu Jul 5 13:28:41 2007