Re: geocentrism

Gordon Simons (simons@stat.unc.edu)
Tue, 3 Oct 1995 08:16:15 -0400 (EDT)

I have stayed out of the discussion on geocentrism to date, but would
like to add a footnote.

David Tyler wrote "From what I have contributed before (on the language of
appearance), it is clear that I do not wish to promote geocentrism ...",
and neither do I, but, in fact, geocentrism IS consistent with the
Newtonian laws of motion. Some physicist please correct me if I am wrong.

The real reason physics reject geocentrism is that its accommodation very
seriously messes up the simple description we have all been taught; a lot
of simple mathematical order would be lost in the process. Thus, at great
cost, the language of appearance can be sustained within the framework of
physics.

One of the consequences of "relativity" is that there is not a unique
mathematical description of many physical processes. But some are much
better than others.

Gordie