The Sun Revolves Around The Earth -- I TOLD YOU!

[SuperCoolGuy]

http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/articles/science/cole4-1.htm

The above link is an account of someone trying to prove the Earth revolves around the Sun, and the subsequent "debunking".

Count how many times you slap your forehead while reading. 3 for me.

Particularly after reading:"Is the eye of a hurricane more massive than the hurricane? Of course not, but still, the whole hurricane revolves around the eye, and the eye is motionless. "

Hence, the Sun, as well as the universe CAN revolve around a stationary Earth . . . because hurricanes do it all the time.

**SLAP**

 

[SpaceFluffer]

Slap my forehead? Screw that - I'm going out back to shoot myself in the head.

 

[Bodhi Dharma Zen]

They have their very own challenge! $1,000 to anyone who have "proof" that the earth revolves around the sun.

Interesting.

http://www.catholicintl.com/epologetics/articles/science/geochallenge.htm

 

[Mr. Skinny]

I wonder if Phil Plait would be willing to take on this challenge? Sounds custom made for a guy with his background.

 

[MESchlum]

Well, with Randi offering a million one way and these people offering a thousand the other, let me see if I can win them both!

I'll just use refence frames - if you define the earth as a fixed object, you *can* model the motion of stellar bodies in this reference frame.

It's painful, and calls for a lot of acrobatics (see ancient astronomy trying to explain planetary orbits), but you can. It's actually useful if you want to model the trajectory of apples falling off trees, though Coriolis and others do matter.

So the reference frame where the earth is immobile exists, and can be used to make predictions. It's unspeakably unpleasant to use, but it exists.

Similarly, the refernce frame where the sun is immobile exists, and computations are a lot easier there - as long as you're looking at planetary motion. If you're studying the galaxy, it's a pain (less of one than if you use the earth, but still). So you use the reference frame with the galactic center as immobile...

Of course, all of these are incorrect, and the One True Reference Frame is the one with me at the center: the universe revolves around me, in a somewhat erratic way, so that the earth suddenly accelerates away from me when I decide to walk, and I have to move to keep up or be thrown off.

Did I win?

 

[Rolfe]

Damn. MESchlum got there first!

Rolfe.

 

[roger]

It's one thing to have reference frames, which are relative, and another to measure acceleration, time dilation due to relativistic effects, etc., which are absolute.

 

[Paracelsus]

If I recall correctly, on some occassions in a geocentric point of view mars crosses paths with the sun and thus miraclously passes through the sun unharmed everytime.

 

[Rob Lister]

If I recall correctly, on some occassions in a geocentric point of view mars crosses paths with the sun and thus miraclously passes through the sun unharmed everytime.

Unharmed? Look at it. It's all sunburned and drought stricken. I'd hardly call that unharmed.

 

[Paracelsus]

Unharmed? Look at it. It's all sunburned and drought stricken. I'd hardly call that unharmed.

I see a flaw in my logic....

 

[Zep]

I'm betting they only imagine they have $1000 as well...

 

[Jellby]

Of course, all of these are incorrect, and the One True Reference Frame is the one with me at the center: the universe revolves around me, in a somewhat erratic way, so that the earth suddenly accelerates away from me when I decide to walk, and I have to move to keep up or be thrown off.

Did I win?

Nonsense. The center of the Universe is, of course, Fraggle Rock