On Jan 28, 6:18*pm, Sam Wormley wrote:
On 1/28/12 11:44 AM, oriel36 wrote:

"The lack of even a basic understanding of science among the American
people is appalling. Most people can’t answer the most basic questions
about the world around them. How long does it take for the Earth to
complete one rotation on its axis? (Hint: it’s not 24 hours.)

* *Most lesser-educated people know that the earth rotates once per
* *solar day.

Solar day indeed !,the astronomical heritage I come from sees only the
natural noon cycles and the 24 hour AM/PM cycles attached to them.The
reason you can predict a solar eclipse as a day and date within the Ra/
Dec system is that all things move relative to each other within this
continuously rotating celestial sphere so long as you know it is built
on a continuous framework of 3 year of 365 days and 1 year of 366 days
using a 24 hour average.Did I mention there are both 1461 natural noon
cycles and average 24 hour cycles within that 4 years period that is
coming to an end on Feb 29th this year ?.

Why should any parent suffer their child to sit in front of a dummy
who can't figure out why there is no such thing as a wandering
analemma Sun for the moon to eclipse.I can tell you all about people
made stupid through indoctrination and precious few with the courage
to find their way to a more productive and creative views and these
will be the people who eventually come to the forefront and I couldn't
care less what they believed previously,they have the chance to change
things around.



I takes a bit more education for folks to realize that
* *the earth rotates a full 360° with respect to the "fixed" stars
* *(and the universe as a whole) in 23.9344696 hours.

No, homocentric stellar circumpolar motion is what you are talking
about -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYy0EQBnqHI

It requires a certain talent to know that you are using the average 24
hour day within a framework of 1461 days to arrive at your conclusion
and not enough sense to appreciate that the core system works off the
annual return of a star within the orbital framework and not the daily
return of a star to a meridian.

You, Gerald,
* *are not among those with a bit more education. *:-o

It was not good enough that you now know where the predictive system
of Ra/Dec is an outrigger of the human devised calendar cycle which
itself is encompassed in the system of 1461 rotations in 1461 days and
while this parent system itself takes an enormous amount of
explaining,it can be understood that the Earth turns once in 24 hours
and all the daily effects of the 1461 day calendar system keep in step
with this rotation.

What I say is correct and most already know it,finding people who have
a real interest in astronomy and a genuine authority is the most
difficult part in all this as the issues make it into wider
circulation.I trust people to think for themselves and that is what
makes the difference so that a breaking dawn is just as spectacular as
a solar eclipse and I predict in the next calendar cycle of 4 orbital
circuits starting March 1st 2012 ,there will be 1461 dawns covering
the next 4 cycles ending Feb 29th 2016.