A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Others » UK Astronomy
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Online tutor?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #41  
Old November 8th 12, 03:01 PM posted to uk.sci.astronomy
oriel36[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8,478
Default Online tutor?

It is unlikely that my English neighbors are going to give up the
iconic figure of Newton,all the same it is only fair that they
understand the gravity of the situation,what exactly went wrong and
perhaps a dozen other different topics,one more important than the
next.It is only possible with the greatest difficulty to explain the
ins and outs of this tragedy in a readable form although that may
change in the future itt

The background to the discovery of Copernicus that the Earth orbits
between Venus and Mars rests on more than a few observations but one
of them is the use of the time it takes the planets to make a circuit
against the background stars so that the geocentric astronomers had
the Sun between the roughly 225 day orbital period of Venus and the
687 day period of Mars insofar as an Earth year is 365 days and that
is how long they gauged the Sun's annual motion.The point is that
since antiquity the geocentric astronomers had started to think in
terms of the motions of the planets in relation to the Earth rather
than a homocentric above/below idea and there are good commentaries
explaining why genuine astronomers looked into the celestial arena
rather than up at the sky -

"For if whatsoever space, and whatever thing exists away from the
center of Earth, is the ‘above,’ then no part of Earth is ‘below,’ but
Earth herself and the things upon Earth; and, in a word, everybody
standing around or investing the center, become the ‘above;’ whilst
‘below’ is one sole thing, that incorporeal point, which has the duty
of counterbalancing the whole constitution of the world; if, indeed,
the ‘below’ is by its nature opposed to the ‘above.’ And this is not
the only absurdity in the argument, but it also does away with the
cause through which all ponderous bodies gravitate in this direction,
and tend downwards: for there is no mark below towards which they
move: for the incorporeal point is not likely (nor do they pretend it
is) to exert so much force as to draw down all objects to itself, and
keep them together around itself. But yet, it is proved unreasonable,
and repugnant to facts, to suppose the ‘above’ of the world to be a
whole, but the ‘below’ an incorporeal and indefinite limit: whereas
that course is consistent with reason, to say, as we do, that the
space is large and possessed of width, and is defined by the ‘above’
and the ‘below’ of locality." Plutarch

In the late 17th century they took a decision to adopt Ra/Dec
timekeeping as a basis for planetary dynamics and homocentricity
returned with a vengeance as the theorists started to live in their
heads and above/below remains the common currency and certainly the
few contributors to this thread follow that tragic error whether they
know it or not.

It is unlikely that the English,at least the empiricists, will budge
even though they have John Harrison's work on the 24 hour AM/PM system
and the Lat/Long system which contains the actual information on
planetary dynamics and this is a great shame for while the untangling
of timekeeping principles from astronomical principles is an intricate
affair,it is not torturous but rather fascinating in scope and reach.

I cannot think of anything more dismaying than the loss we all
face,not so much that the men in the late 17th century got it wrong
but rather than there is no background against which to restore a
stable astronomical narrative with today's imaging power and
especially sequential and time lapse imaging.That any one person here
has the power to change and refuses to do so by virtue of breaking
ranks certainly draws me into a rare look at human nature as I didn't
think it could be possible on such a large scale and almost
overturning Lincoln's motto of not fooling people all of the time.













 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
tutor-adviser needed Martin[_4_] Research 1 September 16th 07 10:04 AM
tutor-adviser needed Martin[_4_] Astronomy Misc 0 September 15th 07 09:35 PM
My Physics Tutor, Excalibur Twittering One Misc 3 August 23rd 05 08:32 AM
M20 online... Marco Fazzoli UK Astronomy 0 November 21st 04 10:15 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:15 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.