Posted on 08/02/2005 4:00:39 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Thanks. Problem with uniformitarian causes is, that they aren't. :') That's why there are so many such models. Earth's closest to the Sun in January I think, which makes northern hemisphere winters a bit warmer, and furthest in July I think, making southern hemisphere winters a bit cooler. But most of the southern hemisphere is ocean, okay, I'm boring even myself...
"Let me be the first to suggest that this kid is wasting his time in high school. "
When I entered University I took an intensive first year mathematics progrom of first and second year courses becuase I had a high second class average in high school
In my second year linear class I struggled in the first two months of the fall semester and then one day this guy showed up in class who I hadn't seen before.
Turns out he was a math genius and the son of a mining engineer from Trail BC who had attented advanced mathematics camps since he was 13.
He showed up one day because he had an interesting proof he wanted to show the prof. When he was finished baffling the prof with his proof he left. Everyone in the class was slack jawed.
That day was the end of my mathematics career.
Later I found out he got bored with mathematics and joined the theater department.
I hope you find it as clear & well written as I did. I regularly pass out copies of that book, and I buy them from Amazon. Sorry about driving the price up.
Make sure you read the abstract before the book. It was so concise and on target, that I can show people that abstract and say, "This is what the book is about."
I have a mind to buy non-exclusive rights for that book. I wonder how much such a thing would cost?
Except for the drifting continents part.
The sun [and earth] rotate about the Milky Way in 200 million years. If there is a particular dusty spot in our spiral arm our inclination to the plane would swing us by that spot twice in 100 million years. That puts these events on the average 50 million years apart. Does that match up with the frequency of ice ages?
"Except for the drifting continents part."
***Actually, the tectonic plate theory is instructive here. Most scientists didn't accept that theory at the time it was proposed -- it was too outlandish. Eventually, those scientists died off and were replaced with a new generation of open-minded scientists who gave it a whirl and verified much of the theory. I see that a lot of catastrophism was summarily dismissed when it was first proposed by guys like Velikovsky, but now it is readily accepted as part of different cosmology theories.
"... any new theory (especially one which makes outstanding claims) has to have established scientific laws to support it."
***We both agree, sorta. I would readily accept your statement if the word "law" were substituted with the word "evidence". That word, "law" causes trouble in these kinds of discussions because people start using it as if it really did mean "law". In scientific method, a law is just an observation. Newton's law of gravity doesn't mean everything has to "obey" that law, it is just an observation of how gravity behaves, with a nifty mathematical description. Note that we do not call it the "theory of gravity" because a theory explains why... and we really don't know what causes gravity at this point. When physicists started noticing that at the atomic scale, Newtonian "laws" were no longer applicable, a new observation was introduced as a correction factor to physics, thanks to Einstein. It was widely discussed and supported because there were observations that no longer fit the Newtonian mold and, it was brilliant physics. Exactly what scientific "laws" did NOT support plate tectonics at the time it was proposed?
"I've read "Worlds in Collision" by Velikovsky and all of his physical predictions are invalidated by the well established laws of physics that I've studied up through college."
***I read it too, and I also studied somee physics in college, welcome to the club. Again I would quibble with your use of the word "law". I agree that Velikovsky's predictions and theory did not pan out for the most part. But his predictions were not invalidated by "laws" of physics, they were invalidated by direct empirical observation. Some people thought Velikovsky was ahead of the game when it was verified that Venus was indeed very hot (contemporary cosmology said that it would be a cold planet), but he was probably just lucky.
"Just as one example, his theory that Venus could pass by the Earth and cause the Earth's rotation to stop and then restart is nonsense according to the laws of thermodynamics and conservation of angular momentum, among others, and there are no known forces that could explain such an event."
***Again you're using the word "law" in a way that doesn't really help the discussion along. If I do the "law = observation" substitution, I would probably agree with you. The fact that there are no KNOWN forces which could explain it is exactly the point. It is postulated as an UNKNOWN force, possibly stronger than gravity, which is after all a relatively weak force. But that's one thing I like about bold theories -- they should be easy for experts to point out the obvious flaws. I'm no cosmologist.
Thanks for the ping.
I seriously doubt that earth CROSSES spiral arms of the galaxy, instead of drifting along with the flow that causes the spiral arms.
[Dewey McLean is one of the most stubborn opponents of the Alvarez model; he has mellowed somewhat in recent years regarding his claims that the late Luis Alvarez tried to run him out of academia]
New Developments Regarding the KT Event and Other Catastrophes in Earth History
Dewey McLean
http://filebox.vt.edu:8080/users/dmclean/fileboxmigration/artsci/geology/mclean/Dinosaur_Volcano_Extinction/pages/law_natr.pdf
Proposed law of nature linking impacts, plume volcanism, and Milankovitch cycles to terrestrial vertebrate mass extinctions via greenhouse-embryo death coupling
Dewey McLean
http://filebox.vt.edu:8080/users/dmclean/fileboxmigration/artsci/geology/mclean/Dinosaur_Volcano_Extinction/pages/ghreplon.html
Chandler's Wobble Causes Earthquakes, Volcanism, El Nino, and Global Warming
Michael Wells Mandeville | 2004 | Michael Wells Mandeville
Posted on 01/18/2005 8:58:05 PM PST by IGBT
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1323583/posts
another oldie
Looks like an interesting read. :)
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