SEE FLAT EARTH DEBATE ON STEPHEN JJAMES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x55GLHAdlpc
Yesterday I had one of the most disturbing interactions with the racist alt-right I have ever had. Stephen JJames is a British youtuber who comments on the alt-right and has many alt-right figures on his show. Stephen believes in a globe earth and was debating flat-earthers, who all came from the dissident alt-right. Stephen was making it clear that there is a growing subset of flat-earthers in the alt-right and he feels this is a cancer in the community. I could not believe how dumb and stupid and intellectually dishonest these people were. A British youtuber named Jord who happens to be 1/16th Jewish brought on a latino named George who was supposed to be some flat-earth expert. Instead of giving any scientific facts he just called us all faggots and said that we were brainwashed by modern science and that rockets to space were stanic rituals and phallic rituals. Jord said that astronomy and geometry which are used to prove the earth is round are Freemason sciences. Anyway, I actually wrote two papers showing the earth is round in college and they are pasted below and you can also download the PDF. I successfully explained these papers to the group of flat-earth idiots but they pretended that my evidence was not evidence. Here is how it works. If the earth is a globe we can make a model of that and we can position the sun and planets and stars where we believe they are supposed to be in our model. From the round earth model that is heliocentric we can use geometry and astronomy to make predictions about different phenomena that take place. From this model we can precisely predict every time the position of the stars and planets at night, the time of day, the seasons, the phases of the moon, and eclipses. If the model is wrong then how does it accurately predict all these phenomena with such accuracy? Flat earthers cannot accurately predict any of these phases with their model. These predictions prove that the earth is a globe. Diagrams are provided to help drive home the point of the geometry. I really hope this ends this debate but I've been scared into reopening my Math & Science tutoring business and I am going to start an earth science section to dismantle this idea that the earth is flat, as there are other factors that can be used to prove the earth is round. I must also do astronomy. To be honest this is just another nail in the coffin for my hope in the white alt-right to get anywhere, they really are a pack of morons and the fact that this is even a debate in the community shows how stupid and self-deceptive these people really are.
Download Earth Motion: https://docs.google.com/
Galilean Defense of the Heliocentric Model
Vincent
Bruno
Western Governors University
The diagram
depicted on the previous page is our solar system as we currently understand
it. The sun is the center of the system,
while the planets revolve around the sun on their orbital paths, and also
rotate on their own axis. As common as
this knowledge may seem, it comes to us from the intellectual labors and
personal sacrifices of the 15th century scientist, Galileo
Galilei. In Galileo’s day, it was
heretical to question the geocentric geostatic Ptolemaic model of the solar
system. Galileo, for scientific reasons,
firmly believed in the Copernican heliocentric model, and adequately, though
not always accurately, defended his beliefs.
Here we will discuss five arguments comprising the Galilean defense of
the heliocentric model: the inertial frame of reference, the phases of Venus,
retrograde, the moons of Jupiter, and an explanation of ocean tides.
In order for Galileo to defend the heliocentric model of the universe,
he first had to refute the reasonable arguments put for by the geocentric geostatic
Ptolemaic system. If the heliocentric
model was true, the earth would have to be rotating on its axis, and revolving
around the sun. It is important to note
that in Galileo’s time, there had not been a defined Newtonian law of inertia:
"Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a
right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed
upon it." (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 50) To the scientists of Galileo’s day,
if the earth was both rotating and revolving, there were several reasonable
questions that could be asked. One
frequently asked question was: “why do flying birds not fall behind the earth
as it revolved around the sun?” Galileo
successfully answered this question by demonstrating that on a moving ship, a
rock released from the top of the mast will fall at the foot of the mast, the same
as on a motionless ship. (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 52) Another legitimate question was: “why don’t
objects fly off the spinning earth?” Galileo
answered this question by referencing that when a body subject to circular
motion is released, it has the tendency to move along the straight line tangent
to the point of release. (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 52) Though he did not have the law of inertia,
Galileo was able to use common knowledge of the day to eloquently argue his
position.
Even before Galileo began, there were logical reasons to believe that at
least some of planets revolved around the sun rather than the earth. It was
known that the outer planets of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn went through great variations
in distance relative to both the sun and the earth. These variations were so significant that
when Mars was closest, it appeared sixty times larger than when it was
farthest. In contrast, such extreme
variations in distance relative to the sun and the earth were not noticed in
the inner planets of Venus and Mercury. It was also known that during their
planetary orbits, the outer planets could only be seen beyond the sun, but the
inner planets of Venus and Mercury, could sometimes be seen beyond the sun, but
sometimes be seen between the sun and earth.
From this knowledge, it was logical to deduce that at least Venus and Mercury could revolved around the sun, but if
this was true, it was also logical to expect Venus and Mercury to have
observable shape changing “phases” as they orbited the sun (similar to the
moon), and no such phases of Venus or Mercury had ever been observed. (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 226) With
his invention of the telescope, Galileo discovered the sequential, cyclical,
and incremental shape changing phases of Venus, which had not been observed with the naked eye
due to the extremely long period of Venus’ shape changing cycle. Thus, Galileo
provided the conclusive empirical evidence that Venus
revolves around the sun. (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 398)
Assuming that natural
laws are as simple as possible, Galileo demonstrated that the Copernican
geocentric model provided the least complicated explanation for the apparent
retrograde motion of the outer planets of Mars and Jupiter. From an earthly perspective, astronomers
observed that the outer planets like Mars and Jupiter would often slow down,
stop, or even seem to move backward. Ptolemy
had created a series of extremely complicated diagrams and equations (which
will not be detailed here) in order to try to explain the phenomenon of retrograde. Not only was the Ptolemaic heuristic model
cumbersome, it was not very good at making accurate predictions about
retrograde motion. Galileo argued that
if the heliocentric model was true, the apparent retrograde motion of the other
planets was easily explainable as an optical illusion. Since earth was closer to the sun then both
Mars and Jupiter, it had a smaller orbit, and so it would have a shorter
revolution period. The observation of apparent
retrograde was simply earth overtaking the outer planets in their orbital courses
around the sun. (Galilei, 1953, pp.
342-344)
Galileo’s discovery of
Jupiter’s moons did not provide direct evidence for the Copernican heliocentric
model so much as it displayed the immaturity of Ptolemaic geocentric model’s explanation
of the universe. It was already known at
the time that the periods of the planetary revolutions proportionally increased
as their orbits (presumably around the earth) grew larger. However, the idea that revolution period was
proportional to orbital size in any instance where several bodies were
revolving around a central body was not considered a uniform law of nature,
since there was no other know instance of several bodies revolving around a
common center. It was assumed by the disciples
of Ptolemy that this law of revolution-orbital proportion was unique to the
planets revolving around the earth.
However, when Galileo discovered four moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610, he
also discovered that the revolution periods of the moons also proportionally
increased as their orbits grew larger. This
discovery dampened the sacredness of the Ptolemic model by showing that if the planets revolved around the
Earth, the Earth was not the only orbital center in the universe, and that the
other orbital systems followed the same laws, making the whole system more
natural, and less exultingly unique. (Finocchiaro, 1997, p. 398)
Galileo’s assertion of how the ocean’s
tides prove the earth not only revolves around the sun, but also rotates on its
axis, is perhaps his most creative rebuttal to Ptolemy’s geostatic model, but
is definitely his least accurate. In a
letter written to Johannes Kepler (a
contemporary astronomer) Galileo describes the many ways water contained
in a vase can move. The relevant cause described
by Galileo for water moving in a vase is the motion of the vase itself. Galileo compares the moving water in the vase
to the ocean tides, and the moving vase to the earth diurnally rotating on its
axis while simultaneously revolving around the sun, illustrating that the changes in the motion of the water
(ocean tides) can be effected by changes in the direction the vase is being
moved (irregularities in the earth’s motion). (Gigli, www.galileo.rice.edu)
Galileo explains this
phenomenon as such:
Thus, for 12 hours, a point on the
earth's surface will move eastward, in opposition to the global westward
movement of the earth, and for 12 hours it will move westward, in the same
direction as the annual motion. The composition of these motions causes on one
hand a slackening (due to a subtraction of two opposite motions) and on the
other hand an acceleration (due to an addition of two motions in the same
direction). (Gigli, www.galileo.rice.edu)
Even though this explanation did
not withstand the test of Newtonian mechanics, it helped lubricate the minds of
scientist, allowing them to question the geostatic theories of Ptolemy.
Given the intellectual restraints of the time, it is amazing that Galileo laid the foundations for our current understanding of the solar system. Without being able to rely on Newton’s law of inertia, Galileo used common knowledge to demonstrate how the idea of a rotating revolving earth could be reasonable. With his invention of the telescope and discovery of the phases of Venus, he provided the empirical evidence Copernican’s had been looking to prove at least one planet could revolve around the sun. With his simplistic geocentric explanation for apparent retrograde motion, Galileo won support from disenchanted Ptolemy supporters. His discovery of the moons of Jupiter shed doubt on whether the universe was truly geocentric. And even his clever yet inaccurate theory of the ocean tides kept scientists thinking about the Copernican model. For all of these things we are indebted to the heretic Galileo Galilei.
Works Sited
- Finocchiaro, M. &
Galilei G. (1997). Galileo on the
World Systems. Los Angeles,
CA: University of California Press
- Galilei, Galileo (1953). Dialog Concerning the Two Chief World
Systems
Ptolemaic & Copernican. Los
Angele, CA: University of California Press
- Gigli, R. Galileo's Theory of the Tides. The
Galileo Project. Retrieved April, 12th,
2010 from http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/observations/tides.html
Earth Motion
Vincent
Bruno
Western Governors University
Time of Day
The west to east rotation of the earth creates the time of day, and one full rotation of the earth on its axis is called a “day”. As the earth rotates, a given point can cycle through the extremes of directly facing the sun, and then, facing directly away from the sun. When the point is directly facing the sun, it is solar noon (~12 pm). When the point is facing directly away from the sun, it is midnight (~12 am). The point will rotate 360 degrees and return to its starting position every 24 hours. Each hour, the point will rotate 15 degrees east, and so the earth is divided into 24 time zones, separated every 15 degrees by meridians. (Alter, 1952, p. 46)
Phases of the Moon
The moon is a mass with velocity, and so it has momentum; a force pushing the moon on a straight forward trajectory through space. However, the moon is also within the earth’s gravitational field, and so is simultaneously pulled inward toward the earth. It is the balance between the moons straight forward momentum, and the earth’s inward gravitational pull, that causes the moon to curve (revolve) around the earth. As the moon revolves around the earth, it takes up different positions in relation to the sun and the earth, causing the “phases of the moon”. The moon’s orbit is tilted at 5 degrees to the earth’s ecliptic plane, as compared to the 23 degrees the celestial plane tilts to the ecliptic plane (Alter, 1952, p. 59). During a Full Moon, the moon is positioned behind the earth in relation to the sun. During a New Moon, the moon is positioned in front of the earth in relation to the sun. During a Quarter Moon, the moon is at a 90 degree angle to the earth in relation to the sun. (Alter, 1952, pp. 60-61) The moon’s period of revolution around the earth is 29.5 days (Alter, 1952, p. 61). In a revolution, the moon travels 360 degrees around the earth, which is not to be confused with a daily moon rise and set, in which the moon travels only 12.2 degrees around the earth.
The Seasons
The seasons exist because the polar axis, on which the earth rotates every 24 hours, is tipped 23 degrees away from being perpendicular to the ecliptic plane, on which the earth revolves around the sun every 365 days. This causes the earth’s North Pole (and South Pole) to vary between two extremes in its relation to the sun’s rays; either being tipped 23 degrees toward the sun, or 23 degrees away from the sun. On the winter solstice, the earth’s celestial plane is tipped 23 degrees above the ecliptic plane, and the North Pole is tilted 23 degrees away from the sun. On the summer solstice, the earth’s celestial plane is tipped 23 degrees below the ecliptic plane, and the North Pole is tilted 23 degrees toward the sun. On the equinoxes, the polar axis is perpendicular to the sun’s rays, and so the North Pole does not tilt either toward or away from the sun. Similarly, the celestial plane is perpendicular to the sun’s rays, so in respects to the sun’s rays, the celestial plane does not tilt above or below the ecliptic plane. (Alter, 1952 ,p. 20-21)
The Solar Eclipse
A full solar eclipse occurs when
the moon completely blocks the rays of the sun.
A solar eclipse can only take place during a new moon, when the moon is
positioned between the sun and the earth.
The extent to which the moon disrupts the rays of the sun depends on
vantage point. If positioned directly
under the moon, all of the sun’s light will be occluded, and a night like
darkness called the umbra will be experienced.
If position at an angle to the moon, some indirect sunlight will be
received, and a milder shadow called the penumbra will be experienced (Alter,
1952, p. 74-75). Full solar eclipses can only occur when the moon is in the New
Moon phase and positioned directly on the ecliptic plane. Since the moon’s orbit is tilted at 5 degrees
to the ecliptic plane, the chances that the moon will be directly on the
ecliptic plane and in the New Moon position at the same time makes solar
eclipses very rare.
Works Sited
Alter, D. & Cleminshaw, C. (1952). Pictorial Astronomy. New York, NY:
Thomas Y. Cromwell Company
