Re: Shrinking Earth

In article <1134413140.192376.233550@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
bigdakine@xxxxxxx (Stuart) wrote:

>
> Alan wrote:
> > In article <Xns972A518108BECzsp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, azen@xxxxxxxxxx (Al Zenner)
> > wrote:
> >
> > > It seems to me that whether the earth didn't double in size in the
> > > last 300 thousand or the last 300 million years essentially means
> > > the same thing, that earth expansion is not a viable answer to
> > > geological questions. I'd apologize if I had made a significant
> > > error.
> >
> > Prove it!
>
> Sure. Consider the response of the Earth-Moon system during the last
> 300,000 years.
>
> QED.
>
> Stuart

You do so love trotting out these trite answers.

Who exactly was there to observe the response of the Earth-Moon system during
the last 300,000 years?

Who invented the telescope, Stuart, and when? Who was then locked up for his
efforts, by the Catholic Church?

http://www.newlisbon.k12.wi.us/physicists/gallilieo.html

Galileo, an Italian physicist and astronomer, along with the German astronomer
Johannes Kepler, initiated the scientific revolution that flowered in the work
of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton. Born Galileo Galilei, his main
contributions were, in astronomy, the use of the telescope in observation and
the discovery of sunspots, lunar mountains and valleys, the four largest
satellites of Jupiter, and the phases of Venus. In physics, he discovered the
laws of falling bodies and the motions of projectiles. In the history of
culture, Galileo stands as a symbol of the battle against authority for freedom
of inquiry.

Throughout his life, Galileo came to see Aristotelian physical theology as
limiting scientific inquiry. His first bought with this theory came at Pisa,
where he is reported to have shown his students the error of Aristotle's belief
that speed of fall is proportional to weight, by dropping two objects of
different weight simultaneously from the Leaning Tower. His contract was not
renewed in 1592, probably because he contradicted Aristotelian professors. The
same year, he was appointed to the chair of mathematics at the University of
Padua, where he remained until 1610.

At Padua, Galileo invented a calculating "compass" for the practical solution of
mathematical problems. He turned from speculative physics to careful
measurements, discovered the law of falling bodies and of the parabolic path of
projectiles, studied the motions of pendula, and investigated mechanics and the
strength of materials. He showed little interest in astronomy, although
beginning in 1595 he preferred the Copernican theory---that the earth revolves
around the sun-to the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic assumption that planets circle
a fixed earth. Only the Copernican model supported Galileo's tide theory, which
was based on motions of the earth.

In 1609 he heard that a spyglass had been invented in Holland. In August of that
year he presented a telescope, about as powerful as a modern field glass, to the
doge of Venice. Its value for naval and maritime operations resulted in the
doubling of his salary and his assurance of lifelong tenure as a professor.

By December 1609, Galileo had built a telescope of 20 times magnification, with
which he discovered mountains and craters on the moon. He also saw that the
Milky Way was composed of stars, and he discovered the four largest satellites
of Jupiter. He published these findings in March 1610 in The Starry Messenger
(trans. 1880). His new fame gained him appointment as court mathematician at
Florence; he was thereby freed from teaching duties and had time for research
and writing. By December 1610 he had observed the phases of Venus, which
contradicted Ptolemaic astronomy and confirmed his preference for the Copernican
system.

Professors of philosophy scorned Galileo's discoveries because Aristotle had
said that only perfectly spherical bodies could exist in the heavens and that
nothing new could ever appear there. Galileo also disputed with professors at
Florence and Pisa over hydrostatics, and he published a book on floating bodies
in 1612. Four printed attacks on this book followed, rejecting Galileo's
physics. In 1613 he published a work on sunspots and predicted victory for the
Copernican theory. A Pisan professor, in Galileo's absence, told the Medici (the
ruling family of Florence as well as Galileo's employers) that belief in a
moving earth was heretical. In 1614 a Florentine priest denounced Galileists
from the pulpit. Galileo wrote a long, open letter on the irrelevance of
biblical passages in scientific arguments, holding that interpretation of the
Bible should be adapted to increasing knowledge and that no scientific position
should ever be made an article of Roman Catholic faith.

Early in 1616, Copernican books were subjected to censorship, and the Jesuit
cardinal Robert Bellarmine instructed Galileo that he must no longer hold or
defend the concept that the earth moves. Cardinal Bellarmine had previously
advised him to treat this subject only hypothetically and for scientific
purposes, without taking Copernican concepts as literally true or attempting to
reconcile them with the Bible. Galileo remained silent on the subject for years,
working on a method of determining longitudes at sea by using his predictions of
the positions of Jupiter's satellites. He also resumed his earlier studies of
falling bodies, and setting forth his views on scientific reasoning in a book on
comets, The Assayer.

In 1624 Galileo began a book he wished to call "Dialogue on the Tides," in which
he discussed the Ptolemaic and Copernican hypotheses in relation to the physics
of tides. In 1630 the book was licensed for printing by Roman Catholic censors
at Rome, but they altered the title to Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems
(trans. 1661). It was published at Florence in 1632. Despite two official
licenses, Galileo was summoned to Rome by the Inquisition to stand trial for
"grave suspicion of heresy." This charge was grounded on a report that Galileo
had been personally ordered in 1616 not to discuss Copernicanism either orally
or in writing. Cardinal Bellarmine had died, but Galileo produced a certificate
signed by the cardinal, stating that Galileo had been subjected to no further
restriction than applied to any Roman Catholic under the 1616 edict. No signed
document contradicting this was ever found, but Galileo was nevertheless
compelled in 1633 to trial and was sentenced to life imprisonment (swiftly
commuted to permanent house arrest). The Dialogue was ordered to be burned, and
the sentence against him was to be read publicly in every university.

Galileo's final book, Discourses Concerning Two New Sciences (trans. 1662-65),
which was published at Leiden in 1638, reviews and refines his earlier studies
of motion and, in general, the principles of mechanics. The book opened a road
that was to lead Newton to the law of universal gravitation that linked Kepler's
planetary laws with Galileo's mathematical physics. Galileo became blind before
it was published, and he died at Arcetri, near Florence, on January 8, 1642.

Galileo's most valuable scientific contribution was his founding of physics on
precise measurements rather than on metaphysical principles and formal logic.
More widely influential, however, were his works: The Starry Messenger and the
Dialogue, which opened new vistas in astronomy. Galileo's lifelong struggle to
free scientific inquiry from restriction by philosophical and theological
interference stands beyond science. Since the full publication of Galileo's
trial documents in the 1870s, entire responsibility for Galileo's condemnation
has customarily been placed on the Roman Catholic church. It gives no mention of
the role of the philosophy professors who first persuaded theologians to link
Galileo's science with heresy. An investigation into the astronomer's
condemnation, calling for its reversal, was opened in 1979 by Pope John Paul II.
In October 1992 a papal commission acknowledged the Vatican's error.

Who exactly, before December 1609, was there to observe the response of the
Earth-Moon system during the last 300,000 years, considering that the Catholic
Church insisted that the sun went round the earth?


Alan

http://www.veloceraptor.free-online.co.uk/enigma.html

http://veloceraptor.blogspot.com/
.

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