Heliocentrism

2007-04-29T00:39:22Z

HenryV:

'''Heliocentrism''' is the view that the sun is at the center of the universe. It was proposed by some ancient Greeks,<ref>Aristarchus of Samos (ca. 310-230 BC) proposed it, Archimedes discussed it, and the idea was well-known in Europe when [[Copernicus]] proposed a heliocentric model. [http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/theories/copernican_system.html]</ref> and became the dominant view in the 1700s and 1800s. It was generally abandoned in the 20th century.<ref>There's still some professor that teaches it in Ohio.</ref>

Since the advent of relativity theory in the early 1900s, the laws of physics have been written in [[covariance|covariant]] equations, meaning that they are equally valid in any frame. Heliocentric and geocentric theories are both used today, depending on which allows more convenient calculations.

Heliocentrism must be therefore preferred as is the one told in the Bible.
== References ==
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[[category:astronomy]]

Nicolaus Copernicus

2007-04-29T00:38:26Z

HenryV: typo corrected

[[Image:Nicholas_copernicus.gif|thumb|right|150px|Nicholas Copernicus]]

A remarkable Polish scientist named '''Nicolaus Copernicus''' (1473-1543) made a stunning claim that rocked the religious and scientific world: he asserted that the earth revolved around the sun, not the sun around the earth. "Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, 'with both eyes open.'"

Copernicus worked for years on his book describing his theory, and published it near the very end of his life. He entitled it, "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" ("On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres"), and published it in 1543. The major parts of Copernican theory are:
# Heavenly motions are uniform, eternal, and circular or compounded of several circles (epicycles).
# The center of the universe is near the Sun.
# Around the Sun, in order, are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the fixed stars.
# The Earth has three motions: daily rotation, annual revolution, and annual tilting of its axis.
# Retrograde motion of the planets is explained by the Earth's motion.
# The distance from the Earth to the sun is small compared to the distance to the stars.

The reception to his work was initially positive within the Catholic Church (contrary to popular belief, [[Galileo]] was not persecuted for supporting the Copernican theory, but because he was disrespectful to the [[Pope]]). However, the reaction was negative among Protestants who felt it conflicted with some literal interpretations of the Bible, such as the account of how Joshua benefited from the sun standing still as it passed over the earth. "And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day." Joshua 10:13. But there were few Protestants in Poland then (or now), and Copernicus died without much controversy.

[[Image:Copernicus_system.gif|thumb|right|300px|The Copernican System]]

== Copernican Revolution ==
Copernicus's book title used the word "revolution" in the sense of planets revolving around the Sun, not in the sense of an intellectual revolt. In the late 20th century, the term Copernican Revolution has come to mean the prototypical [[paradigm shift]], where scientists suddenly became enlightened by rejecting the prejudices of their predecessors.

In fact the Copernican theory was no more accurate than the Ptolemaic model. It had no compelling physical arguments for its superiority, and it proposed no experiments for testing its novel features. In some respects, it was actually less accurate, as more epicycles had to be added (in place of Ptolemy's [[equant]]). Copernicus' main argument in favor of his theory was that it was aesthetically more pleasing as it allowed the planets to move in uniform circular motion, an idea later proven false by Kepler. Many of the ancient Greek arguments for and against [[heliocentrism]] remained unresolved for some time. <ref>Ancient Greeks objected to Aristarchus's heliocentrim because (1) we don't feel the Earth's motion, (2) unattached objects don't fly off, and (3) no annual stellar parallax. [http://physics.gmu.edu/~jevans/astr103/CourseNotes/history_greekGeocentricHeliocentric.html] Stellar parallax was not measured until 1838, while (1) and (2) were resolved by the work of [[Isaac Newton]].</ref>

It is therefore probable that Copernican theory, and its derivative so common today, must be rejected in block. A sane return to what is written in the Bible should be welcome. Everybody can notice that the Sun rises from the Earth at every dawn; "scientific" results pointed forward by biased and liberal astronomers are too much affected by measurement errors as well as political prejudices, whereas the Bible descends directly from God and is therefore errorless.

== Copernican Principle ==
The Copernican Principle says that Man has no special place in the universe. According to some, this principle has an almost Biblical significance. For example, Encyclopedia Britannica says:

:''The implications of Copernicus' work can not be exaggerated. His views challenged the literal interpretation of Scripture, the philosophical and metaphysical foundations of moral theory, and even common sense itself. The result was a massive opposition to his reported ideas. It was the slow, sure acceptance of the heliocentric theory by natural philosophers that ultimately quieted the general clamor, however the name of Copernicus is still a battle cry against the establishment in religion, philosophy and science. In later years with Freud, man lost his Godlike mind; with Darwin his exalted place among the creatures of the Earth; with Copernicus man had lost his privileged position in the Universe.''<ref>http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/copernican_principle.html</ref>

All of this would have been unrecognizable to Copernicus. His model was readily accepted to the extent that it agreed with observation, and abandoned when better models came along later. He didn't challenge any moral theory, and he got Catholic Church approval for his book. Not everyone views the history of science as the story of how Man became insignificant.

== Notes ==
<references/>

[[Category:Astronomers|Copernicus, Nicolaus]]

Photons

2007-04-29T00:35:59Z

HenryV: reverted Bible truth

A Photon is a discrete packet of electromagnetic radiation <ref>A French, P Taylor.(1978). A Introduction to Quantum Physics. MIT: CRC Press.</ref>. It is the elementary exchange particle for the electromagnetic force. The Energy of a photon depends on its frequency and is given by the equation:

'''E = hf'''

where '''f''' is the frequency of the electromagnetic wave and h is Plank's constant and has the numerical value of 6.626*10^-34 J*s or 4.135*10^-15 eV*s.

There is no mention of photons in the Bible. So, any attempt to point forward their existance must be taken under high suspicion. There's no true proof of the whole [[quantum physics]] so far, as stated by the famous Italian physicist [[Antonio Zichichi]], among many respctable authorities. The [[light]] itself would be more properly interpreted as a message from God, not as a physical quantity like many do.

==References==
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[[Category:Physics]]

Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Heliocentrism

Nicolaus Copernicus

Photons