Article:
<59kgdv$jjo@dfw-ixnews7.ix.netcom.com>
From: saquo@ix.netcom.com(Nancy )
Subject: Re: Why NEWTON IS A GOD
Date: 22 Dec 1996 23:32:15 GMT
Ken states of ZetaTalk
<arguing against Newtonian orbits because planets need a
continual push, like a car on the road>
And in their words, they were stating
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
The gravity tug is not strictly a sideways tug, as in all cases
the planet's path is pointed AWAY from the sun, however slightly.
For any given instant moment: 1) draw a line representing the
planet's straight line path, 2) draw a second line representing
the path the planet is being set upon by the gravity tug,
essentially a second tangent to the sun, 3) the angle between
these two lines is the degree of BACKWARD TUG that the planet is
experiencing.
(End ZetaTalk[TM])
To which Ken responded:
In article
<59hf9r$mh1@mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA> Ken Knickerson writes:
> The only hard thought I can reply to here is the statement
that the
> orbiting body's tangent path and the line of gravitational
pull
> demonstrates a drag on the orbiter. In fact, the drag would
go as
> the cosine of the angle between the lines (actually, a push
for
> angles less than 90 degrees.. In a circular orbit, these
lines are
> perpendicular, so no drag or boost is given to the body.
> nickerso@mcmail.cis.McMaster.CA (Kent Nickerson)
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
Ah, math to the rescue, as the theoretical can replace the
actual! Unfortunately, we won't be put off by your blitz. You
have the straight line that your fellow humans have asserted the
Earth wants to move in placed into so short a space of time that
it DOESN'T EXIST. Tut tut! If it doesn't exist, then it can't be
plugged into your formulas, so it must exist. No matter how tiny
you make that instant, at the start of that instant the Earth is
moving in a straight line, and at the end of that instant it is
moving in a line at an ANGLE from the first. It is being pulled
back toward the Sun, OFF its original path at the start of the
instant. The Earth thus has a drag on its forward momentum.
Rather than run from the situation into contradictory mathematical stances, which are all too familiar among humans (as any college student asking his professors to explain is painfully aware), we are asking you to deal with it. Face it. This will be avoided, we know, as it will require you to question a god some of your fellow humans are clinging to, and we fully expect you to refuse to address the issue for this reason and this reason alone!
Now, we would suggest that the common man, thinking about one ball orbiting another, can sense intuitively that the force of gravity is like a string on the orbiter, keeping it from escaping the center of the orbit and PULLING IT BACK. Likewise, the common man knows that unless he tugs forward on the string slightly, the revolutions slow and stop. You may say that the forward tug is necessary in order to counter air resistance, but the drag from the constant difference in tangent angles IS a resistance.
What, then, if not our statements about
swinging arms of energy fields from the Sun PUSHING the planets
forward, counters this drag?
(End ZetaTalk[TM])