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Re: Why NEWTON IS A GOD


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])