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Article:
<[email protected]>
From: [email protected](Nancy )
Subject: Re: Why do the planets continue to revolve?
Date: 25 Dec 1996 02:18:12 GMT
In article
<[email protected]> Pete Ross states:
> As to the planets orbits: the centrifugal force holds them
in
> relative orbit around the sun, but the gravity of the sun
very
> slowly erodes away this force, because the planets must push
> through a lot of hydrogen as they travel through space,
which
> exerts friction, and counteracts the seeming equillibrium.
> [email protected] (Pete Ross)
(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
Ah, here's the answer, its centrifugal force! Yes, of course! Yet
here on Earth, where children find they can only swing a ball
around on the end of a string by TUGGING on this string, this
argument poops out. Apparently, to evade down-to-earth scrutiny
(pardon our pun), Pete has his argument rise to the heavens,
where it can scarcely be examined. The centrifugal force argument
can be easily set to rest on earth, with scarcely more equipment
than the average high school physics lab would provide. Give a
ball centered by a tether a strong push, at an exact parallel to
the surface of the earth. Goes around perhaps once and then
starts to slow down, depending on the muscle in the arm that gave
the push, the length of the tether, and the weight of the ball.
Even with a weighty ball, the ball will stop revolving long
before it hits the surface.
It stops because the PUSH is missing, and the steady diminishing of the straight path the ball wishes to take by the tug BACK toward the center is the reason. Your earth would not make a 2 year cycle without the push we have mentioned. Common sense should tell you that, but then you listen to your gods, not your senses.
Now, try this same experiment in the physics
lab with a continuing tug. About the time the ball is starting to
slow down, the tether is tugged so the ball has impetus again.
The only thing stopping THIS revolution is gravity, as the ball
will gradually drop until skidding along the ground.
(End ZetaTalk[TM])