Quote:
Originally Posted by alatar
Regardless of what I think of his conclusions and methods, I still found his ideas interesting. What's disconcerting is that, in order to 'prove' astronomical events from the past, such as Joshua's long day, Velikovsky has to bend and twist more established science such as the Law of Angular Momentum, which, as I showed my son by having him swing a bucket of water upside down. Same simple law that keeps that water in place keeps those planets in place as well; that's what makes the Law a law, and using ad hoc arguments to placate possibly mythological events and subvert this Law makes me wonder: is this new science or old hat?
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Of course, a Law in science is nothing more nor less than a statement by humans about the way physical nature appears to work. And every Law of science must of necessity be considered in the context of discovered phenomena. So what seems to be a universal Law on Earth, or near Earth, may not be as universal as we think. For example, gravity as a constant, G, apparenlty is not constant at all outside our solar system; at least, that's what I've been reading lately. If G is not constant, what causes it not to be so? And how does that affect Angular Momentum? And there is also this phenomenon called plasma (named so by its discoverer because it seemed to have characteristics similar to human blood), which are fields of charged particles in space. In other words, there are fields of active electricity throughout the universe; in fact, 99.9% of the universe is made of plasma (electrically charged particles). Wherever this is the case, one will necessarily be confronted with magnetic fields (moving charged particles). Question: why are the popular descriptions of our solar system devoid of any of the effects of the magnetic fields and plasma fields that act like "veins and arteries" throughout the solar system, connecting the sun and all the planets? Why is the powerful action of these magnetic fields not factored in to our understanding of the solar system, not to mention the galaxy and the universe?