I've recently sent some questions to Dr Bridgman at dealing with creationism in astronomy for his review. I have placed the same questions here for anyone to consider and answer if they so wish. I am open to correction on any of my questions and would be grateful for direct answers aimed at the educated layman's level, or slightly above.
Q1- I have read Galileo Was Wrong by Robert Sungenis and Robert Bennett and in it the claim is made that there is no aberration of moon light observed. If the earth and moon are orbiting the sun at 30km/s and the solar system is moving through space at about 380km/s then the aberration angel of 4' 20" and including the transit delay, the total aberration angel is then 8' 40". Can you locate any published data that supports an observed aberration of moon light of 8’ 40”? If no observations of aberration of moon light have been observed, does that mean the earth is stationary relative to the moon?
Q2 - If the positions of the planets are not known as they are in the real, but only the apparent positions are known as observed from earth, how then does an almanac take into account the aberration of light from the planets when calculating predicted positions of the planets as observed from earth? In other words, if aberration of light from the planets is used in the almanac calculations, what aberration is used and how do we know what the real aberration is? If aberration of light from the planets is not used in the almanac calculations, is that an implicit admission that the calculations are either ad hoc, or perhaps the earth really is stationary relative to the planets?
Q3 – The retro-reflectors have been designed to bounce back a laser beam in the exact same direction from which the beam enters the reflector. Say for example a laser is shot of from a stationary position and hits the reflector. The beam will then bounce back to the same point from which it came. We can vary the scenarios as follows –
Let point 1 be the point (0,0) at which the beam is initially shot off from the laser gun. Point 1 also has a receiver mechanism to read the incoming laser from the retro-reflector.
Let point 2 be the point at which the retro-reflector is located at (0, 1.25c).
Scenario 1. Point 1 is moving at 400km/s along the x axis and point 2 is stationary at (0, 1.25c). The laser return travel time is 2.5 seconds. The laser beam returns along the same flight path in space from which it travelled to (0,0). When the laser has travelled for 2.5s, point 1 has moved 1000km from its original firing point to (1000,0). Therefore the return laser from the retro-reflector will not be measured by receiver mechanism which returns to (0,0).
Scenario 2 – Point 1 is moving at 400km/s along the x axis. The laser return travel time is 2.5 seconds. Point 2 is moving at 400km/s along the x axis. The laser beam returns along the same flight path in space from which it travelled. When the laser has travelled for 2.5s, point 1 has moved 1000km from its original firing point to (1000,0). Therefore the return laser from the retro-reflector will not be measured by receiver mechanism, which returns to (0,0).
If point 1 is the earth and point 2 is the moon and the earth and the moon are moving through space at about 400km/s, with a laser spread of about 20km when it returns to the original laser launch point (0,0), then how is the return laser ever received, when the earth has moved through space and is 1000km/s from the point at which the laser was shot off (1000,0)?
If the answer to this problem is the retro reflector mirror shrinks according to the Lorentz contraction and therefore the laser path forms a triangle shape relative to the moving earth, then –
What scientific evidence is there to experimentally verify that the retro-reflectors shrink in the direction in which the moon is moving through space?
In a similar way, if the earth and moon are moving through space at 400km/s when the retro-reflectors were made on earth, why then is a Lorentz contraction required in the lunar laser ranging experiment calculations, when the retro-reflectors were measured on earth to ensure the laser path returns the laser along the same flight path to which it entered the retro reflector? In short, earth moves through space at 400km/s and the dimensions of the retro reflectors are known. The moon also moves through space at 400km/s, and therefore the Lorentz contraction is physically not required, but is included in the lunar laser ranging calculations. Why?
Q4 – The fringe shift predicted for a moving earth through an aether in the Michelson Morley experiment was expected to be 0.40 of a fringe if the earth travels through space at about 380km/s. Yet only a fringe shift of about 0.02 was found by experiment. As such, Albert Einstein posited that the lengths of the arms that move in the direction of the earths motion shrink according to Lorentz contraction formula. Why does modern science take the ad hoc Lorentz contraction formula seriously, when there is no known force within the universe that uniformly acts on/in bodies to shrink bodies in the direction in which the body travels? Furthermore, if the Lorentz contraction theory is to be routinely used by modern physics, what experiments are proposed to test and invalidate the Lorentz contraction theory?
Q5 - There was a small positive fringe shift in the Michelson Morley and other similar experiments, clearly indicating there is something such as an aether flow passing by the earth’s surface. If the Lorentz contraction is used to explain away the apparent “null” fringe shift, how does science account for the small positive result that was observed and which does not fit into relativity theory?
Q6 – According to relativity, a body at rest has a proper length, which is its maximum length. When a body moves, its length shrinks according to the Lorentz contraction theory. What happens to the body when it stops moving? Does it return to its original length and if so, what is the force inside the body that causes this action to occur?
Q7 – Newtonian mechanics says the elliptical motion of the planets can be adequately accounted for through the notions of gravity caused by mass attraction and centrifugal acceleration. However modern science also says the universe is largely composed of dark matter, which is proposed as a cause for the action of spiral galaxies that do not act as predicted by Newtonian physics. Why is it that the motions of the planets within the local solar system can be accounted for using Newtonian physics, when the far larger forces caused by dark matter are ignored?
Q8 – Doesn’t the existence of dark matter and dark energy invalidate Newtonian physics, simply because these causes within the universe are posited to dominate the motions of galaxies?
Q9 – Modern science says Newtonian physics doesn’t hold for spiral galaxies, due to the need for dark matter. Modern science posits the earth and the solar system is located within a spiral galaxy, therefore it follows that the galaxy in which the earth is located has a physics different to that of other galaxies. This is so, simply because Newtonian mechanics can be used to account for the motion of the planets without the need for dark matter. Therefore if we are in a unique galaxy, what modern theory accounts for the manner in which our earth and its galaxy move without the need for dark matter?
Q10 – The standard theory says the galaxies are receding from the earth according to Hubble’s law, whereby redshift is interpreted as an indication of relative galaxy motion. Sometimes Galaxy motion is split into a cosmic component and a proper component of the galaxy itself. As such, how does modern science know experimentally if the cosmic expansion is real or if the proper motion of the galaxy is real?
Q11 – If space is expanding between the earth and the galaxies, what causes the redshift when the light travels through the expanding space? What scientific experiments have been performed to verify an expanding space causes redshift of light?
Q12 – If expanding space causes redshift and relativity theory denies the existence of an aether in space, and ignores any properties to the vacuum of space, how then can a vacuum without properties expand and also have a redshift effect on light?
Q13 – alternatively, if space is not nothing, but is “something” (dark matter) which expands, how is this “something” any different to the old notions of an aether that permeates space?
Q14 - Modern science posits the existence of dark matter which permeates throughout the universe and comprises about 95% of the universes matter. Evidently if this dark matter is throughout the universe, then it must be also located within our solar system and around the earth. How then is dark matter taken into account in the Michelson Morley experiment and other similar experiments, that modern science thinks produced “null” results? After all, if the null results are accounted for within the need for an aether around the earth, then how does modern science think there is no aether, but plenty of dark matter around the earth?
Q15 – George Airy completed an experiment to determine the motion of the earth through space. He posited that if the earth moved through space, then a water filled telescope would slow down the light travelling through the telescope and the telescope would have to be tilted forward to have the star light hit the same spot in the telescope. It is well known that Airy’s experiment failed to detect any motion of the earth – the results are known as Airy’s failure. How does modern science account for the results of Airy’s failure that logically mean the earth is stationary relative to the stars? If you use relativity theory to account for the experiment, I request you include experimental evidence for any time dilation and length contracted assumed to have occurred in the experiment.
Q16 – The twin Quasar Q0957+561 was used to confirm gravitational lensing in 1979. The quasar and its lensing galaxy have distances that are only theoretically known and may be out by not less than 15% as stated in the Universe Today - http://www.universetoday.com/2006/08/07/the-universe-could-be-larger-than-previously-thought/, as such any example of gravitational lensing is merely a case of assuming distances and then applying a theory to those distances to produce the required results. Please comment.
Q17 - Gravitational lensing should occur all over the night sky because very many objects in the night sky have objects behind them. Therefore if gravitational lensing is applied uniformly over the night sky, shouldn’t there be multiple images of the same object all over the night sky, causing the night sky to filled with real and apparent objects caused by gravitational lensing? If not why not?
Q18 – If a source star emits light and the light passes by multiple objects, which must then act as multiple lenses, why don’t we observe an almost infinite number of objects in the sky due to multiple lensing of source star light?
Q19 – According to the famous example of Einstein’s cross shown on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_Cross, the cross is used as an example of gravitational lensing. The lensing galaxy is not symmetrically located within the lensed galaxies. Therefore, how can the lense work when it is not located in the same line (the center of the lights) as the lensed galaxies?
Q20 – Einstein’s cross shows the four stars around the lensing galaxy, meaning the curved light should vary with distance from the lensing galaxy. Nevertheless, the four stars are not curved, with an arc shape, caused by a variable distance from the lensing galaxy. Why do the lensed galaxies have a uniform shape and do not vary in shape according to distance from the lensing galaxy?
Q21 – Modern physics says it looks as though the earth is at the center of the universe, with the galaxies moving away from the earth on all sides. It is said that this is only an appearance and really the earth is just another object in the universe that looks as though it is at the center of the universe because any point would look as though it is at the center of the universe. Why? Because due to dark matter and dark energy, the universe is uniformly expanding in all directions. Question – if the universe is expanding uniformly, or at least nearly uniformly in all directions, why is there no evidence for the expansion of space between the sun and the earth, or the earth and the moon of the earth and any other planet in the solar system? If however there is evidence for such expansion, how does such expansion consistent with Newtonian mechanics that requires specific distances in relation to a bodies mass and centrifugal force?
Q22 – If the expansion of the universe is uniformly everywhere and as such, the earth only looks as though it is at the center of the universe, but really isn’t, why then does space expand only between the galaxies and not between the stars and planets within the galaxies?
Q23 – Why is relativity taken so seriously to the point of sending up gravity probe B to investigate the motion of gyroscopes in space due to the space time continuum, when the space time continuum is nothing more than the figment of the mind of a mathematician? After all the space time continuum is nothing more than a version of the good old Cartesian coordinate system with a fourth time variable ‘t’. Therefore, as x,y,z,t are only mathematical quantities, which do not have any physical cause, or properties in the real, how can modern physics be taken seriously when gravity probe B, which costs millions of tax payers dollars, was sent up to check the effects of the space time continuum on gyroscopes?
Q24 – alternatively, if the space time continuum really has physical properties, then how is this any different to the aether and its purported properties, which Einstein sort to remove in relativity, due the Michelson Morley null result?
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