Aren't the atheists silly...?
If the earth stopped spinning, we'd all fly right off!
96 comments
Wow, quite the science-fail we have here.
This guy really shouldn't have slept through... I dunno... perhaps EVERY science class he's been through at school.
Or worse, he was homeschooled... and not the good kind of homeschooling.
"If the earth stopped spinning, we'd all fly right off!"
Well if it did it suddenly, we'd tumble along the ground in an Eastwards direction at about 1000 to 1500 km/h until we encountered something solid and upright. Whereupon everything would get a little messy.
Remember that next time you are reading how God "made the sun stand still in the sky" (Joshua 10).
I once heard a theory that gravity was just everything in the Universe doubling in size, and that we were being pressed against by an ever expanding earth. All objects moved away from each other in order to keep all cosmological objects maintaining their 'supposed' distance.
This theory is a hell of a lot more believable than Howard's.
Blessed are the Cheese Makers!
No, there are people that are this stupid, intentionally.
But yeah, this is a good shot for Poe of the Day.
Yeah if I remember correctly I abstained on approving/deleting this coz it seemed obviously poe to me, and then I remembered that Kent Hovind, Ken Ham and Ray Comfort have all said things as equally stupid as this.
but I'm pretty sure it's a poe anyway.
Seems like the "intuitive" thought of someone with sufficient genuine ignorance. That is, if the only force the person's ever heard of is centrifugal force, they'd probably think this.
Never underestimate the depths to which human ignorance can sink.
"I once heard a theory that gravity was just everything in the Universe doubling in size, and that we were being pressed against by an ever expanding earth. All objects moved away from each other in order to keep all cosmological objects maintaining their 'supposed' distance.2
That was said by Scott Adams in his book "The Dilbert Future".
He used it as an example of a "... mental exercise for seeing how things could be very different than you imagine and still look the same"
@maxedout:
Yup, it's Scott Adams' idea, but not a very good one, since (a) things that don't fall down (like the Moon) would have to be doubling their distance away from us at precisely the same rate as we were doubling in size, and (b) places where things fall slower (like the Moon) would have to be doubling in size slower than the Earth. So the Moon is getting twice as far away at a slower rate than it is getting twice as big, so would appear to be shrinking.
I apologize for my ignorance but I don't get it. As far as I know, the Earth's rotation plays a role in gravity although I don't think it's the only factor. Mind you, I don't know much about the subject.
Can anyone briefly explain to me what I'm not getting?
Please don't judge me! ;)
"They think that gravity is 'leaking' in from other universes (with no evidence to support it!), when EVERYBODY knows that the earth's gravity is caused by the centrifugal force of it spinning around..."
Heretic! Everyone knows that gravity is caused by angels holding things down.
P.S., your understanding of physics is woefully inept.
"If the earth stopped spinning, we'd all fly right off!"
See what I mean?
@Seeker in the Dark:
The force between two objects due to gravity is proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them. For any inertial frame of reference (where, by special relativity, the same laws of physics apply), there is no such thing as centrifugal force.
Newtonian gravitation.
The most that might be said is that since the Earth is spinning and we are moving with it at about 1000 MPH (near the equator), both we and the Earth should have a very very slightly higher relativistic mass, so might feel the tiniest bit more pull due to our mutual gravity. But I can't be bothered to do the math to check, to be honest.
Quite apart from anything else, some scientists think gravity might be leaking out of the universe , not into it.
@David B.: Thanks!
I'm no devout atheist, but isn't gravity earth's attraction force, or something like that. And haven't EVERYBODY (i.e. Christians) long maintaned that the Earth is flat.
"Aren't Christians silly, they think that Someone is designing or controlling the universe, when EVERYBODY knows it's just a series of mutations and pure chance, that worked out well."
Fixed.
if this were true, the earth would have to be a micro-dyson sphere, which, although a nice idea, doesn't hold up to observational evidence.
FAIL.
Centrifugal force would fling us OFF the Earth. Einstein established the commonly accepted Theory of General Relativity, which explains how gravity functions (Newton got damn close, and his calculations were and are good enough for most purposes). Every mass creates a distortion in space-time. It's like placing a bowling ball on a mattress and then rolling ping-pong balls along the surface of the mattress past the bowling ball. The bowling ball's distortion of the surface of the mattress messes with the respective trajectories of the ping-pong balls.
As such, other universes WOULD create distortions in space-time, presumably, if they existed in the same space-time continuum in which we do.
"They think that gravity is 'leaking' in from other universes..."
Nobody intelligent thinks that.
"when EVERYBODY knows that the earth's gravity is caused by the centrifugal force of it spinning around..."
Nobody intelligent thinks that.
Dan Onymous wrote:
"What's the next level up from epic fail?" As every WoW player knows, that would be ... Legendary Fail.
The next level above that would be Artifact Fail, but only GMs are allowed to wield those.
*gulp* I think it's poe because of the "everybody" in caps, it read sarcastic. but that i am ashamed about is the i dont know why he is wrong about cenfrifical force. Goes to show that common myths get stuck in the mind regardless of how carefull we try to be in our gardens.
gee thanks... now i have to read the encyclopedia brittiana and a GED study guide.
*gulp* I think it's poe because of the "everybody" in caps, it read sarcastic. but that i am ashamed about is the i dont know why he is wrong about cenfrifical force. Goes to show that common myths get stuck in the mind regardless of how carefull we try to be in our gardens.
gee thanks... now i have to read the encyclopedia brittiana and a GED study guide.
Yes, because the earth is spinning, a which would NORMALLY throw stuff off of it, it has gravity. Gravity is caused by mass. Think of it like a spring-bed. Weight on one part of the bed can cause other objects to get pulled toward it.
@Sisyphus:
The problem may be that he did, and that he crash landed on a rock or a wall after his father lost his grip on his hands...
@#937198:
Don't give hollow-Earthers ideas ^^"
I haven't ever heard any atheist or scientist say gravity is leaking in from anywhere.
As for the other part, pure bullshit, or out and out Poe.
I thought gravity was the Earth accelerating UP. Now I see its leakage ?
So the whole , gravity and mass are related thing is wrong ?
CENTRIPETAL FORCE doesnt work that way , maybe you adeded instead of subtracting ?
I... I don't even know how to respond to this level of stupid.
At least he got owned. Except the voter-chosen best answer seems to have confused size with mass, but at least it is coherent.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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