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Flat Earth Theory / Does the Sun go around the Earth, or the Earth go around the Sun?
« on: February 25, 2018, 11:52:17 PM »
Imagine someone has fallen asleep at a party. When he awakes, he finds that his friends have tied him to a children's roundabout. He can only face in one direction. The objects he sees appear to be moving past him, very slowly. After a while, they reappear.
Is he staying still while the objects move past him, or are the objects still and he is rotating?
He could feel for the effects of the motion of the roundabout, but it's moving very slowly, with no vibration. He has to rely on what he sees. What he sees are houses, trees, cars, people, all moving past his field of vision and then reappearing after exactly the same interval each time.
There might be some people who would say "It looks as if these objects are moving, so the sensible assumption is that everything is moving around this person, everything he can see apart from himself and the roundabout, and it is all moving at exactly the same speed, so that all these independent objects take exactly the same time to reappear in front of him." I venture to suggest that a sensible person would say "If everything I see takes exactly the same time to reappear, on a regular predictable basis, then perhaps I am rotating and everything else is staying still."
So when the Sun, Moon and stars all seem to move on the same path on the same 24-hour cycle, all these apparently independent unlinked celestial bodies, why would we not assume as a default that it is the Earth that is rotating?
We could say "Ah, but it's not a lot of independent celestial bodies. It's one crystal sphere, revolving around the Earth". But we know that not to be the case, because the Sun, the Moon and the planets all have their own slight motions, so that they are moving relative to the fixed background of the stars. It's as if the man on the roundabout suspects that a painted backdrop is being moved around him - but he knows that not to be the case because the cars and the people are moving.
Is he staying still while the objects move past him, or are the objects still and he is rotating?
He could feel for the effects of the motion of the roundabout, but it's moving very slowly, with no vibration. He has to rely on what he sees. What he sees are houses, trees, cars, people, all moving past his field of vision and then reappearing after exactly the same interval each time.
There might be some people who would say "It looks as if these objects are moving, so the sensible assumption is that everything is moving around this person, everything he can see apart from himself and the roundabout, and it is all moving at exactly the same speed, so that all these independent objects take exactly the same time to reappear in front of him." I venture to suggest that a sensible person would say "If everything I see takes exactly the same time to reappear, on a regular predictable basis, then perhaps I am rotating and everything else is staying still."
So when the Sun, Moon and stars all seem to move on the same path on the same 24-hour cycle, all these apparently independent unlinked celestial bodies, why would we not assume as a default that it is the Earth that is rotating?
We could say "Ah, but it's not a lot of independent celestial bodies. It's one crystal sphere, revolving around the Earth". But we know that not to be the case, because the Sun, the Moon and the planets all have their own slight motions, so that they are moving relative to the fixed background of the stars. It's as if the man on the roundabout suspects that a painted backdrop is being moved around him - but he knows that not to be the case because the cars and the people are moving.