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Re: Sun-Centered? (was:The Flat Earth?)
Eric DeFonso (szdefons@bullwinkle.ucdavis.edu)
11 May 1995 23:25:56 GMT
In article <3otn74$g7j@nntp5.u.washington.edu>,
R. Mounce <mounce@u.washington.edu> wrote:
>Sometimes, I'll admit, I think of the earth as flat. There are even times
>(heaven forbid!) when my thinking is entirely consumed with the shapes of
>peaks and valleys. But what I am interested here is a related concept -
>centeredness. I have heard that some astronomers find it useful to
>discard the sun-centered model in much the same way as the earth-centered
>model became outdated. Does anyone know if this idea of centeredness is
>changing its center?
>
I'm not sure what you mean by asking this question, butI just wanted to
comment on your statement about astronomerss discarding the sun-centered
model.
On the subject of celestial mapping, it is much simpler to
continue to think of a geocentric universe. After all, the earth happens
to be where all the observers are (Voyagers notwithstanding), so why not
continue to treat the earth as the center when it comes just to the basic
task of finding out where other objects of interest may be?
In a more physical context, no astronomer I know treats even the
sun as the center of the universe - in fact, modern cosmology
acknowledges no place in the visible universe as the center. So the
issue of whether astronmers are reconsidering replacing the center of the
universe with the earth may simply be a misunderstanding of the
application geocentrism to the mudane topic of mapping.
just my 2 yen.
--
Eric DeFonso ##################################################
Atmospheric Science # If you lived in this .sig you'd be home by now.#
Univ. of California, Davis ##################################################
___________________________________Chaos, wavelets, solitons, oh my!_________
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