I take back what I've said many times ...

It's worse than that

When writing about the “science” of Global Warming and CoVid-1984, I have often written, “If Galileo were to come back today, he’s say nothing has changed except perhaps the names”. I was implying that in the time of Galileo people did “Religion” (belief in the Catholic Church’s dogma of an Earth-Centered [Ptolemaic] Universe) rather than Science (measurements and DATA proving the Sun-entered [Copernican] Universe).

But it’s not so simple. The astronomers¹ in Galileo’s time were doing real science²: they were comparing their models with more precise measurements, and then adjusting their models (with additional epicycles, or re-adjusting previous epicycles) to make their models more accurate. Since both the Ptolemaic and Copernican models used perfect spheres or circles (rather than ellipses, as this was before Kepler) to describe the orbits of the planets, astronomers found that when it came to making accurate models of planetary motion, the Copernican system wasn’t any more useful or simple! (See Fig. 1).

Figure 1. As I, you probably believed that the complicated system of Epicycles used in the Earth-Centered (Ptolemaic) system [picture on the left showing the orbits of Venus and Mars] was replaced by the very simple Sun-Centered (Copernican) system [middle picture]. The reality was that the Copernican system (picture on the right) was just as complicated as and needed just as many (though smaller) Epicycles to explain the non-circular (elliptical) planetary orbits with the same degree of accuracy! So while the Copernican System made understanding the Solar System conceptually easier for grade-school-level astronomy students as I, it didn’t make the jobs of real astronomers any easier, but rather harder³, though perhaps they saw the writing on the wall. The real revolution in planetary motion for astronomers was a few decades later when the Copernican system was combined with (Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation and) Kepler’s first law of planetary motion (Ellipses).

But, as I said before, it’s not that simple:

• Today we “know” that the Earth does not make a circular orbit around the Sun, but rather the rotating Earth-Moon system performs an ellipse around the Sun, and that the ellipticity of the Earths orbit periodically changes on about a 100,000 year period, the obliquity (or tilt of the earth’s axis of rotation) on about a 40,000 year period, and the Earth’s axis-of-rotation precesses around every 25,000 years — and we have known for at least a half century that these changes in the Earth’s orbit cause the periodic Ice Ages.

• And of course, going full circle, today one might argue that the Center of the Universe will be whatever location in the Universe that one makes that measurement.

We know today that Epicycles are just a form of Fourier Analysis (Fourier came 200 years after Kepler) and that an infinite number of epicycles can explain with infinite accuracy any orbit, even an orbit tracing out the likeness of Homer Simpson! (See the cool YouTube⁴ Video below).

Figure 2. A YouTube video I found very entertaining and enjoyable. This video not only explains Epicycles, but also Fourier Analysis and Euler’s Equation. Of course, you don’t need YouTube to learn about Euler’s Equation [e^ix = cos(x) + i*sin(x)], something I learned in sophomore electrical engineering — you can find that information almost anywhere, e.g., graffiti on a park bench along the carretera between Ajijic and Chapala in Mexico!⁵.

Why things are as they were at the time of Galileo

In the time of Galileo, the Bishop appointed a Censor to review all writings and the Censor would issue a nihil obstat certifying that the work was consistent with the Churches Teachings, and then the book or pamphlet could be published an official imprimatur stating it was free from doctrinal or moral error. Today we have the Political-Party, Intelligence Agencies, Media, and Big-Data Industrial Complex censoring any “non-approved” information (e.g., questioning “Global Warming” or “CoVid-1984”). You might say that at least today we don’t have the Inquisition and aren’t imprisoning or torturing heretics; and then I might just say two words: Julian Assange. Or, you didn’t lose your job …

Why things are worse than in the time of Galileo

Back in the time of Galileo the Universities and Scientific Institutions knew what science was, and practiced science: i.e., they compared their models with measurements, and then refined their models.

Today it seems our Universities and Scientific Institutions no longer even know what science is, let alone practice science, i.e., they believe their models and either don’t test them, or ignore measurements that call their models into question, e.g.:

• CoVid 1984:

  • Adhering to Masking, Anti-Social Distancing, and Shutdowns for which there never was, and still isn’t, any data to support these practices, and a myriad of data showing the harmfulness of such practices;

  • Insisting that the mRNA injections are “Safe and Effective”.

• Climate “Science”:

  • Insisting upon CO2, plant food, being the driver of climate, when for more than a half century we have had very good science and data proving that the Earth’s temperature has been the driver of CO2.

  • Promoting with Nobel Prizes Misinformation and Disinformation that CO2 causes the Ice Ages when we have known for more than a half century that it is changes in the Earth’s Orbit that cause the Ice Ages, and that this change in the Earth’s temperature controls the exchange of CO2 between the oceans and atmosphere.

Today, we have replaced Science with the “Follow-the-Science” Religion. A few years ago I wrote a primer on how one can discern the difference between real science, and religion.

P.S. — I sure hope that no real Astronomer, or knowledgeable person of the History/Philosophy of Science reviews and comments on this posting!

P.P.S. — I will never again disparage a scientific theory by saying “Epicycles!”. I now have much respect for Epicycles, as I’ve always had for Fourier Analysis. Of course I literally spent decades looking at a spectrum analyzer looking at signals from particle beams, so Fourier Spectrums are to me my bread and butter.

1. Here I differentiate between, today, what we might call Astronomers [those who make careful observations and measurements, and compare these measurements with models] and Cosmologist [those interested in the Big Picture of how the universe works]. I would say that Copernicus and Galileo were both Astronomers and Cosmologists.

2. The nuns taught me all sorts of crazy things in grade school, most of which I no longer believe. But I still believe what they told about is science: It is making an hypothesis (wild ass guess) about how the physical world might work; then designing an experiment, building the measurement apparatus, making measurements, comparing the results of measurements to the hypothesis, and then refining the hypothesis. If there is good agreement between the hypothesis and measurements, after many iterations and independent measurements, then Hypothesis may become a Theory. I still believe in this definition of science.

3. Hey Mr. Astronomer — let me help! Throw out all your centuries of calculations for Epicycles using the Earth as the Frame of Reference, and recalculate all those Epicycles from scratch using this New and Improved conceptually-trivial Frame of Reference! And just to make things really easy for you, start making all your new measurements from the center of the Sun rather than from your observatories here on Earth. You will find that the epicycles are smaller, and you may (I’m not quite sure about this) need one fewer epicycles to achieve the same degree of accuracy. They did not have computers that they could program to take all their half millennia of work on Epicycles and translate them into a new Frame of Reference. Thanks, but No Thanks, I would think most astronomers said at the time, though some might have seen the writing on the wall. Not a good time (or maybe a great time) to be a physics grad student! And, as I’ve said before, it’s not so simple. For a brief period some astronomers used a hybrid system with some things rotating around the Sun, and other rotating around the Earth.

4. I often, and will continue, to disparage YouTube for their Censorship. But, on the other-other had, they do have a lot of cool videos!

5. While E-biking on the carretera from Ajijic to Chapala, you can see this wonderful bit of graffiti on the side of a park bench. The equation, e^(i*pi) +1 = 0, was there; I added the rest to fill in some of the details. Unfortunately, I did not have a felt-tip marker, only a ball point pen! I now always carry a felt tip pen!