Saudi cleric tells students 'Earth does not rotate'

Phil_aka_Pip

axisus said:

In all fairness, none of us on Fretboard can prove him wrong.

I think someone with sufficient maths & astronomical knowledge could. But I freely admit that I couldn't.

scrumhalf

randomhandclaps said:

"If the earth truly rotated the surely the mountain would have come to Mohammed?  Simple innit?"

Only if he would have levitated himself high enough to wait for it to work its way round to him.

imalone

axisus said:

In all fairness, none of us on Fretboard can prove him wrong.

Seasons, observed motion of the planets and stars. You don't need to go into space, which is how people like Copernicus and Newton worked out models of the solar system centuries before space travel. Or, if you want an Islamic model, Uleg Beg in the 15th century measured the sidereal year and the Earth's tilt. (I've been to that observatory, it's an impressive piece of work.)
Or you could just go to the seaside and watch the tide for a day.

That the GPS on your phone works proves quite a lot of astronomy and quantum mechanics too.
Relativity - corrections to the clocks required to account for time differences due to general relativity.
Orbit, equations of motion, Earth's rotation. That the satellites are up there at all confirms basic Newtonian mechanics and gravity operate (if GR wasn't enough for the second one), the rotation of the Earth makes a difference when launching them in the first place (though this is more relevant for equatorial and geostationary satellites, if you are watching the clip on Sky TV then the Earth is rotating), and of course you need to know it for actually translating to position on the ground.
Quantum mechanics, the operation of the various chips in the phone itself relies on quantum effects, mostly things like discrete energy levels in semiconductors.

Fretwired

The Greeks didn't have supercomputers but pretty much worked it out:

• Aristarchus was the first astronomer to suggest that the earth revolves on its axis and travels around the sun (heliocentric model).
• Fratosthene calculated that the earth was 38,600km in circumference - real figure is 40,074km so pretty close.
• Hipparchus tracked the sun's path in the sky, and calculated the solar year to within 7 mins. His catalogue of 850 stars completed in 129 BC, was still in use 1,800 years later.
  

chillidoggy

Strange, isn't it? All that talent, and they're still fucked.

ICBM

axisus said:

In all fairness, none of us on Fretboard can prove him wrong.

Anyone with a plug hole can.

The Coriolis Force - which is what makes the spiral of water turn one direction in preference to the other - demonstrates that the Earth *is* turning, and it's not purely relative.

Again you do need to understand a bit of physics to show that it's the reason though, so as before why it's proof may elude him.

imalone

You need quite a big bath for that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Draining_in_bathtubs_and_toilets though people in New Orleans got a pretty good demonstration a few years ago.

One alternative of course is what you see over here when a politician is asked to multiply 11 by 12. I suppose at least he's trying.

jpfamps

As Sherlock Holmes saya, “What the deuce is the solar system to me? You say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work. I shall do my best to forget it."

Clarky

just because the earth is a cube don't mean it can't rotate

jeez what a nob

ICBM

imalone said:

You need quite a big bath for that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Draining_in_bathtubs_and_toilets though people in New Orleans got a pretty good demonstration a few years ago.

Interesting! I didn't know it was that difficult to demonstrate. I did know that the initial conditions have a big impact so you need to run the experiment multiple times to see an average, but I thought it could be done just in a bath, basically… so I learn something .

Fazer

ToneControl said:

here's some commentary on the Atlantic piece:

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/02/18/3624121/atlantic-gets-dangerously-wrong-isis-islam/

have just read that piece and it's very weak. just seems like a lot of wishy washy whining and strawman waffling

Paul_C

http://mic.com/articles/110800/5-facts-about-american-history-that-oklahoma-probably-wants-to-ban

imalone

Fazer said:

ToneControl said:

here's some commentary on the Atlantic piece:

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/02/18/3624121/atlantic-gets-dangerously-wrong-isis-islam/

have just read that piece and it's very weak. just seems like a lot of wishy washy whining and strawman waffling

Thank you for that critical analysis.

Fazer

you're welcome