Technical answers for Velikovsky fanstasy

It's difficult to make detailed predictions without some idea of the proposed mechanism of stopping the Earth (and re-starting it) and the time frame over which it is hypothesized to have hapened. But …The Earth has a moment of inertia I (= 2*M*R²/5) of about 10³⁸ kg-m². It rotates at about ω = 7.3*10^-5 radians/sec. The energy of this rotation is (Iω²)/2, or about 3*10²⁹ joules. For comparison, the Hiroshima bomb was about 8.4*10¹³ joules, so the Earth's energy of rotation is 3,000,000,000,000,000 Hiroshima bombs. Or, the world's entire nuclear arsenal at its maximum was about 10,000 megatons or about 6.5*10¹⁹ joles, so the Earth's energy of rotation is about 400,000,000 times the nuclear arsenal. Or yet another comparison; the dinosaur-killer impact at Chicxulub is estimated at about 10²³ joules, or the Earth's rotational energy is about 3,000,000 of those impacts! This energy has to go somewhere (and be restored) with almost perfect efficiency (none of it wasted as heat) or the Earth is fried big time. Even if a tenth of a percent goes to heat, we're all dead hundreds of times over.Of course, whatever magical force does this has to act equally on all the Earth, even the air and underground parts, or we get things like all the stalactites and stalagmites in existence lying broken on cave floors and thousand-mile-per-hour winds.Basically, the idea is so ludicrous that it's difficult to treat it rationally.

It is claimed that this happened about 3500 years ago and I believe that the stopping and reversing of the Earth's rotation happened in less than one day.Brian.

Hi Jon, Apparently, it was a large comet that grazed the Earth twice. The large comet, which was projected out of Jupiter, this comet is now the planet Venus.From Velikovsky's 'World's in Collison' page 181.I came to the conclusion, about which I no longer have any doubt, that it was the planet Venus, at the time still a comet, that caused the catastrophe of the days of Exodus (181).

Yeah, I remember now. Gravity or electrostatics wouldn't be able to apply the required force, so it must have been a physical collision. If it was a physical collision the Earth would have been destroyed by the sudden release of such energy in a short time.If someone wants to postulate gravitational mass sufficient to do the job, or an electric field (on both planets) strong enough to do the job, then the tidal effects woudl have ripped the Earth apart, and the energy released through inefficiency would have melted the sucker. See my calculations above; that's a lot of energy.

Brian,It was decades ago that I read Worlds in Collison. I suppose I could research google to find indepth refutation of Velikovsky's delusions. Throwing Occam's razor to the winds, Velikovsky has come up with an even greater miracle to explain the miracles of the Exodus. We arrive at a regression of explanatory miracles that grow more outlandish as they purpose to explain an earlier miracle away. Best just to go with the "God dunnit" of the Bible.There is not a shred of scientific support for Velikovsky's bizarre proposals. Venus never was a comet and didn't come out of Jupiter. Leave it to Willowtree to drag out Velikovsky as irrefutable proof for his attempts to establish his version of the Exodus.I know reputable scientists have published refutations of Velikovsky but it's been decades since I read them and Ray Willowtree will with practised paranoia dismiss them as part of some conspiracy of scientist bent on discrediting the Bible. Ray doesn't believe science anyway, either that or he is a dedicated troll, but still he will cling to his irrefutable authorities.Besides if you take Velikovsky's argument away from Ray, what is to prevent him from falling back on the corroboration that crack in the stone floor of the Great Pyramid irrefutably offers to support the Exodus?It's not that Ray is convinced the Bible is literally true, lots of folks are convinced of that, it's that there is no theory too bizarre that we won't drag forth in support of it's inerrancy. This is what defines the lunatic fringe of Ron Wyatt and others. The thing to remember is that very few therapists have ever succeeded at arguing lunatics out of their delusions.I'm reminding of the story of the psychiatrist who grew irritated with a mental patient who kept on insisting that he was dead because there was no blood in him. The annoyed psychiatrist took a needle and jabbed it into the guys arm and squeezed out a drop of blood telling the patient, "look, see you are bleeding." The lunatic peered at his arm and then answered unfazed, "you have to admit it's only a very little blood."Prediction, Ray will move the goal posts and he will do it predictably to preserve his delusions. He is not going to give them up. All his energy is directed to maintaining them. And he will.Just my not so humble 2 cents ...lfenABE: Links to scientific refutations of Worlds in CollisonTOP TEN REASONS WHY VELIKOVSKY IS WRONG
Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.comAmusingly searching Google with the string "Velikovsky refuted" resulted in a top ten that included more pro Velikovsky websites proclaiming that Velikovsky has never been refuted than sites publishing refutations! So there you have it. Ray told you. Neither Ray nor Velikovsky, or Buzsaw for that matter have ever been refuted.ABE: Brian, definitely read the links. Velikovsky is much funnier than Ray. Velikovsky is a hoot and a half. Monty Python should make the movie of the book.
This message has been edited by lfen, 05-22-2005 01:05 PMThis message has been edited by lfen, 05-22-2005 01:14 PM