Wednesday 3 February 2016

20), 21) and 22) are the same argument.

20)” If Earth were truly constantly spinning Eastwards at over 1000mph, vertically-fired cannonballs and other projectiles should fall significantly due west. In actual fact, however, whenever this has been tested, vertically-fired cannonballs shoot upwards an average of 14 seconds ascending, 14 seconds descending, and fall back to the ground no more than 2 feet away from the cannon, often directly back into the muzzle.”

21)” If the Earth were truly constantly spinning Eastwards at over 1000mph, helicopters and hot-air balloons should be able to simply hover over the surface of the Earth and wait for their destinations to come to them!”

22) “If Earth were truly constantly spinning Eastwards at over 1000mph, during the Red Bull stratosphere dive, Felix Baumgartner, spending 3 hours ascending over New Mexico, should have landed 2500 miles West into the Pacific Ocean but instead landed a few dozen miles East of the take-off point.”

Again, these three are really the same arguments stated in different ways. And each version as a silly and clearly testably wrong as the others.

The short answer is that  the cannonball and the helicopter and the parachutist are also rotating, along with the Earth and the surrounding atmosphere. They are motionless relative to the Earth, but still following the same path around the Earth. For instance, point 21 assumes that the somehow stops dead as son as it leaves the ground, when a moment earlier it was rotating on the earth’s surface! Which is, frankly, crazy!

If you don’t believe this, again, here is a way to test my argument and Mr Dubay’s:

Next time you and a friend are on a speeding train or bus, sit on opposite sides. Now try tossing a ball gently straight across the train for your friend to catch.

Now, if Mr Dubay is right, the ball should shoot backwards at a sharp angle, and your friend will miss it. After all, the train is moving much faster forward than the ball is flying sideways across the carriage? Well, try it.

If I’m right, the ball will sails straight across the carriage at right angles to the trains direction of motion. No flying backwards. And that is what happens , of course. Why? Because the ball (and the air in the train)  was already moving forward at 70 mph or whatever speed the train is doing. Just like you, your friend and the other passengers, you are stationary relative to the train around you, even though the whole thing is speeding along.

If you don’t have a friend with you, you can still do the experiment. Just stand sideways on and try jumping straight across the train; perhaps from a left hand door to the opposite right hand one. Do you fly backwards, as Mr Dubay implies you will? No, of course not. And it is the same with the cannonballs and helicopter and parachutists in his examples.

In fact, if Dubay was right, you couldn’t even pass a cup of coffee to your friend, without it slopping over the back of the cup.

Yet again, you don’t have to take my word, or ask one of those scientists that Mr Dubay says are all conspiring against us. Try it for yourself. 

And like the other test  I’ve already described, you will find that Dubay scores nil points.

1 comment:

  1. It's worse! Objects retain the same speed above the ground, but since they are farther away from the center of Earth, they have a greater circle to travel and would actually need *more* speed. What would you expect? That things falling from a large height are deflected *eastwards* ... well, what was this about Baumgartner again?

    And there have been numerous experiments which agreed well with the predictions:
    https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallexperimente_zum_Nachweis_der_Erdrotation

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