User:Tom Bishop

Unorganized Notes Page

This section contains unorganized notes, links for further reference, and works in progress.

=Works in Progress=

Below are works in progress, and an area for miscellaneous notes. The content may change significantly or be rearranged.

Lighthouses of the World Water Level Devices Curvature Compression Test Standard Refraction Electromagnetic Acceleration Evidence for Electromagnetic Acceleration Bishop Experiment Airy's Failure Phases of the Moon Sinking Ship Effect Caused by Refraction Sinking Ship Effect Caused by Limits to Optical Resolution Lunar Eclipse Criticisms Scale Experiments Perspective Sunrise and Sunset Cosmology Has Some Big Problems Mechanical Gyroscopes Distances in the South Opinions of the Press Air Navigation Aviation Red Shift of Galaxies Cosmological Principle Rotation and Revolution

Bridges Railroads Distant Islands Sunken Oil Platform

Weight Variation by Latitude Time Dilation by Latitude

Feynman - https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/richard_p_feynman_160383

Naval Shipping

Professionals and Military Personnel -- Flat Earth

Expert Series: Flat Earth

Coriolis
Sorry, Wrong Answer: Trivia Questions That Even Know-It-Alls Get Wrong By Rod L. Evans Ph.D.

http://aventalearning.com/content168staging/2008EarthScienceA/unit5/section2g.html

https://sciencestruck.com/coriolis-effect

http://www.scienceprojectideas.co.uk/bottling-tornado.html

A Student's Guide to Earth Science

Smarter Every Day Coriolis Demo
https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/science-culture/the-coriolis-and-the-commode

Lunar Eclipse
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2005HiA....13.1055F

The way in which pre-Hispanic people predicted the eclipses by carefully observing the Sun's and Moon's trajectories can be explained to students by telling them that since the paths of the sun and moon form a 5 degree angle, and their apparent motion is different, the moon moves slower, one can incer when the trajectories will cross.

EA
The Elecromagnetic Accelerator predicts that the Lunar Eclipse will occur when the Full Moon occurs about 180 Latitude Degrees from the Sun's position. Presuming that the Sun and the Moon travel on essentially the same paths, albeit at different rates, and that the Full Moon represents the time when the Moon is furthest from the Sun. At this time a Lunar Eclipse will occur. It is shown graphically that 180 degrees marks the spot where the Moon is furthest from the Sun. Other Full Moon may occur at about 172 - 178 and 182 to 188 degrees latitude from the Sun, and will not cause an Eclipse.

The Lunar Eclipses according to the Elecromagnetic Accelerator predicts that over the course of a Lunar Month, the Full Moon will be the South-Most position of the Moon. This may be confirmed in applications such as Stellarium.

Scale Experiment Notes
"A body's weight or mass doesn't change in the presence of air or not. The problem is that scales actually don't measure weight (or mass). What they measures is the difference between the body's weight and its upward Archimedes' push made by air on it."

claim

temperature map

Wikipedia Altitude: All other things being equal, an increase in altitude from sea level to 9,000 metres (30,000 ft) causes a weight decrease of about 0.29%.

Wikipedia Latitude: "In combination, the equatorial bulge and the effects of the surface centrifugal force due to rotation mean that sea-level gravity increases from about 9.780 m/s2 at the Equator to about 9.832 m/s2 at the poles, so an object will weigh approximately 0.5% more at the poles than at the Equator"

temperature affect on scale notes:

"The only thing that matters is that you calibrate it in the same environment and on the same place on your bench as when you are using it. Don't cal the scale at 40* and then use it when it's 80*. Let everything stablize and calibrate; you'll be just fine. It doesn't hurt to double check things after every 100 rounds. Also, anytime I get interupted or have to take a break, I will re-check the cal on the scale."

https://www.vacumed.com/318.html

Deception of the Douglas Bag Validation Method - What is the Gold Standard of Incompetence?

"Would you take a medication knowing that a pharmacy used an uncalibrated scale to weigh its ingredients? Would you board a plane knowing that the fuel or altitude gauges are not calibrated at frequent intervals?

In these and thousands of other applications scientific bases and rules of metrology must be obeyed to assure chaos-free operation of modern societies. To scrutinize performance of measuring devices a process of calibration must be carried out by means of applying a known standard and getting back a correct reading."

Things that affect scales:

https://www.jaking.com/resources/articles/accuracy-and-repeatability-of-your-balance/

https://bitesizebio.com/33245/drift-measurements-analytical-balances/

"Pharmaceutical laboratories and bioscience research institutes make extensive use of analytical balances that are highly sensitive. These analytical balances are greatly affected by their environment and also by the way they are installed and handled."

Uncalibrated bathroom scales inaccurate - https://thewirecutter.com/blog/can-i-trust-my-bathroom-scale/

Barometer
A scale that measures the weight of the atmosphere is called the "barometer".

Air pressure does not affect the scale trivially. See the following illustration and text:

https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/fair-or-foul-how-to-use-a-barometer/



Seismic
Ring Laser Gyroscope Ring Laser Gyroscope - Seismology

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.02789.pdf

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1702.02789.pdf

Bi-Polar Model
Bi-Polar Model

Mainstream Astronomy

 * NOAA Solar Calculator
 * Celestial Mechanics Cannot Predict The Solar System
 * Problems of the Solar System

Topics Related to Relativity

 * Fizeau Experiment
 * Deflection of Light by the Sun

Other

 * Gravimetry -- fix misc

Flat Earth Star Trails
To review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkDqdoINhYI

Astronomical Nutation
Nutation is Unexplained

Project Longstop - Consider simplifying with references

=Notes=

Medical
The American Association for the Advancement of Science lists him as Dr. Samuel Rowbotham in his 1885 obit, as does the obit in Eng. Mechanic and World of Science. The Bookseller obituary confirms he was a practicing doctor of medicine as a "legitimate profession with great success.

Rowbotham's work is cited in medical journals.

https://books.google.com/books?id=atPGizuKTYoC&dq=Rowbotham%20phosphorus&pg=PA650#v=onepage&q=Rowbotham%20phosphorus&f=false

https://i.imgur.com/X4xkYXn.png

Advertisement:

https://books.google.com/books?id=VE4EAAAAQAAJ&dq=Dr.%20Birley%20Medical%20degree%20phosphorus&pg=RA4-PR2#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://i.imgur.com/0TgprJE.png

Ballistic Missiles
Papers showing that missiles were designed to assume a Flat Earth:

Internal Guidance of Ballistic Missiles (1971) http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/722291.pdf

Videos:

NAVY Missile Instructor says that no earth curvature or rotation is assumed

History
https://books.google.com/books?id=lbPN34fg760C&lpg=SA5-PA69&ots=o7Dx-iQUw1&dq=Mathematical%20Thought%20from%20Ancient%20to%20Modern%20Times%20%22epicycle%22&pg=SA5-PA68#v=onepage&q&f=false

Gravitational Redshift
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.09253.pdf

=Navigation=

Rescheduled flights: http://ifers.123.st/t69p25-flight-routes-shipping-routes-under-sea-cables

Flat Earth - Flights from Sydney to Houston fly NORTH of Hawaii - Earth Not a Globe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=NuaP78vk440

Sleddog Speeds
https://books.google.com/books?id=tX8uKopy_XUC&lpg=PA117&ots=kFEHou90dT&dq=Alaskan%20%E2%80%9CIditarod%E2%80%9D%20race%20of%201047%20miles%20from%20Anchorage%20to%20Nome%2075%20miles%20per%20day&pg=PA117#v=onepage&q&f=false

txt: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12198311400/print

Latitude Origin
https://books.google.com/books?id=lW8DYSPa6fEC&lpg=PP1&dq=longitude%20discrepancy&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://i.imgur.com/WOAF25a.png

Nullschool Map
https://web.archive.org/web/20170731230036/https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/azimuthal_equidistant=8.36,3.57,136

Jet Streams
https://books.google.com/books?id=vsodESrwdm4C&lpg=PA183&dq=%22jet%20streams%22%20%22southern%20hemisphere%22%20%22miles%20per%20hour%22&pg=PA183#v=onepage&q=50%20miles%20per%20hour&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=vsodESrwdm4C&lpg=PA183&dq=%22jet%20streams%22%20%22southern%20hemisphere%22%20%22miles%20per%20hour%22&pg=PA183#v=onepage&q=50%20miles%20per%20hour&f=false

https://i.imgur.com/d0NUCyD.png

Jet Streams Enable Faster Than Sound Flight
https://www.wired.com/story/norwegian-air-transatlantic-speed-record/

Jeran Video - Jet Streams SH
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaDw-6sslrc

Trade Winds and South Pacific Gyre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds#/media/File:Map_prevailing_winds_on_earth.png

South Pacific Gyre

http://thejunkwave.com/what-is-a-gyre/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/South_Pacific_Gyre.png

Another illustration: https://books.google.com/books?id=bOg0EqqrDRgC&lpg=PA133&dq=%22jet%20streams%22%20%22southern%20hemisphere%22&pg=PA153#v=onepage&q=%22jet%20streams%22%20%22southern%20hemisphere%22&f=false

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151009-where-is-the-windiest-place-on-earth

GPC and Lat-Lon distances
The coordinate system a GPS uses assumes that the coordinate points rest upon a sphere. The location of one coordinate point may be "accurate", but the distance between multiple coordinate points relies upon the Round Earth model, as Latitude and Longitude is a spherical coordinate system, and is therefore in dispute in these conversations.

Flights over the Southern Oceans
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/magazine/2001-2005/issue-4-spring-2002/feature2/what-is-the-southern-ocean

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20151009-where-is-the-windiest-place-on-earth

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2003JD004179

Listed Flight Times Skewed
http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/airlines-airports/why-flights-take-longer

A study which says they are skewing flight times:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/Are-airlines-exaggerating-flight-times-so-theyre-never-late/

WGS 1984
https://www.gpsworld.com/data-collection-of-wgs-84-information-or-is-it/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Plane_Coordinate_System

Background to NAD83

https://gisgeography.com/geodetic-datums-nad27-nad83-wgs84/

Datum definition:

https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/~frazier/RSpatialGuides/OverviewCoordinateReferenceSystems.pdf

Truth Tokens -Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) conformal projection

https://web.archive.org/web/20181115035011/http://truthtokens.com/map/?upm_export=print

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/civil-3d-forum/coordinates-system/td-p/3179510

Hi All,

I think my question is for people who are living in WA, or someone know much about US coordinate systems: What is World Geodetic System of 1984 and how's difference between it and NAD83 Washtington state planes?

Thank you,

Re: Coordinates System WGS-84 is a coordinate system designed for world-wide navigation. It takes into account the spherical nature of the planet. The coordinates are given in deg-min-sec format, common with polar coordinates, for latitude and longitude.

The Washington state plane system is a square coordinate system specific for the state of Washington. It supposes a flat plane across the face of the state. Northing and Easting are given in feet, based on straight line-of-sight distance.

Transformations Between NAD83 and WGS84

https://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/Articles/WGS84NAD83.pdf

=Relativity=

https://books.google.com/books?id=kEjeQwNSIpoC&lpg=PA14&dq=gravity%20experiment%20paradox&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false

American Association for the Advancement of Science is publishing content which states that SR has been disproved through its EurekaAlert website:

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-03/ngpi-tst030116.php

On Sagnac:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/a0bc/0dfe3a7809b3adeff723aeea6363f3272850.pdf

Relativity and Accelerating Upwards:

https://books.google.com/books?id=FFQjDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT34&lpg=PT34&dq=%22earth+pushing+you%22&source=bl&ots=MV9ROmx5Eu&sig=ACfU3U17gR2YnIJbxFhEuRhKz2cR-mVBgQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjaoLf6xMHiAhUPpFkKHTqqAMwQ6AEwDXoECB0QAQ#v=onepage&q=%22earth%20pushing%20you%22&f=false

Sagnac:

https://books.google.com/books?id=XVLmihZnsvUC&lpg=PA44&ots=Xy3Lnlpnag&dq=1942%20Dufour-Prunier&pg=PA55#v=onepage&q&f=false

From Unified Field Mechanics II by Richard L. Amoroso, Louis H. Kauffman, Peter Rowlands, and Gianni Albertini we see:

https://books.google.com/books?id=W4RIDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA307&pg=PA307#v=onepage&q&f=false

Reasons SR is wrong: http://www.harkess.org.uk/reasons_einstein_wrong/reasons_einstein_wrong.html

Moon
http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel/pages/moonteaching.html



From Cornell University for the Northern Hemisphere:

The direction of Moonrise changes quite drastically over 14 days, moving over quite extreme ranges South to North.

Earth-Moon System
From University of Arizona:



Right Angle Triangle


Triangle Calculator:

Input:

Angle A: 5.01 Adjacent Side: 238900 Angle B: 90

Output:

Opposite Side: 21,321.257

Angular Diameter Calculator
Take the above value of 21321.257 and 238900 and put it into an angular diameter calculator. This will tell us the number of degrees in the sky the space of 21321.257 miles will make if it were at the distance to the Round Earth moon.

https://rechneronline.de/sehwinkel/angular-diameter.php



Input: g = 21321.257 r = 238900

Output: a = 5.11 degrees

The above suggests that the moon must travel a path that is within 5.11 degrees from the ecliptic at all times.

Shift of the Ecliptic
To calculate the maximum amount the ecliptic of the sun can shift in the sky to perspective depending on where you stand on earth above (or below) the plane of the ecliptic which bisects the earth, we may do the following:

Opposite Side: 3,963 (radius of the earth in miles) Angle A: 90 Degrees Adjacent Side: 238,900 (distance to the moon in miles)

Angle B: 0.95 Degrees

Measuring the Sky
Timeanddate.com has provided a handy guide to measuring the sky. When holding one's hand at arms length 5 degrees will take up about three fingers of space.

https://wiki.tfes.org/images/7/73/Measuring-sky-with-hand.png

EAT
https://news.softpedia.com/news/Light-Can-Bend-While-Moving-265679.shtml

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012/04/light-bends-itself

https://physicsworld.com/a/light-bends-itself-round-corners/

Criticisms of Special Relativity Criticisms of Relativity Theory

Quote: "The most visible point I've seen is that the seasonal star constellations you know well (Orion in my case) will be seen as inverted if you change the hemisphere. The moon and sun position also change greatly. I'm not aware of any ideas that incorporate this."

Moon Tilt
Prof. Alan Myers - http://www.upenn.edu/emeritus/essays/MyersMoon.html

moon phases illustration p.19 - https://starlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/D.-25.-Moon-Cylinder-v616.pdf

stack exchange - https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/14809/sun-and-moon-anomally

Moon Terminator Illusion

Conspiracy
Mars - Devon Island

Clouds Lit from Below
Alt Explanation: https://epod.usra.edu/blog/2017/02/clouds-lit-from-below.html

Quotes
"Have you ever directly experienced anything in your entire life that would lead you to believe you were living on a sphere hurtling through space? If you hadn't been repeatedly told it was true, would you ever suspect that it was?

There's your proof: your own eyes."

Newton Divine
P. Kelly, LL. D. in his Metrology; Or, an Exposition of Weights and Measures (1816) comments on p.10:

Southern Hemisphere
https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84024350/1897-01-31/ed-1/?sp=22&r=0.484,0.427,0.91,0.358,0

Questions and Answers
Q: Does this model of the phases predict anything that RET does not?

A: According to the above rule-of-thumb table from Cornell University during the phases between New Moon and 1st Quarter (Half Moon) the Moon will not set in the sky until a time between Sunset (New) and Local Midnight (1st Quarter), meaning that the range of Crescent Moon phases will be seen during the night. In the Flat Earth Moon Phase diagrams above we can see how this can be possible -- of the nine phase examples arranged in a circle, it takes about two 'sections' for the celestial bodies to set from an overhead position. The Crescent Moon will overlap into the night time.

However, according to the geometric model of the phases in RET, a Crescent Moon appearing in the sky into late hours of the night is difficult to explain with the Round Earth model.

John Savage at Savage Plane explains the matter in an article and a video here:

Impossible Heliocentric Moon Phases Explained - Savage Plane (Archive)

The authors of the article even identify some dates in 2019 for when the Crescent Moon is seen past midnight for locations in the Northern Hemisphere -- which may be possible in the above Flat Earth model since locations in the Northern Hemisphere are closer to the center, but hard to explain with the Round Earth schema where those locations are geometrically pointing away from the daylight side. A gibbous moon seen during the day is another issue, essentially the reverse of the above, and is also discussed.

Flattened at the Poles
Of interest, when reviewing the history of weight changes by latitude we find that the nature of the Earth was changed because the theory did not meet the result. This is the origin of the flattening of the poles.

From Voltaire we see:

From Encyclopedia Brittanica's article on Jean Richer:

Mountain-Gravity
http://www.michaelbeeson.com/interests/GreatMoments/Chimborazo.pdf

http://milesmathis.com/schie.pdf

Mine-Gravity
https://web.archive.org/web/20180208095856/https://www.lockhaven.edu/~dsimanek/hollow/mcnair.htm

Time Dilation by Latitude
https://motls.blogspot.com/ by Luboš Motl (bio)

https://motls.blogspot.com/2014/07/is-time-going-slowly-near-equator.html

Moonbounce
https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/qw30x/can_an_amateur_astronomer_test_the_lunar_laser/

Q: Can an amateur astronomer test the Lunar Laser Ranging RetroReflector?

A: I was a grad student on the APOLLO (Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser Ranging Operation) project that was shown on Mythbusters. The short answer is no way. You need laser that can shoot enough photons in a short pulse that you'll get some back in the return pulse (shoot 1017 green 532 nm photons per pulse). You need sensitive detectors because, even if you shoot 1017 photons up, you're only going to get about 1 photon back (we used avalanche photodiodes). You need fancy filters and timing electronics, because, when you are only getting 1 photon back, you need to turn the detectors on in as little a time as possible to minimize false detections from background light. You need a big telescope to maximize the number of photons you get (we used the 3.5 meter telescope at Apache Point). And you need to set this all up in a place with minimal background light and minimal atmospheric distortion (seeing). http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/apparatus.html I guess you could do all these things on your own, but you would need about $1 million and a couple years of time to set it up.

Water Convexity
Other experiments to review, comments section of https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/flat-earthers-are-the-most-dedicated-trolls-ever/

Gravity by Altitude
The following author says that, although he believes that gravity decreases with altitude, that the experiments in the literature do not take factors related to the atmosphere into account and calls for better experiments.

Unchecked Aspects of Variation of Acceleration due to Gravity with Altitude Ajay Sharma

https://www.gsjournal.net/Science-Journals/Research%20Papers-Astrophysics/Download/3606

Lunar Laser Ranging
http://cds.cern.ch/record/518975/files/0109063.pdf

Or, in other words, a null result.

After 40 years' reflection, laser moon mirror project is axed

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/jun/21/mcdonald-observatory-space-laser-funding (Archive)

Government funded:

Used by NASA as evidence for Apollo:

https://cddis.nasa.gov/lw19/docs/2014/Presentations/Degnan_Colloquium_presentation.pdf

Two new LLR stations were developed to compete with MLRS: CERGA LLR at Grasse in Southern France and a NASA funded site on Mt. Haleakala operated by the University of Hawaii.

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/06may_lunarranging/

"Lunar laser ranging is one of the most important tools we have for searching for flaws in Einstein's general theory of relativity," says Slava Turyshev, a research scientist at JPL who works with Jim Williams and others on the project.

-

All of the phases were influenced by NASA. NASA is the customer and can easily say "we want the software to be developed by our external team" or "we want so and so to head this program".

When the government funds projects they don't just say "here's several million dollars, go wild", they go into it with clear rules and structure.

Some of the people on this project even freely identify themselves as working for NASA. From the press releases on the APOLLO website (second one down in the list of press releases):

http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/

Jim Williams is also a JPL employee --

"Jim Williams, a physicist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)"

According to this press release, James Williams, the aforementioned JPL eployee, is directing the research ---

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/14/science/moon-s-dust-hides-a-throbbing-heart.html?src=pm

Finding out what's inside the Moon isn't simple, said Dr. James G. Williams, who directs the research.

Seems that NASA is not only providing the software, they're directing the research as well.

-

The lunar ranging equipment at the Apache Point Observatory seen in the show is supported and funded by NASA --

http://physics.ucsd.edu/~tmurphy/apollo/

"Finally, we thank NASA for supporting APOLLO and enabling it to get "off the ground", and more recently, a joint effort by NASA and the National Science Foundation to fund APOLLO at a level that will allow project completion and production of the first science results."

NASA could have easily built or modified the equipment or software to show the results they wanted, which is what a fake space agency would do to "prove" themselves. You're asking us to trust NASA that NASA is honest.

Points:

- The project is funded by NASA - The project is controlled by NASA, by virtue of being funded by them - NASA scientists are working on the project - The software for the project is admitted to come from NASA

Australia
https://www.news.com.au/travel/australian-holidays/queensland/google-maps-agrees-to-sort-its-inflated-distances-in-the-queensland-outback/news-story/a38f729e4791d19d0d81fefe575250d6

Cosmological Principle
See https://www.cathinfo.com/fighting-errors-in-the-modern-world/the-earthmovers/525/

Geocentric Quotes
See

sagnac, morley, etc.

see

Equivalence Principle
Why does an apple fall from a tree? Why do all objects accelerate towards earth at 9.8 m/s^2? The 'out-of-the-box answer' is that the objects themselves don't move. It's the ground that rushes up! Regardless whether attached to the tree or not, Newton's apple is suspended motionless: it's earth's surface that accelerates up and meets the apple. This simple insight immediately explains why all objects regardless their mass accelerate at the same pace of 9.8 m/s^2.

"“being on the surface of the Earth is equivalent to being inside a spaceship (far from any sources of gravity) that is being accelerated by its engines”

Rotation and Revolution
"We know that the difference between a heliocentric theory and a geocentric theory is one of relative motion only, and that such a difference has no physical significance."

- Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle

"People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations, For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations. You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that."

- George Ellis, a famous cosmologist, in Scientific American, "Thinking Globally, Acting Universally", October 1995

"The struggle, so violent in the early days of science, between the views of Ptolemy and Copernicus would then be quite meaningless. Either CS could be used with equal justification. The two sentences, 'the sun is at rest and the earth moves,' or 'the sun moves and the earth is at rest,' would simply mean two different conventions concerning two different CS."

- Einstein and Infeld, The Evolution of Physics, p.212 (p.248 in original 1938 ed.) (Note: CS = coordinate system)

“Accordingly, since nothing prevents the earth from moving, I suggest that we should now consider also whether several motions suit it, so that it can be regarded as one of the planets. For, it is not the center of all the revolutions.”

-Nicolaus Copernicus

“I demonstrate by means of philosophy that the earth is round, and is inhabited on all sides; that it is insignificantly small, and is borne through the stars.”

- Johannes Kepler

“We might hope therefore that the Einstein theory, which is well suited to such problems, would throw more light on the matter. But instead of adding further support to the heliocentric picture of the planetary motions, the Einstein theory goes in the opposite direction, giving increased respectability to the geocentric picture”

- Sir Fred Hoyle, Nicolaus Copernicus: An Essay on His Life and Work, p. 87

Misc Quotes
"I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."

" Plato is my friend - Aristotle is my friend - but my greatest friend is truth."……."Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."

-Sir Isaac Newton (“describer” of universal gravitation and the three laws of motion)

Copernican Principle
“A fundamental presupposition of modern cosmology is the Copernican Principle, that we are not in a central, or otherwise special region of the Universe. Studies of Type Ia supernovae, together with the Copernican principle, have led to the inference that the Universe is accelerating in its expansion. The usual explanation for this is that there must exist a ‘Dark Energy,’ to drive the acceleration. Alternatively, it could be the case that the Copernican Principle is invalid, and that the data has been interpreted within an inappropriate theoretical framework. If we were to live in a special place in the Universe, near the centre of a void where the local matter density is low, then the supernovae observations would be accounted for without the addition of dark energy.”

- Timothy Clifton, Oxford Astrophysics Member, BSc, PhD.

-

(T. Clifton, et al, “Living in a Void: Testing the Copernican Principle with Distant Supernovae,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (13): 1302 (Sep 2008).

“…the universe might look the same in every direction as seen from any other galaxy, too. This, as we have seen, was Friedmann’s second assumption. We have no scientific evidence for, or against, this assumption. We believe it only on grounds of modesty.”

- Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time, p. 42 (Bantam, 1988).

-

His co-author in another book, George F. R. Ellis admits much the same:

“This assumption is made because it is believed to be unreasonable that we should be near the center of the Universe.”

- George F. R. Ellis, “Is the Universe Expanding?” General Relativity and Gravitation 9 (2): 92 (1978).

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“...all this evidence that the universe looks the same whichever direction we look in might seem to suggest there is something special about our place in the universe. In particular, it might seem that if we observe all other galaxies to be moving away from us, then we must be at the center of the universe.”

- Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time

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“In the Friedman universe, one possible interpretation of the coordinates is that the whole space is on the surface of an expanding balloon and has no center… [But] in such a universe, there is no cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole, even in the presence of a peculiar velocity. In other words, the observation of a CMB dipole excludes such an interpretation of the coordinates for the Friedman universe.”

- Y. Tomozawa, “The CMB Dipole and Existence of a Center for Expansion of the Universe,” Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, p. 2 (2 Feb 2008).

-

“Additionally, we must take seriously the idea that the acceleration apparently indicated by supernova data could be due to large scale inhomogeneity with no dark energy. Observational tests of the latter possibility are as important as pursuing the dark energy (exotic physics) option in a homogeneous universe.

Theoretical prejudices as to the universe’s geometry, and our place in it, must bow to such observational tests. Precisely because of the foundational nature of the Copernican Principle for standard cosmology, we need to fully check this foundation. And one must emphasize here that standard CMB anisotropy studies do not prove the Copernican principle: they assume it at the start.”

- George Ellis, “Inhomogeneity Effects in Cosmology,” arXiv:1103.2335v1 (Mar 2011).

-

“Studies of the cosmic background radiation have confirmed the isotropy of the radiation, or its complete uniformity in all directions. If the universe possesses a center, we must be very close to it…otherwise, excessive observable anisotropy in the radiation intensity would be produced, and we would detect more radiation from one direction than from the opposite direction.”

- Joseph Silk of the University of California, "The Big Bang: The Creation and Evolution of the Universe", p. 53 (W. H. Freeman, 1980).

-

"Although dark energy may seem a bit contrived to some, the Oxford theorists are proposing an even more outrageous alternative. They point out that it's possible that we simply live in a very special place in the universe - specifically, we're in a huge void where the density of matter is particularly low. The suggestion flies in the face of the Copernican Principle, which is one of the most useful and widely held tenets in physics.

Copernicus was among the first scientists to argue that we're not in a special place in the universe, and that any theory that suggests that we're special is most likely wrong. The principle led directly to the replacement of the Earth-centered concept of the solar system with the more elegant sun-centered model.

Dark energy may seem like a stretch, but it's consistent with the venerable Copernican Principle. The proposal that we live in a special place in the universe, on the other hand, is likely to shock many scientists."

- Dark Energy: Is It Merely An Illusion? ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2008)

SOURCE: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080926184749.htm

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“A widespread idea in cosmology is that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic above a certain scale. This hypothesis, usually called the cosmological principle, is thought to be a generalization of the Copernican principle that “the Earth is not in a central, specially favored position”. The assumption is that any observer at any place at the same epoch would see essentially the same picture of the large scale distribution of galaxies in the universe.

However, according to a Fourier analysis by Hartnett & Hirano, the galaxy number count N from redshift z data (N–z relation) indicates that galaxies have preferred periodic redshift spacings.........A natural interpretation is that concentric spherical shells of higher galaxy number densities surround us, with their individual centers situated at our location.”

- Professor Shigeo Hirano, "Observational tests for oscillating expansion rate of the Universe" Physical Review D, 2010.

“The departures from uniformity are positive; the numbers of nebulae increase faster than the volume of space through which they are scattered. Thus the density of the nebulae distribution increases outwards, symmetrically in all directions, leaving the observer in a unique position. Such a favoured position, of course, is intolerable; moreover, it represents a discrepancy with the theory, because the theory postulates homogeneity. Therefore, in order to restore homogeneity, and to escape the horror of a unique position, the departures from uniformity, which are introduced by the recession factors, must be compensated by the second term representing effects of spatial curvature.”

-E. Hubble The Observational Approach to Cosmology, 1937, p.58

Cosmological Principle
"Dark Energy is problematic. No one really knows what it is. We can make an educated guess, and use quantum theory to estimate how much of it there might be, but then we overshoot by an astounding factor of 10120. That is grounds enough, says George Ellis…to take a hard look at our assumptions about the universe and our place in it. “If we analyse the supernova data by assuming the Copernican principle is correct and get out something unphysical, I think we should start questioning the Copernican principle…. Whatever our theoretical predilections, they will in the end have to give way to the observational evidence.”

So what would it mean if…the outcome were that the Copernican principle is wrong? It would certainly require a seismic reassessment of what we know about the universe….If the Copernican Principle fails, all that goes [with] that goes out the window too….Cosmology would be back at the drawing board. If we are in a void, answering how we came to be in such a privileged spot in the universe would be even trickier."

- Marcus Chown, “Is the Earth at the Heart of a Giant Cosmic Void? New Scientist, Nov. 12, 2008, pp. 32‐35.

“…the universe might look the same in every direction as seen from any other galaxy, too. This, as we have seen, was Friedmann’s second assumption. We have no scientific evidence for, or against, this assumption. We believe it only on grounds of modesty.”

- Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time, p. 42 (Bantam, 1988).

His co-author in another book, George F. R. Ellis admits much the same:

“This assumption is made because it is believed to be unreasonable that we should be near the center of the Universe.”

- George F. R. Ellis, “Is the Universe Expanding?” General Relativity and Gravitation 9 (2): 92 (1978).

“...all this evidence that the universe looks the same whichever direction we look in might seem to suggest there is something special about our place in the universe. In particular, it might seem that if we observe all other galaxies to be moving away from us, then we must be at the center of the universe.”

- Steven Hawking, A Brief History of Time

“In the Friedman universe, one possible interpretation of the coordinates is that the whole space is on the surface of an expanding balloon and has no center… [But] in such a universe, there is no cosmic microwave background (CMB) dipole, even in the presence of a peculiar velocity. In other words, the observation of a CMB dipole excludes such an interpretation of the coordinates for the Friedman universe.”

- Y. Tomozawa, “The CMB Dipole and Existence of a Center for Expansion of the Universe,” Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Michigan, p. 2 (2 Feb 2008).

“Additionally, we must take seriously the idea that the acceleration apparently indicated by supernova data could be due to large scale inhomogeneity with no dark energy. Observational tests of the latter possibility are as important as pursuing the dark energy (exotic physics) option in a homogeneous universe.

Theoretical prejudices as to the universe’s geometry, and our place in it, must bow to such observational tests. Precisely because of the foundational nature of the Copernican Principle for standard cosmology, we need to fully check this foundation. And one must emphasize here that standard CMB anisotropy studies do not prove the Copernican principle: they assume it at the start.”

- George Ellis, “Inhomogeneity Effects in Cosmology,” arXiv:1103.2335v1 (Mar 2011).

“Often the simplest of observations will have the most profound consequences. It has long been a cornerstone of modern science, to say nothing of man’s cosmic outlook, that the Earth attends a modest star that shines in an undistinguished part of a run-of-the-mill galaxy. Life arose spontaneously and man evolved on this miscellaneous clump of matter and now directs his own destiny without outside help. This cosmic model is supported by the Big-Bang and Expanding Universe concepts, which in turn are buttressed by the simple observation that astronomers see redshifts wherever they look. These redshifts are due, of course, to matter flying away from us under the impetus of the Big Bang. But redshifts can also arise from the gravitational attraction of mass. If the Earth were at the center of the universe, the attraction of the surrounding mass of stars would also produce redshifts wherever we looked! The argument advanced by George Ellis in this article is more complex than this, but his basic thrust is to put man back into a favored position in the cosmos. His new theory seems quite consistent with our astronomical observations, even though it clashes with the thought that we are godless and making it on our own.”

- Editor of Nature Magazine, Paul C. W. Davies.

Map reveals strange cosmos

By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor

The best map yet of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Radiation - the so-called echo of the Big Bang - shows the Universe may not be the same in all directions.

The image has been produced from data collected by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (Map), which was launched in 2001.

"It is a photo of the most distant thing we can see; our best photo yet," said Dr Max Tegmark, of the University of Pennsylvania, US, who processed the image.

Dr Tegmark and colleagues present the CMB as a sphere: "The entire observable Universe is inside this sphere, with us at the centre of it."

~

Having produced the cleanest map of the CMB yet, Dr Tegmark displayed it in an unusual manner. Instead of a flat projection on a computer screen, he showed the data as ripples on a sphere - "after all the CMB comes from a sphere", he says.

"Space continues outside the sphere but this opaque glowing wall of hydrogen plasma hides it from our view. If we could only see another 380,000 light-years we would be able to see the beginning of the Universe," he told BBC News Online.

Looking for evidence

And he added: "We found something very bizarre; there is some extra, so far unexplained structure in the CMB.

"We had expected that the microwave background would be truly isotropic, with no preferred direction in space but that may not be the case."

Looking at the symmetry of the CMB - measures technically called its octopole and quadrupole components - the researchers uncovered a curious pattern.

They had expected to see no pattern at all but what they saw was anything but random.

"The octopole and quadrupole components are arranged in a straight line across the sky, along a kind of cosmic equator. That's weird.

"We don't think this is due to foreground contamination," Dr Tegmark said. "It could be telling us something about the shape of space on the largest scales. We did not expect this and we cannot yet explain it."

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2814947.stm

The uniform distribution of burst arrival directions tells us that the distribution of gamma-ray-burst sources in space is a sphere or spherical shell, with us at the center (some other extremely contrived and implausible distributions are also possible). But Copernicus taught us that we are not in a special preferred position in the universe; Earth is not at the center of the solar system, the Sun is not at the center of the galaxy, and so forth. There is no reason to believe we are at the center of the distribution of gamma-ray bursts. If our instruments are sensitive enough to detect bursts at the edge of the spatial distribution, then they should not be isotropic on the sky, contrary to observation; if our instruments are less sensitive, then the N ∝ S-3/2 law should hold, also contrary to observation. That is the Copernican dilemma. To this day, after the detection of several thousand bursts, and despite earnest efforts to show the contrary, no deviation from a uniform random distribution (isotropy) in the directions of gamma-ray bursts on the sky has ever been convincingly demonstrated.”

- Jonathan I. Katz, The Biggest Bangs: The Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts, The Most Violent Explosions in the Universe, pp. 84, 90-91 (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Redshift
"It is shown that the cosmological interpretation of the red shift in the spectra of quasars leads to yet another paradoxical result: namely, that the Earth is the center of the Universe."

“The Earth is indeed the center of the Universe. The arrangement of quasars on certain spherical shells is only with respect to the Earth. These shells would disappear if viewed from another galaxy or quasar. This means that the cosmological principle will have to go. Also it implies that a coordinate system fixed to the Earth will be a preferred frame of reference in the Universe. Consequently, both the Special and General Theory of Relativity must be abandoned for cosmological purposes.”

- Y. P. Varshni, “The Red Shift Hypothesis for Quasars: Is the Earth the Center of the Universe?” Astrophysics and Space Science 43 (1): 3 (1976).

Scientific American Article
The Case Against Copernicus p.72

"Copernicus’s revolutionary theory that Earth travels around the sun upended more than a millennium’s worth of scientific and religious wisdom. Most scientists refused to accept this theory for many decades—even after Galileo made his epochal observations with his telescope. Their objections were not only theological. Observational evidence supported a competing cosmology—the “geoheliocentrism” of Tycho Brahe. Copernicus famously said that Earth revolves around the sun. But opposition to this revolutionary idea didn’t come just from the religious authorities. Evidence favored a different cosmology."

"Rather than give up their theory in the face of seemingly incontrovertible evidence, Copernicans were forced to appeal to divine omnipotence."

On the giant stars dilemma: http://nautil.us/issue/60/searches/the-popular-creation-story-of-astronomy-is-wrong

General Relativity
“General Relativity has passed every solar-system test with flying colors. Yet so have alternative theories”

- Physicist Clifford Will - “The Confrontation Between Gravitation Theory and Experiment,” General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, ed., Stephen W. Hawking, 1979, p. 62

"In my scientific activity, I am always hampered by the same mathematical difficulties, which make it impossible for me to confirm or refute my general relativist field theory."

- Einstein, Letter to Maurice Solovine, November 25, 1948).

"I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on the field concept, i.e., continuous structures. In that case, nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included, [and of] the rest of modern physics"

- Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein, 1982, 2005, p. 467

Aether
Dirac in 1951 published a Letter to Nature titled Is There an Aether?(2) in which he showed that the objections to an aether posed by Relativity were removed by Quantum Mechanics, and that in his reformulation of electrodynamics the vector potential was a velocity.(3) He concludes the Letter with 'We have now the velocity(2) at all points of space-time, playing a fundamental part in electrodynamics. It is natural to regard it as the velocity of some real physical thing. Thus with the new theory of electrodynamics we are rather forced to have an aether'.

An Aether Model of the Universe

http://www.epola.co.uk/rothwarf/aethermodel.pdf

It is ironic that Einstein’s most creative work, the general theory of relativity, should boil down to conceptualizing space as a medium when his original premise was that no such medium existed…. Einstein… utterly rejected the idea of ether and inferred from its nonexistence that the equations of electromagnetism had to be relative. But this same thought process led in the end to the very ether he had first rejected, albeit one with some special properties that ordinary elastic matter does not have. The word “ether” has extremely negative connotations in theoretical physics because of its past association with opposition to relativity. This is unfortunate because, stripped of these connotations, it rather nicely captures the way most physicists actually think about the vacuum.

In the early days of relativity the conviction that light must be waves of something ran so strong that Einstein was widely dismissed. Even when Michelson and Morley demonstrated that the earth’s orbital motion through the ether could not be detected, opponents argued that the earth must be dragging an envelope of ether along with it because relativity was lunacy and could not possibly be right…. Relativity actually says nothing about the existence or nonexistence of matter pervading the universe, only that such matter must have relativistic symmetry.

It turns out that such matter exists. About the time relativity was becoming accepted, studies of radioactivity began showing that the empty vacuum of space had spectroscopic structure similar to that of ordinary quantum solids and fluids. Subsequent studies with large particle accelerators have now led us to understand that space is more like a piece of window glass than ideal Newtonian emptiness. It is filled with “stuff” that is normally transparent but can be made visible by hitting it sufficiently hard to knock out a part. The modern concept of the vacuum of space, confirmed every day by experiment, is a relativistic ether. But we do not call it this because it is taboo."

- Robert B. Laughlin (1993 Nobel laureate in physics), "A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down", 2005, pp. 120-121).

“According to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there would not only be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense”

- Albert Einstein, “Geometry and Experience,” in Sidelights on Relativity, 1983, p. 30

"Everything becomes clear if the idea that particles always have a position in space through time is brought back…. According to my current thinking, the particle is always located within a physical wave….The movement of the particle is assumed to be the superposition of a regular movement… and of a Brownian movement due to random energy exchanges which take place between the wave and a hidden medium, which acts as a subquantum thermostat. The point of prime importance in this model is that at each moment the particle occupies a well-defined position in space, and this re-establishes the clear meaning which the configuration space had in classical mechanics.”

- Louis de Broglie, “Waves and Particles,” Physics Bulletin, 22, February 1971

"…in 1905 I was of the opinion that it was no longer allowed to speak about the ether in physics. This opinion, however, was too radical, as we will see later when we discuss the general theory of relativity. It does remain allowed, as always, to introduce a medium filling all space and to assume that the electromagnetic fields (and matter as well) are its states…once again “empty” space appears as endowed with physical properties, i.e., no longer as physically empty, as seemed to be the case according to special relativity. One can thus say that the ether is resurrected in the general theory of relativity….Since in the new theory, metric facts can no longer be separated from “true” physical facts, the concepts of “space” and “ether” merge together."

- Albert Einstein, “Grundgedanken und Methoden der Relativitätstheorie in ihrer Entwicklung dargestellt,” Morgan Manuscript, EA 2070, as cited in Ludwik Kostro, Einstein and the Ether, 2000, p. 2.

"Modern science has its roots in ancient Greek philosophy. This philosophy, as we know, used the word “ether” to designate the particular kind of matter that filled the universe. This term was used throughout the history of philosophy and science, and it was also current at the beginning of this century. A resumption of its use at the dawn of this new century is now a fact. Since, according to the General Theory of Relativity and other modern branches of physics, the space and time of the universe do not constitute a vacuum, but a structured material plenum characterized by different physical quantities, the historical and traditional word “ether” is the most appropriate to express these features of the universe."

- Ludwik Kostro, Einstein and the Ether, 2000, pp. 186-187.

"A few words about the gravitational ether, and the ether concept in general may be in place here. The ether hypothesis was thought to be buried by the Michelson-Morley experiment, but today it is more alive than ever, in the form of the CBR [Cosmic Background Radiation]: experiments capable of finding the ether were not possible in the 1880s, but were possible in the 1960s. In a sense, the electromagnetic ether has always been observed – as the heat of the Sun (since as pointed out, CBR is reprocessed photons)…. All the main cosmological, astrophysical and physical facts: the gravity and Olbers paradoxes, redshift effects and CBR, gravitation and radiation, and the existence of particles can be conceived in the framework of this ether concept."

- “Action-at-a-Distance and Local Action in Gravitation,” in Pushing Gravity, ed., Matthew Edwards, pp. 157-159.

LINK: redshift.vif.com/JournalFiles/Pre2001/V03NO3PDF/V03N3JAA.PDF

"Today the vacuum is recognized as a rich physical medium….A general theory of the vacuum is thus a theory of everything, a universal theory. It would be appropriate to call the vacuum “ether” once again."

- S. Saunders and H. R. Brown, editors, The Philosophy of Vacuum, 1991, p. 251.

"Later in our treatise we will find that the very ether Louis de Broglie desired offers a solution to the wave/particle conundrum that has hampered modern science since de Broglie first discovered that electrons produce waves. Any particle that moves through a medium will, indeed, create waves. In fact, a return to ether will help solve one of the most mysterious and perplexing problems in Quantum Mechanics today, the phenomenon of “entanglement” – the spooky connection between pairs of photons, electrons or atoms even though they are separated by great distances. Perhaps this was why John Stewart Bell, the inventor of Bell’s Theorem to answer the phenomenon of entanglement, stated in a BBC radio interview: “Yes, the idea that there is an ether…that is a perfectly coherent point of view.”

- Ludwik Kostro, Einstein and the Ether, p. 154, citing M. Jammer’s, “John Stewart Bell and the Debate on Significance of his Contributions to the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics,” in Bell’s Theorem and the Foundations of Modern Physics, eds. A. Van der Merwe, F. Felleri, G. Tarozzi, Singapore, 1992, p. 5; also cited in P. C. W. Davies and J. R. Brown, eds., The Ghost in the Atom, 1986, pp. 49-50.

"Prior to the twentieth century, physics tried to explain how Nature works. Over the twentieth century, and especially in the last half, we got much more ambitious - now we’re uncovering what Nature is. The foundation is an entity I call the Grid. The Grid fills space, and is full of spontaneous activity. In some ways it resembles the old idea of “ether”. But the Grid is highly evolved ether, ether on steroids if you like, with many new features. We have some wonderful ideas waiting to be tested. There are good reasons to think that the Universe is a multilayered multicolored superconductor; that all four known forces can be brought together in a unified theory; that seemingly hopelessly different kinds of matter are just different aspects of one all-embracing stuff. I anticipate that the next few years will be a new Golden Age in fundamental physics."

- Frank Wilczek, Professor of Physics at MIT, Nobel Prize winner of 2004, author of the book "THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces" (Basic Books; September 2, 2008) in a Q&A regarding his book.

LINK: http://www.frankwilczek.com/Wilczek_Q_and_A.pdf

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"Certainly, from the standpoint of the special theory of relativity, the ether hypothesis appears at first to be an empty hypothesis. 1n the equations of the electromagnetic field there occur, in addition to the densities of the electric charge, only the intensities of the field. The career of electromagnetic processes in vacuo appears to be completely determined by tliese equations, uninfluenced by other physical quantities. The electromagnetic fields appear as ultimate, irreducible realities, and at first it seems superfluous to postulate a homogeneous, isotropic ether-medium, and to envisage electromagnetic fields as states of this medium.

But on the other hand there is a weighty argument to be adduced in favour of the ether hypothesis. To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view. For the mechanical behaviour of a corporeal system hovering freely in empty space depends not only on relative positions (distances) and relative velocities, but also on its state of rotation, which physically may be taken as a characteristic not appertaining to the system in itself. In order to be able to look upon the rotation of the system, at least formally, as something real, Newton objectivises space. Since he classes his absolute space together with real things, for him rotation relative to an absolute space is also something real. Newton might no less well have called his absolute space ``Ether''; what is essential is merely that besides observable objects, another thing, which is not perceptible, inust be looked upon as real, to enable acceleration or rotation to be looked upon as something real."

"It is true that Mach tried to avoid having to accept as real something which is not observable by endeavouring to substitute in mechanics a mean acceleration with reference to the totality of the masses in the universe in place of an acceleration with reference to absolute space. But inertial resistance opposed to relative acceleration of distant masses presupposes action at a distance; and as the modern physicist does not believe that he may accept this action at a distance, he comes back once more, if he follows Mach, to the ether, which has to serve as medium for the effects of inertia. But this conception of the ether to which we are led by Mach's way of thinking differs essentially from the ether as conceived by Newton, by Fresnel, and by Lorentz. Mach's ether not only conditions the behaviour of inert masses, but is also conditioned in its state by them.

Mach's idea finds its full development in the ether of the general theory of relativity."

- Albert Einstein, an address delivered on May 5th, 1920, in the University of Leyden.

Rotundity
"Newtonian laws operate in a world-model that is very different from everyday intuition. Because Newtonian space is infinite and homogeneous, Earth and its surface are not special places. The directions "up," "down," and "sideways" are fundamentally similar. Nor is rest privileged over uniform motion. None of these concepts matches everyday experience. They troubled Newton's contemporaries, and even Newton himself."

- Frank Wilczek, Professor of Physics at MIT, Nobel Prize winner of 2004, in his book "THE LIGHTNESS OF BEING: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces" page 1. (Basic Books; September 2, 2008).

Parallax
"It is often said that Tycho’s model implies the absence of parallax, and that Copernicus’ requires parallax. However, it would not be a major conceptual change to have the stars orbit the sun (like the planets) for Tycho, which would give the same yearly shifts in their apparent positions as parallax gives. Thus if parallax were observed, a flexible Tychonean could adjust the theory to account for it, without undue complexity. What if parallax were not observed? For Copernicus, one only requires that the stars be far enough away for the parallax to be unmeasurable. Therefore the presence or absence of parallax doesn’t force the choice of one type of model over the other. If different stars were to show different amounts of parallax, that would rule out the possibility of them all being on one sphere, but still not really decide between Tycho and Copernicus.

In fact, if we don’t worry about the distant stars, these two models describe identical relative motions of all the objects in the solar system. So the role of observation is not as direct as you might have guessed. There is no bare observation that can distinguish whether Tycho (taken broadly) or Copernicus (taken broadly) is right."

- University of Illinois, Physics 319, Spring 2004, Lecture 03, p. 8

Cosmology
“Less than 50 years after the birth of what we are pleased to call ‘modern cosmology,’ when so few empirical facts are passably well established, when so many different over-simplified models of the universe are still competing for attention, is it, may we ask, really credible to claim, or even reasonable to hope, that we are presently close to a definitive solution of the cosmological problem?…Unfortunately, a study of the history of cosmology reveals disturbing parallelisms between modern cosmology and medieval scholasticism; often the borderline between sophistication and sophistry, between numeration and numerology, seems very precarious indeed. Above all I am concerned by an apparent loss of contact withempirical evidence and observational facts, and, worse, by a deliberate refusal on the part of some theorists to accept such results when they appear to be in conflict with some of the present oversimplified and therefore intellectually appealing theories of the universe…doctrines that frequently seem to be more concerned with the fictitious properties of ideal (and therefore nonexistent) universes than with the actual world revealed by observations.”

- Gerard de Vaucouleurs, University of Texas, formulater of de Vaucouleurs modified Hubble sequence, awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship by the American Astronomical Society in 1988. He was awarded the Prix Jules Janssen of the French Astronomical Society in the same year.

"But among all the discoveries and corrections probably none has resulted in a deeper influence on the human spirit than the doctrine of Copernicus…. Possibly mankind has never been demanded to do more, for considering all that went up in smoke as a result of realizing this change: a second Paradise, a world of innocence, poetry and piety: the witness of the senses, the conviction of a poetical and religious faith. No wonder his contemporaries did not wish to let all this go and offered every possible resistance to a doctrine which in its converts authorized and demanded a freedom of view and greatness of thought so far unknown indeed not even dreamed of.”

- Johann von Goethe, Zur Farbenlehre, Materialien zur Geschichte der Farbenlehre, Frankfurt am Main, 1991, Seite 666.

The Copernican Revolution] "..outshines everything since the rise of Christianity and reduces the Renaissance and Reformation to the rank of mere episodes, mere internal displacements, within the system of medieval Christendom. Since it changed the character of men’s habitual mental operations even in the conduct of the nonmaterial sciences, while transforming the whole diagram of the physical universe and the very texture of human life itself, it looms so large as the real origin both of the modern world and of the modern mentality, that our customary periodisation of European history has become an anachronism and an encumbrance."

- Herbert Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science: 1300-1800, 1957, pp. 7-8.

Michelson-Morley
“This would mean that the Earth’s diameter in the direction of its motion is shortened by 2½ inches."

~

“The Michelson-Morley experiment has thus failed to detect our motion through the aether, because the effect looked for – the delay of one of the light waves – is exactly compensated by an automatic contraction of the matter forming the apparatus.”

- Sir Arthur Eddington, Space, Time and Gravitation, p. 20