No, I don't believe. I'm somewhere at the other end of the spectrum - I'd be a Bright if I felt any need to identify myself with a tribe.
But I am easily amused, and read the tale of Jonathan Hoag as a child.
Now suppose, for a moment, that you were a world builder, and your game is to create a world where the inhabitants can discover the rules. What evidence do you manifest?
In this space, we know a rule which we call gravity. We have a number of planets lying about, which allow you to observe that the orbital periods are a function of the distance from the sun.
Point the first - without the other planets, how do we discover that T^2 = R^3, and therefore F = z/R^2. Now any force law can produce circles, but only 1/R^2 can produce ellipses.
Point the second - since planetary orbits are not circular ellipses, they confirm that z/R^2 is right.
Point the third - Jupiter has moons, making nice big circles around that planet. Big enough, in fact, that if you pay close attention, you can discover that light has a velocity.
Isn't that convenient?
September 29, 2003 10:41 PM
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