mark9950

Even though we know that the sun cannot stand still,is there anything that can make it appear to stand still.

Evangelion

Yes; to whit, the cessation of the Earth's rotation.

That would do the trick quite nicely.



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People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Søren Kierkegaard

cpickett

I heard a convoluded explanation that if the Earth "flip-flopped" when the sun was in the exact center of the sky, then it could in fact appear to "stand still" for longer than normal, which theoretically could make it daylight for a full day.

I think it's BS, it's like most christian answers, rather than looking at the facts and coming to a conclusion, they start with the conclusion, and look for something that could support it

Evangelion

There is clearly no need for such a fanciful suggestion.

I couldn't agree with you more.



__________________
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Søren Kierkegaard

Vinnie

Sometimes when I get home on the couch after I've had a "little" too much to drink the room I'm in occasionaly likes to rotate for some strange reason. I thought I was going to fall off my couch one time.

In light of experiences like those, I have to say that imbibing large quantities of psychotropic substances can really screw up a person's perception of reality. With drugs all things are possible. Axes can appear to float, asses can talk, the sun can appear to stand still and your neighbors dog might even look somewhat attractive

Seriously, since there isn't much of a backdrop and space is so damn big, the sun would already appear to be stationary. But in actuality the sun orbits arround the milky way at an alarming velocity. But this is all probably irrelevant since you were using phenomenological language from the perspective of a person on the surface of the earth. So skip back to the first answer

Vinnie

Vinnie

The earth does wobble (that is why the north star changes) as it roates but that response is pure BS.

Vinnie

Azathoth

If you're accepting supernatural occurrences,pretty much anything is probable.

I mean,how about god creating a second sun,just for the Israelites.Then blocking out the first sun with some kind of shield that makes it invisible.Then of course,cancelling the gravitational effects of the second sun he just created,and having it hover there to light things for the Israelites.

Too unbelievable?So is the idea of some being stopping the planet rotating,to allow one group of bronze age savages to kill another group of bronze age savages.

They're both supernatural events,making them equally implausible.

The amount of force to do so would only be possible from a massive collision with an object,that would make everything previous seem like a love tap,if a natural explanation is sought for such an event.Then the same amount of force would have to be applied again to get things started again.

Here's on site that mentions the effects of such a stoppage.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=16

The account shows a pretty stupid deity,too.How about having him give the Israelites the ability to see in the dark,as if it was perfect daylight?

Not only would that have been far more effective,it would have made for a more interesting story.

malookiemaloo

Correct me if I am wrong but the sun IS still.


m

Whispers

I would have thought that the sun could not be entirely stationary in relation to a fixed point in space. If the earth is spinning, and our entire galaxy is rotating, one would assume that a similar thing would be occuring with the sun?

malookiemaloo

Good point. That'll teach me to be smart!

But it is still relative to earth.


m