Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA> wrote:
"It was not clear from Bill's posting where the science left off and
the fiction began in his "Dark Visitor" story. If it was intended
that the discovery of Pluto was achieved because of supposed
unattributed perturbations in Neptune's orbit, that is not the case.
..."
Bill’s reply to Leigh:
SUMMARY: I don’t agree, but even if planetary perturbations and
Lowell’s predictions had nothing to do with Pluto’s discovery, I would
still shamelessly exploit this widely held belief. Also without shame,
the large headline of my Drexel University newspaper article
(reproduced at www.DarkVisitor.com ) intentionally has an extremely
vulgar interpretation, in the hope that students will cut it out, tell
others about it, etc.
That article tells the same early-universe physics given below and
explains how large stars form black holes, etc. but its vulgar title
is why it may attract Dark Visitor’s target readers (people not
currently interested in science.) The Asian challenge (outlined in my
original post) is so strong that substantially more science students
must recruited.
DETAILS: I give two brief quotes (From hits 4 & 6 of a Google search
on: Pluto + Discovery) to support my view about Pluto’s discovery:
(1)"The story of Pluto's discovery begins with Percival Lowell. ...
Lowell founded an observatory and funded three separate searches for
the mysterious "Planet X." ..."
From: dosxx.colorado.edu/Pluto/pluto1.html
(2)"In January 1929 Clyde W Tombaugh ... joined the staff at
Flagstaff, with the task of finding Planet X. ... The mass of Pluto is
now known accurately since a satellite Charon has been discovered.
Pluto's mass is 0.002 Earth masses, while Lowell required Planet X to
have seven Earth masses to produce the effects on the other planets.
The mystery remains as to how Lowell was able to predict the orbit so
accurately. ..."
From: www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/
HistTopics/Neptune_and_Pluto.html
I don’t really think a small black hole passed our solar in the late
1920s and perturbed Neptune, nor that one will pass in 2008 and throw
Earth into an ice age, as Dark Visitor suggests. I used improbable,
but physical possible, events to scare my target readers, hoping to
awaken an interest in physics. I exploited the fact that early
universe was denser; typical stars were larger, often formed in pairs,
aged rapidly, and produced several generations of paired black holes
before our sun was even born. I also exploited the common belief that
Lowell observed perturbations and predicted Pluto’s location. (As
additional proof, note that Pluto’s symbol in the 1930s is a
superposition of the letters P&L.) Percival Lowell was lucky - Dark
Visitor gives a short proof, which non-technical high-school students
can follow, that Earth moves the sun 6.5 times more than Pluto can
move Neptune, even when they are at their minimum separation (17AU).
All this in an effort to make an ice age
beginning in 2008 seem plausible, and to provide a scary vehicle to
explain some astrophysics and climate mechanisms, without teaching in
the conventional style. (Dark Visitor is a recruiting tool. – my
target reader is smart, but currently has no interest in science.)
With regard to other science / fiction in Dark Visitor:
I believe I have been accurate (usually – see next paragraph) with
physical facts; however, speculations, which may be wrong, are
included. For example, in view of the above early-universe facts, Dark
Visitor speculates: "that there may be more small, stellar-core,
black-hole pairs than all the current stars." It also notes that there
are more stars than grains of sand on Earth’s beaches, but this is
plagiarized. (More efforts to make it plausible that the second black
hole of a pair is arriving in 2008.) I would be interested if others
think "more paired black holes than stars" is reasonable as this is an
original speculation.
The "usually" above is necessary because I intentionally placed some
physics errors in Dark Visitor, which I call "Easter Eggs." One
resembles a typographical error, but most are plausible false
statements in sections where the physics gets boring (to my target
reader). I did this, against my better nature and without shame,
because the book often gives brief digests and then encourages the
reader to skip the longer sections that follow. Skipping all of
Chapter 10 during the first reading is strongly recommended. (I don’t
want to lose my target reader in astronomical coordinate system
details.)
Dark Visitor has a postscript that gives hints about most, but not
all, of these Easter Eggs to encourage a second, more detailed
reading. It offers the "World Class Egg Hunter" certificate for anyone
finding five or more Easter Eggs. If there are unintentional errors in
Dark Visitor, they are (of course) just "Easter Eggs" for which I gave
no hints.
; ^ )
In addition to the postscript hints, the Easter Eggs usually
contradict more detailed discussion elsewhere in Dark Visitor. An
example of a "plausible false statement" is the back-cover statement:
"The dark visitor will never be seen in telescopes because black holes
do not reflect sun light." This is explicitly contradicted in the text
by a discussion of Hawking’s radiation. This Easter Egg also is
contradicted by the fact that, when closer (currently the dark visitor
is 130AU from the sun), in-falling solar wind may become denser and
luminous - a "mini-quasar" effect. Easter Eggs may encourage students
to carry the book around on campus, exposing it to others. (Some may
do this to fill idle moments by searching for hidden Easter Eggs.)
Asian pressure (more than 15 times US production of science degree
graduates) has made me completely shameless in my recruiting efforts.
Do your part. Sponsor a science fair, egg dropping contest, etc. Get
the English teachers to require a science fiction story that does not
violate any physics. (Your physics students can read for errors.) Help
the coach / biology teacher measure nerve conduction speeds, reaction
times. etc. - anything for reaching out to the general student.
Organize to get textbook companies to offer prizes / awards. Teaching
students already interested in science is no longer enough!
Sincerely, Bill