25 Ways to Determine the Shape of the Earth
The 7th century Christian Venerable Bede (born c. 672) wrote that the Earth was round like a ball, not circular like a shield. Like others before, and after him, he felt the Earth was a sphere. Today, there are still some who believe otherwise. The change from understanding the Earth as a globe, to understanding it as a disc, is such a major paradigm shift that it merits a little investigation. We can determine the Earth’s shape for ourselves through a number of ways, including the following 25 points.
For clarity, the Flat Earth (FE) model described in this article is the idea that the Earth is a flat disc with the North Pole in the center and the continent of Antarctica posing as an impenetrable wall of ice circling the entire circumference of the Earth.
1. On the equinox, the length of the shadow of a 5 foot, vertical pole will decrease the farther you move it toward the equator. This is strong evidence that the Earth is a globe. In order to solve this problem, and others, FE theory states the Sun is only 3,000 miles from the Earth. This can be refuted by mathematical triangulation. Also, by trying the pole experiment at the North Pole. The Sun would then appear to be on the horizon. If the Earth were flat, the Sun should be 26 degrees above the horizon.
2. However, if the Sun is in fact only 3,000 miles from Earth, the size of the Sun should appear dramatically larger at noon as compared to morning and evening since the Sun would be twice as close at noon on average. This apparent change in size is not visible.
3. In FE theory, the Sun circles just above the Earth once a day. If this were actually the case, it would show one side of its face as it comes toward us from the east in the morning, and another side of its face as it departs toward the west at evening. However, I can see the same view and features on the Sun in a telescope in the evening as I did in the morning with the exception of the approximately 1/50th of a turn it makes due to its rotation. Anyone with a solar filter for their telescope or binoculars can see the effect for themselves.
4.The Moon in the FE model should show a different face as well when it rises compared to when it sets, but it doesn’t. Its familiar pattern of maria is always there.
5. If the Earth were flat, the Sun should be visible at all times, even if it were only 3,000 miles away. Some quick calculations show that it would be no less than 7 degrees (14 Sun widths) above the horizon even at night. For 90% of Earth’s population, the Sun would appear at least 14 degrees above the horizon at night. Yet, every night, the Sun clearly sinks all the way to the horizon and slips below.
6. Since the Sun is not visible at night, many FE theorists claim it exhibits a straight-down spotlight behavior. If that were the case, the light emanating from the bottom of it should still be seen as a highly compressed oval sliver in the distance above the horizon. We can know it does not behave like a spotlight since the light appears to always emanate from an evenly illuminated sphere regardless of the angle you view it from. Secondly, if the Sun had a spotlight pattern, the base of mountains should be lit first at sunrise. Instead of that, the peaks are lit first, as is commonly observed. Thirdly, you wouldn’t expect to see everything in a straight line from the North Pole all the way down south to simultaneously experience sunrise at the equinox if the sunlight comes from a round spotlight pattern.
7. Presumedly because of the aforementioned problems, FE theorists also claim that refraction occurs to cause the Sun to appear hidden below the horizon. Yet, in our everyday experience, when the Sun approaches near the horizon, it’s not usually projected downward in a mirage, but rather upward. This allows us to see it longer than we could otherwise and causes the Sun to appear to slow slightly when it reaches the horizon. The lowest part of the Sun is refracted up more causing the Sun to take on a slightly flattened, oval shape. This is also why we have a few minutes more daytime than nighttime at the equinox when both are expected to be exactly equal. This mirage doesn’t just affect the Sun but also distant ships and skyscrapers. It’s why some have been able to take photos of the Chicago skyscrapers from across Lake Michigan when that should not be possible. The appearance of the buildings is projected upward by the refraction of light as a result of temperature gradients close to Earth’s surface.
9. Plain evidence for the Sun going below the horizon is seen when looking east just after sunset. About 10 – 15 minutes after sunset on a clear evening, stand facing east and see the Earth’s shadow appearing as a blue wedge slowly rising into the otherwise pinkish sky.
10. The Full Moon phase should not exist in the FE model. It would never be fully illuminated by the Sun from our perspective on Earth since it would never be directly opposite us from the Sun. Rather, both the Moon and Sun would stay above us and we’d always be able to see a portion of the unilluminated part. An answer could lie in the Moon producing its own light. However, the Moon does not shine with its own light as evidenced by the following.
11. The Moon loses illumination during lunar eclipses. The Apollo astronauts who’ve been there testify it’s made of non-luminescent dirt (which flat Earthers reject). My own high powered telescopic observations reveal all shadows on the surface of the Moon point directly away from the Sun. If the Moon does shine with its own light, why is there never more than a sliver of Moon shining when it’s close to the Sun? Finally, the lit portion of the Moon is always on the side facing the Sun. This shows the Moon is shining by reflecting sunlight.
13. During a lunar eclipse Earth’s shadow on the Moon is always circular regardless of the time of night. If Earth were a flat, round disc, it would have the curved shadow we always see, only if the eclipse occurred near midnight. The solution flat earth theorists give to this problem is that neither the Sun nor the Moon ever go ‘beneath’ the Earth and therefore the Moon is being eclipsed by something else. However, the alternative object (dark Sun, strong magnetic field, etc.) causing the lunar eclipse has never been found. Every time there has been a lunar eclipse, the Sun has always been opposite the Moon. Clearly, the rounded shadow creeping across the Moon during an eclipse is the Earth’s.
14. When viewing ships approaching a shoreline, an observer will first see the top of the mast, then the sails (if it has sails), then the hull, and finally the contact point with the water. This effect is also why sailing ships were built with “crow’s nests” at the top of the masts. A sailor in this high perch could see land much farther away, and sooner, than others on deck below.
15. At the North Pole, the North Star (Polaris) is overhead. You could move in a straight line, in any direction away from there, and eventually arrive at the South Pole in Antarctica. There you would see Polaris Australis directly overhead. The reason for this is that the North Star is directly ‘above’ the round Earth and Polaris Australis is directly ‘below’. The problem with the FE model is that Antarctica is a ring of ice encircling the entire earth. Imagine being at the North Pole and moving south in the FE model, the stars that are straight above you change until you get to Antarctica and you discover Polaris Australis is directly overhead. This happens whether you went left or right from the South Pole. But Polaris Australis cannot be directly overhead around the entire supposed ring of ice. It’s not just Polaris Australis that presents this problem; it extends to millions of other stars as well.
16. There are other, insurmountable problems that stars present for the flat earth theory. In the Northern hemisphere stars appear to rotate counterclockwise around the North Star. In the southern hemisphere stars appear to rotate around Polaris Australis, which is somehow omnipresent above the entire ring of ice surrounding the Earth. To complicate matters further, they are rotating around Polaris Australis in a clockwise direction, opposite that of the northern hemisphere.
17. If standing at the equator on Earth and watching over the course of a night, you can see the stars going across the sky in a straight line from east to west. The closer you look to the northern and southern points on the horizon, the more the stars’ motions are tightened into a circular pattern. For these reasons and others, it’s impossible to make an effective flat earth star map, therefore there are none.
18. In space, most solid bodies larger than 600 miles in diameter have been pulled into a spherical shape by gravity. The Earth is in the same universe as these other objects and, therefore, governed by the same laws. We can logically assume that with the Earth being ~8,000 miles in diameter it would also be conformed to the same spherical shape.
19. There are thousands of images from space that show the shape of the Earth. Granted, those are claimed to be fake by some since they come from NASA. Anyone can try astrophotography though, and compare their own images against the thousands of images NASA has of deep space to see that those images are actually real, just as I have.
20. If the flat disc model of the Earth is correct, then the distances between locales near Antarctica are much, much farther apart than they are known to be with the globe Earth model. The seasonal flights between the cities Sydney, Australia and Santiago, Chile should be much longer than the ~13 hour time the airlines claim they are. The only way the flights could have this short duration in a flat Earth is if the aircraft moved at much faster speeds than they do on other routes. On a flat Earth, the shortest route between the two cities would be roughly 15,000 miles and on a globe Earth, the route is roughly 7,100 miles. On a flat Earth, one would expect the flight to pass over the United States, but in reality, the flight crosses south of New Zealand and approaches Antarctica far away from the USA. Some FE theorists claim globe Earth flight paths make no sense in the southern hemisphere. It only seems that way because of the “hub and spoke” system that airlines have developed, it can be more economically feasible to fly further into the more populated northern regions to make a connecting flight to the final southern destination.
21. On a globe Earth you can see farther by rising higher at the seashore or other level surface. On a flat Earth it should make no difference. If the Earth was flat, sailing away from the coastline as I have done numerous times, should cause the large condominiums to get smaller in size until they cannot be resolved. Through this whole time, the entirety of the building should be seen. In my experience, increasingly more of the bottom floors are cut off the farther the ship moves away from the shore while the top floors are still visible. This is just as would be expected with a spherical Earth.
22. On a flat Earth the center of gravity would be underneath the North Pole. So, every person would feel a gravitational tug, not just straight down but also toward the north. The farther away from the North Pole a person would be, the greater the northerly pulling force would become. Balls would drop toward the north. We would have to lean south to remain upright. The only way this problem can be answered is by completely rejecting gravity. However, there is an astonishingly large amount of evidence that gravity exists and its laws are carefully observed in order to accurately send spacecraft across the solar system.
23. The mechanism some flat Earthers use to explain the apparent downward force (gravity) is a continual upward acceleration of the flat disc of Earth at 22 MPH per second (the acceleration of a high-performance sports car). In short order, the Earth would be exceeding the speed of light and everything on Earth would go dark because light could only go down. It wouldn’t be possible though for the Earth to exceed that universal speed limit; nothing can go faster than light. Also, why would this upward acceleration force act on some things but not others? It would act on the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, but not everything on Earth, including us. If it would, we would feel weightless at the surface of Earth. When we build satellites on Earth, they clearly do not feel this “force” because they just sit heavily on the ground. Once we launch them just a couple of hundred miles upward into space, this “force” (in flat Earth theory) would suddenly begin acting on them, keeping them weightless and preventing their return to Earth.
24. In the Antarctic summertime, the Sun never sets. Researchers that live there can attest to this fact. Live webcams at multiple research stations there can show it for anyone who has internet access. The Sun could not illuminate only half of the flat Earth, yet illuminate the entire Antarctic ring of ice surrounding Earth.
25. Finally, the Bible does not contradict a spherical Earth. FE theorists focus intently on verses that speak of the “face” of the Earth. I haven’t seen all faces but the ones I’ve seen would be considered rounded. Isa 40:22 says It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; (KJV). This speaks directly to the spherical nature of Earth. Some claim the “circle” could refer to a round flat disc. However, circle here is translated from the Hebrew word “chuwg.” The same Hebrew word “chuwg” is used in Job 22:14 Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, And He walks above the circle of heaven. FE theorists do not claim the heaven above is flat, but rather, a curved dome. Job 26:10 says He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. (NKJV) Only when light is projected onto a sphere is it possible to have a “circular” terminator (boundary between light and dark), when the illumination comes from an omnidirectional light source like the Sun. Pr 8:27 also speaks of the circular terminator. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: (KJV)
The leader of the Flat Earth Society is an evolutionist and not a role model for Christians to follow. The organization has made a statement saying “Most of our members happen to be atheistic or agnostic.” Could this be another tactic of the enemy? There are, however, some well-meaning Christians who believe the Earth is flat and are not a part of that organization. It’s important to remember that there is a danger of falling in the enemy’s trap of succumbing to fringe theories that require the maintenance of large amounts of energy and time resources at the expense of the far greater good of the gospel of Christ. Though I’m at risk of undermining this entire article, I feel it’s important not to expend too much time on this subject. Yet, it’s good to be vigilant against detracting devices while we invest our time to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” 1 Tim 6:11
The 7th century Christian Venerable Bede (born c. 672) wrote that the Earth was round like a ball, not circular like a shield. Like others before, and after him, he felt the Earth was a sphere. Today, there are still some who believe otherwise. The change from understanding the Earth as a globe, to understanding it as a disc, is such a major paradigm shift that it merits a little investigation. We can determine the Earth’s shape for ourselves through a number of ways, including the following 25 points.
For clarity, the Flat Earth (FE) model described in this article is the idea that the Earth is a flat disc with the North Pole in the center and the continent of Antarctica posing as an impenetrable wall of ice circling the entire circumference of the Earth.
1. On the equinox, the length of the shadow of a 5 foot, vertical pole will decrease the farther you move it toward the equator. This is strong evidence that the Earth is a globe. In order to solve this problem, and others, FE theory states the Sun is only 3,000 miles from the Earth. This can be refuted by mathematical triangulation. Also, by trying the pole experiment at the North Pole. The Sun would then appear to be on the horizon. If the Earth were flat, the Sun should be 26 degrees above the horizon.
2. However, if the Sun is in fact only 3,000 miles from Earth, the size of the Sun should appear dramatically larger at noon as compared to morning and evening since the Sun would be twice as close at noon on average. This apparent change in size is not visible.
3. In FE theory, the Sun circles just above the Earth once a day. If this were actually the case, it would show one side of its face as it comes toward us from the east in the morning, and another side of its face as it departs toward the west at evening. However, I can see the same view and features on the Sun in a telescope in the evening as I did in the morning with the exception of the approximately 1/50th of a turn it makes due to its rotation. Anyone with a solar filter for their telescope or binoculars can see the effect for themselves.
4.The Moon in the FE model should show a different face as well when it rises compared to when it sets, but it doesn’t. Its familiar pattern of maria is always there.
5. If the Earth were flat, the Sun should be visible at all times, even if it were only 3,000 miles away. Some quick calculations show that it would be no less than 7 degrees (14 Sun widths) above the horizon even at night. For 90% of Earth’s population, the Sun would appear at least 14 degrees above the horizon at night. Yet, every night, the Sun clearly sinks all the way to the horizon and slips below.
6. Since the Sun is not visible at night, many FE theorists claim it exhibits a straight-down spotlight behavior. If that were the case, the light emanating from the bottom of it should still be seen as a highly compressed oval sliver in the distance above the horizon. We can know it does not behave like a spotlight since the light appears to always emanate from an evenly illuminated sphere regardless of the angle you view it from. Secondly, if the Sun had a spotlight pattern, the base of mountains should be lit first at sunrise. Instead of that, the peaks are lit first, as is commonly observed. Thirdly, you wouldn’t expect to see everything in a straight line from the North Pole all the way down south to simultaneously experience sunrise at the equinox if the sunlight comes from a round spotlight pattern.
7. Presumedly because of the aforementioned problems, FE theorists also claim that refraction occurs to cause the Sun to appear hidden below the horizon. Yet, in our everyday experience, when the Sun approaches near the horizon, it’s not usually projected downward in a mirage, but rather upward. This allows us to see it longer than we could otherwise and causes the Sun to appear to slow slightly when it reaches the horizon. The lowest part of the Sun is refracted up more causing the Sun to take on a slightly flattened, oval shape. This is also why we have a few minutes more daytime than nighttime at the equinox when both are expected to be exactly equal. This mirage doesn’t just affect the Sun but also distant ships and skyscrapers. It’s why some have been able to take photos of the Chicago skyscrapers from across Lake Michigan when that should not be possible. The appearance of the buildings is projected upward by the refraction of light as a result of temperature gradients close to Earth’s surface.
9. Plain evidence for the Sun going below the horizon is seen when looking east just after sunset. About 10 – 15 minutes after sunset on a clear evening, stand facing east and see the Earth’s shadow appearing as a blue wedge slowly rising into the otherwise pinkish sky.
10. The Full Moon phase should not exist in the FE model. It would never be fully illuminated by the Sun from our perspective on Earth since it would never be directly opposite us from the Sun. Rather, both the Moon and Sun would stay above us and we’d always be able to see a portion of the unilluminated part. An answer could lie in the Moon producing its own light. However, the Moon does not shine with its own light as evidenced by the following.
11. The Moon loses illumination during lunar eclipses. The Apollo astronauts who’ve been there testify it’s made of non-luminescent dirt (which flat Earthers reject). My own high powered telescopic observations reveal all shadows on the surface of the Moon point directly away from the Sun. If the Moon does shine with its own light, why is there never more than a sliver of Moon shining when it’s close to the Sun? Finally, the lit portion of the Moon is always on the side facing the Sun. This shows the Moon is shining by reflecting sunlight.
13. During a lunar eclipse Earth’s shadow on the Moon is always circular regardless of the time of night. If Earth were a flat, round disc, it would have the curved shadow we always see, only if the eclipse occurred near midnight. The solution flat earth theorists give to this problem is that neither the Sun nor the Moon ever go ‘beneath’ the Earth and therefore the Moon is being eclipsed by something else. However, the alternative object (dark Sun, strong magnetic field, etc.) causing the lunar eclipse has never been found. Every time there has been a lunar eclipse, the Sun has always been opposite the Moon. Clearly, the rounded shadow creeping across the Moon during an eclipse is the Earth’s.
14. When viewing ships approaching a shoreline, an observer will first see the top of the mast, then the sails (if it has sails), then the hull, and finally the contact point with the water. This effect is also why sailing ships were built with “crow’s nests” at the top of the masts. A sailor in this high perch could see land much farther away, and sooner, than others on deck below.
15. At the North Pole, the North Star (Polaris) is overhead. You could move in a straight line, in any direction away from there, and eventually arrive at the South Pole in Antarctica. There you would see Polaris Australis directly overhead. The reason for this is that the North Star is directly ‘above’ the round Earth and Polaris Australis is directly ‘below’. The problem with the FE model is that Antarctica is a ring of ice encircling the entire earth. Imagine being at the North Pole and moving south in the FE model, the stars that are straight above you change until you get to Antarctica and you discover Polaris Australis is directly overhead. This happens whether you went left or right from the South Pole. But Polaris Australis cannot be directly overhead around the entire supposed ring of ice. It’s not just Polaris Australis that presents this problem; it extends to millions of other stars as well.
16. There are other, insurmountable problems that stars present for the flat earth theory. In the Northern hemisphere stars appear to rotate counterclockwise around the North Star. In the southern hemisphere stars appear to rotate around Polaris Australis, which is somehow omnipresent above the entire ring of ice surrounding the Earth. To complicate matters further, they are rotating around Polaris Australis in a clockwise direction, opposite that of the northern hemisphere.
17. If standing at the equator on Earth and watching over the course of a night, you can see the stars going across the sky in a straight line from east to west. The closer you look to the northern and southern points on the horizon, the more the stars’ motions are tightened into a circular pattern. For these reasons and others, it’s impossible to make an effective flat earth star map, therefore there are none.
18. In space, most solid bodies larger than 600 miles in diameter have been pulled into a spherical shape by gravity. The Earth is in the same universe as these other objects and, therefore, governed by the same laws. We can logically assume that with the Earth being ~8,000 miles in diameter it would also be conformed to the same spherical shape.
19. There are thousands of images from space that show the shape of the Earth. Granted, those are claimed to be fake by some since they come from NASA. Anyone can try astrophotography though, and compare their own images against the thousands of images NASA has of deep space to see that those images are actually real, just as I have.
20. If the flat disc model of the Earth is correct, then the distances between locales near Antarctica are much, much farther apart than they are known to be with the globe Earth model. The seasonal flights between the cities Sydney, Australia and Santiago, Chile should be much longer than the ~13 hour time the airlines claim they are. The only way the flights could have this short duration in a flat Earth is if the aircraft moved at much faster speeds than they do on other routes. On a flat Earth, the shortest route between the two cities would be roughly 15,000 miles and on a globe Earth, the route is roughly 7,100 miles. On a flat Earth, one would expect the flight to pass over the United States, but in reality, the flight crosses south of New Zealand and approaches Antarctica far away from the USA. Some FE theorists claim globe Earth flight paths make no sense in the southern hemisphere. It only seems that way because of the “hub and spoke” system that airlines have developed, it can be more economically feasible to fly further into the more populated northern regions to make a connecting flight to the final southern destination.
21. On a globe Earth you can see farther by rising higher at the seashore or other level surface. On a flat Earth it should make no difference. If the Earth was flat, sailing away from the coastline as I have done numerous times, should cause the large condominiums to get smaller in size until they cannot be resolved. Through this whole time, the entirety of the building should be seen. In my experience, increasingly more of the bottom floors are cut off the farther the ship moves away from the shore while the top floors are still visible. This is just as would be expected with a spherical Earth.
22. On a flat Earth the center of gravity would be underneath the North Pole. So, every person would feel a gravitational tug, not just straight down but also toward the north. The farther away from the North Pole a person would be, the greater the northerly pulling force would become. Balls would drop toward the north. We would have to lean south to remain upright. The only way this problem can be answered is by completely rejecting gravity. However, there is an astonishingly large amount of evidence that gravity exists and its laws are carefully observed in order to accurately send spacecraft across the solar system.
23. The mechanism some flat Earthers use to explain the apparent downward force (gravity) is a continual upward acceleration of the flat disc of Earth at 22 MPH per second (the acceleration of a high-performance sports car). In short order, the Earth would be exceeding the speed of light and everything on Earth would go dark because light could only go down. It wouldn’t be possible though for the Earth to exceed that universal speed limit; nothing can go faster than light. Also, why would this upward acceleration force act on some things but not others? It would act on the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth, but not everything on Earth, including us. If it would, we would feel weightless at the surface of Earth. When we build satellites on Earth, they clearly do not feel this “force” because they just sit heavily on the ground. Once we launch them just a couple of hundred miles upward into space, this “force” (in flat Earth theory) would suddenly begin acting on them, keeping them weightless and preventing their return to Earth.
24. In the Antarctic summertime, the Sun never sets. Researchers that live there can attest to this fact. Live webcams at multiple research stations there can show it for anyone who has internet access. The Sun could not illuminate only half of the flat Earth, yet illuminate the entire Antarctic ring of ice surrounding Earth.
25. Finally, the Bible does not contradict a spherical Earth. FE theorists focus intently on verses that speak of the “face” of the Earth. I haven’t seen all faces but the ones I’ve seen would be considered rounded. Isa 40:22 says It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; (KJV). This speaks directly to the spherical nature of Earth. Some claim the “circle” could refer to a round flat disc. However, circle here is translated from the Hebrew word “chuwg.” The same Hebrew word “chuwg” is used in Job 22:14 Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, And He walks above the circle of heaven. FE theorists do not claim the heaven above is flat, but rather, a curved dome. Job 26:10 says He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, At the boundary of light and darkness. (NKJV) Only when light is projected onto a sphere is it possible to have a “circular” terminator (boundary between light and dark), when the illumination comes from an omnidirectional light source like the Sun. Pr 8:27 also speaks of the circular terminator. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: (KJV)
The leader of the Flat Earth Society is an evolutionist and not a role model for Christians to follow. The organization has made a statement saying “Most of our members happen to be atheistic or agnostic.” Could this be another tactic of the enemy? There are, however, some well-meaning Christians who believe the Earth is flat and are not a part of that organization. It’s important to remember that there is a danger of falling in the enemy’s trap of succumbing to fringe theories that require the maintenance of large amounts of energy and time resources at the expense of the far greater good of the gospel of Christ. Though I’m at risk of undermining this entire article, I feel it’s important not to expend too much time on this subject. Yet, it’s good to be vigilant against detracting devices while we invest our time to “follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.” 1 Tim 6:11
GRAVITY - THE DOWN TO EARTH LAW
Gravity, that restrictive and sometimes pesky element of our everyday life is not a nuisance, it’s a lifesaver! If it weren’t for gravity, every step we take could launch us into space. There would be nothing to keep us on the earth. If there were no gravity, trees wouldn’t know which direction to grow, food would sail off your spoon, plastering your face, and washing dishes would be a nightmare with water, soap, and dishes floating through the entire kitchen!
Gravity is predictable. If you throw a ball straight up, it will turn around and fall back into your hand at the same speed it was going when it left your hand. If you have a place where air doesn’t interfere, all objects drop at the same speed. You could drop a pen and a couch off your house roof and they would both land at the same time. In a more extreme case, you could drive a bulldozer off a 1300 foot skyscraper and drop a feather from it at the same time. They would both smash into the ground at about 200 miles per hour at exactly the same time if there were no drag in the air.
Even astronauts and other objects in space are not free from gravity. It’s a misconception that there is no gravity in space. In fact, gravity has almost complete control over objects in space. They are simply in a perpetual freefall; this freefalling motion is actually their orbit. Everything in space is orbiting (going around) something else. It might seem hard to understand how an object can orbit the Earth continuously without an ongoing source of power, but it’s a relatively simple concept to understand. All an object needs to have is the proper speed and direction.
For example, if we were to throw a stone across the earth’s surface, we would have the right direction but not the right speed. The stone would fall to the ground within a few seconds. If we would fire a high powered rifle toward a point just above the horizon, the bullet would be travelling at about 2,000 miles per hour and would go farther than the stone before it would drop to the earth but it would still not have the proper speed. Now if we could get a super high powered cannon and shoot a cannonball at about 17,000 miles per hour, the cannonball would start to drop to the ground just as fast as the stone and the bullet did, but this time it wouldn’t hit the ground because the earth is round and as the cannonball curves toward the earth, the earth curves away from it. Now we have the right direction and speed. 17,000 miles per hour just happens to be the speed to keep objects in low orbit away from the earth even though they are continuously falling toward it. If no atmospheric drag were present, the cannonball would keep falling around the earth until it would make a complete circle and come back to the same place it was fired from and keep right on going (provided we’ve moved ourselves and the cannon out of the way)! The cannonball would then be in orbit. If it would slow down just slightly it would crash into the earth, if it were to speed up it would spiral farther away. Each object in orbit is set at the precise speed needed for stability. Objects in our solar system are no exception; the Moon is falling around the earth at 2,300 mph, the earth is falling around the sun at 67,000 mph, and the sun is falling around the center of our galaxy at 500,000 mph.
The big question is; why would two objects in empty space want to bang into each other at every opportunity -- what causes gravity? Our current, best understanding of gravity is that any object with mass will bend space itself inward toward that mass. Other objects are then naturally drawn to that mass. Space around us seems to be empty nothingness, but in reality, it actually has a type of framework that objects move in. A heavy ball on a trampoline illustrates the warping of space by massive objects. The ball makes a dip on a trampoline so other objects on the trampoline want to roll toward it, not because they particularly like the ball but because the trampoline they are on is tilted toward the ball. In the same way, objects in space and on the earth are attracted to each other not because of some force between them but because space itself, like the trampoline, is curved toward the objects.
God has set everything in order and at precise speeds for proper orbits. The precision and clockwork-like patterns speak of a supreme designer. So in this case even gravity glorifies God!
Morris Yoder
Gravity, that restrictive and sometimes pesky element of our everyday life is not a nuisance, it’s a lifesaver! If it weren’t for gravity, every step we take could launch us into space. There would be nothing to keep us on the earth. If there were no gravity, trees wouldn’t know which direction to grow, food would sail off your spoon, plastering your face, and washing dishes would be a nightmare with water, soap, and dishes floating through the entire kitchen!
Gravity is predictable. If you throw a ball straight up, it will turn around and fall back into your hand at the same speed it was going when it left your hand. If you have a place where air doesn’t interfere, all objects drop at the same speed. You could drop a pen and a couch off your house roof and they would both land at the same time. In a more extreme case, you could drive a bulldozer off a 1300 foot skyscraper and drop a feather from it at the same time. They would both smash into the ground at about 200 miles per hour at exactly the same time if there were no drag in the air.
Even astronauts and other objects in space are not free from gravity. It’s a misconception that there is no gravity in space. In fact, gravity has almost complete control over objects in space. They are simply in a perpetual freefall; this freefalling motion is actually their orbit. Everything in space is orbiting (going around) something else. It might seem hard to understand how an object can orbit the Earth continuously without an ongoing source of power, but it’s a relatively simple concept to understand. All an object needs to have is the proper speed and direction.
For example, if we were to throw a stone across the earth’s surface, we would have the right direction but not the right speed. The stone would fall to the ground within a few seconds. If we would fire a high powered rifle toward a point just above the horizon, the bullet would be travelling at about 2,000 miles per hour and would go farther than the stone before it would drop to the earth but it would still not have the proper speed. Now if we could get a super high powered cannon and shoot a cannonball at about 17,000 miles per hour, the cannonball would start to drop to the ground just as fast as the stone and the bullet did, but this time it wouldn’t hit the ground because the earth is round and as the cannonball curves toward the earth, the earth curves away from it. Now we have the right direction and speed. 17,000 miles per hour just happens to be the speed to keep objects in low orbit away from the earth even though they are continuously falling toward it. If no atmospheric drag were present, the cannonball would keep falling around the earth until it would make a complete circle and come back to the same place it was fired from and keep right on going (provided we’ve moved ourselves and the cannon out of the way)! The cannonball would then be in orbit. If it would slow down just slightly it would crash into the earth, if it were to speed up it would spiral farther away. Each object in orbit is set at the precise speed needed for stability. Objects in our solar system are no exception; the Moon is falling around the earth at 2,300 mph, the earth is falling around the sun at 67,000 mph, and the sun is falling around the center of our galaxy at 500,000 mph.
The big question is; why would two objects in empty space want to bang into each other at every opportunity -- what causes gravity? Our current, best understanding of gravity is that any object with mass will bend space itself inward toward that mass. Other objects are then naturally drawn to that mass. Space around us seems to be empty nothingness, but in reality, it actually has a type of framework that objects move in. A heavy ball on a trampoline illustrates the warping of space by massive objects. The ball makes a dip on a trampoline so other objects on the trampoline want to roll toward it, not because they particularly like the ball but because the trampoline they are on is tilted toward the ball. In the same way, objects in space and on the earth are attracted to each other not because of some force between them but because space itself, like the trampoline, is curved toward the objects.
God has set everything in order and at precise speeds for proper orbits. The precision and clockwork-like patterns speak of a supreme designer. So in this case even gravity glorifies God!
Morris Yoder
A STEP INTO SPACE
Living in any country, whether it’s hot or cold, wet or dry, is downright comfy in comparison with being just 62 miles up. This is where space is considered to have its starting point. The Creator has seen fit to make everything just right for us here, but in space, nobody would last long without protection. Have you ever wondered what would happen to your body if you stepped into space? Enough experiments have been done (some accidental) that we have a pretty good idea of what would happen.
At sea level, air pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSI). If you would step from this normal pressure into space with no air pressure, the air in your lungs would push outward with a pressure of 14.7 pounds on every square inch of your lungs’ surface area. So, the air in your lungs would be forced out through your mouth and nose, almost a like a violent sneeze. You wouldn’t want to try to pinch it off and hold your breath to preserve oxygen because it could rupture your lungs. After the air escapes, you would reflexively continue to make breathing motions but would feel none of the normal sensations of air passing in and out. Normally a person can hold their breath for 30 seconds or longer as the oxygen in the lungs slowly gets used up and carbon dioxide from the incoming blood veins builds up. You couldn’t last that long in this situation. The blood would pass through the lungs and there would be no oxygen whatsoever to pick up. Within 10-15 seconds, that oxygen-free blood would make it to your brain and you’d lose consciousness.
In the absence of air pressure, the boiling point of water drops far below normal body temperature. As a result, all the moisture on your body would boil away. This feeling has been described as a fizzing sensation. In 1965, astronaut Jim Leblanc was in a vacuum chamber test when the hose which was pressurizing his suit came loose. Within seconds he fell over backwards. The last thing he remembered before passing out was the saliva on his tongue bubbling (boiling) away. Thankfully, they were able to quickly re-pressurize the chamber and he recovered with no adverse effects other than aching ears. Any part of your body that has lots of moisture in sweat, saliva, or tears could experience frostbite fairly quickly as the rapidly evaporating moisture removes lots of heat all at once. Leaving you in a peculiar situation of boiling and freezing at the same time. The moisture inside your body would also boil. This would contribute to your body swelling to almost double its normal size. You would expand even further if your skin would be able to stretch more.
On your shadowed side, you would be facing the frigid cold of outer space. Heat would slowly radiate away from your body into space although it wouldn’t feel nearly as cold as the actual temperature since there wouldn’t be any air or moisture to conduct heat away from your body. For example, a dense liquid like water conducts heat away very efficiently so 50 degree water feels much colder than 50 degree air. Remove air and the cold feels even less noticeable.
There would be a night and day difference between your shadowed and sunlit side. On your sunlit side, you would get toasted with the worst sunburn ever from the full, unfiltered effects of the Sun’s radiation. It would only take a few minutes. You would have a much more intense UV sunburn than normal, but worse than that, you’d also have an X-ray and gamma ray burn, something you’ve never experienced before. These rays are filtered out by the atmosphere so we don’t feel them on the Earth. Beyond that, the unfiltered infrared (heat) radiation from the Sun would literally cook your sunlit skin. How hot would it get? We don’t need to look further than the Moon To find out. The daytime temperature of its surface is about 260 degrees Fahrenheit and the nighttime temperature is about -280 degrees Fahrenheit. You could be exposed to those same temperature extremes on one side of your body versus the other. The only way to find relief from that would be to keep spinning round like a rotisserie while you wait to be rescued. It’s all a stark reminder of our proper place according to Ps 115:16 “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
Morris Yoder
Living in any country, whether it’s hot or cold, wet or dry, is downright comfy in comparison with being just 62 miles up. This is where space is considered to have its starting point. The Creator has seen fit to make everything just right for us here, but in space, nobody would last long without protection. Have you ever wondered what would happen to your body if you stepped into space? Enough experiments have been done (some accidental) that we have a pretty good idea of what would happen.
At sea level, air pressure is 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSI). If you would step from this normal pressure into space with no air pressure, the air in your lungs would push outward with a pressure of 14.7 pounds on every square inch of your lungs’ surface area. So, the air in your lungs would be forced out through your mouth and nose, almost a like a violent sneeze. You wouldn’t want to try to pinch it off and hold your breath to preserve oxygen because it could rupture your lungs. After the air escapes, you would reflexively continue to make breathing motions but would feel none of the normal sensations of air passing in and out. Normally a person can hold their breath for 30 seconds or longer as the oxygen in the lungs slowly gets used up and carbon dioxide from the incoming blood veins builds up. You couldn’t last that long in this situation. The blood would pass through the lungs and there would be no oxygen whatsoever to pick up. Within 10-15 seconds, that oxygen-free blood would make it to your brain and you’d lose consciousness.
In the absence of air pressure, the boiling point of water drops far below normal body temperature. As a result, all the moisture on your body would boil away. This feeling has been described as a fizzing sensation. In 1965, astronaut Jim Leblanc was in a vacuum chamber test when the hose which was pressurizing his suit came loose. Within seconds he fell over backwards. The last thing he remembered before passing out was the saliva on his tongue bubbling (boiling) away. Thankfully, they were able to quickly re-pressurize the chamber and he recovered with no adverse effects other than aching ears. Any part of your body that has lots of moisture in sweat, saliva, or tears could experience frostbite fairly quickly as the rapidly evaporating moisture removes lots of heat all at once. Leaving you in a peculiar situation of boiling and freezing at the same time. The moisture inside your body would also boil. This would contribute to your body swelling to almost double its normal size. You would expand even further if your skin would be able to stretch more.
On your shadowed side, you would be facing the frigid cold of outer space. Heat would slowly radiate away from your body into space although it wouldn’t feel nearly as cold as the actual temperature since there wouldn’t be any air or moisture to conduct heat away from your body. For example, a dense liquid like water conducts heat away very efficiently so 50 degree water feels much colder than 50 degree air. Remove air and the cold feels even less noticeable.
There would be a night and day difference between your shadowed and sunlit side. On your sunlit side, you would get toasted with the worst sunburn ever from the full, unfiltered effects of the Sun’s radiation. It would only take a few minutes. You would have a much more intense UV sunburn than normal, but worse than that, you’d also have an X-ray and gamma ray burn, something you’ve never experienced before. These rays are filtered out by the atmosphere so we don’t feel them on the Earth. Beyond that, the unfiltered infrared (heat) radiation from the Sun would literally cook your sunlit skin. How hot would it get? We don’t need to look further than the Moon To find out. The daytime temperature of its surface is about 260 degrees Fahrenheit and the nighttime temperature is about -280 degrees Fahrenheit. You could be exposed to those same temperature extremes on one side of your body versus the other. The only way to find relief from that would be to keep spinning round like a rotisserie while you wait to be rescued. It’s all a stark reminder of our proper place according to Ps 115:16 “The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.”
Morris Yoder
SPACIOUS SPACE
And the Simple Method to Make Sense of It
186,000 miles per second sounds fast. It’s a speed fast enough to circle the Earth over seven times in one second. It’s also the speed of Light. Six trillion miles per year describes about the same speed but it’s a lot harder to comprehend, and because of this, it doesn’t really sound as fast. It’s hard for us to crunch these big numbers. We have to shrink them down to be able to understand them.
In the same way, it’s hard to comprehend the vast distance to the stars. It helps to downsize the distances to grasp the reality of the vastness of space. Large distances in space are often measured by astronomical units and light-years. The distances to the stars are usually expressed in light-years. When hearing about any distance expressed in light-years our minds start to glaze over. Fortunately, there happens to be a unique relationship between light-years and miles as compared to astronomical units and inches allowing us to bring things down to size. There’s a little more than 63,000 inches in one mile. There’s also a little more than 63,000 astronomical units in one light-year. One astronomical unit is about 93 million miles; the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This allows us the simple trick of shrinking the distance from the Earth to the Sun down to one inch, and at the same time, have each light year shrunk to one mile.
With this easy to remember relationship of miles to light-years we can downsize the universe into commonly used numbers and make sense of the scale of the distances. Using this method, the Earth would be one inch from the Sun. Jupiter, being five astronomical units away from the Sun, would be five inches away. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, being 4.3 light-years distant in reality, would be shrunk to a distance of 4.3 miles. The distance to Sirius, the brightest nighttime star, would be 8.6 miles away. Betelgeuse would be well over 600 miles away, about a 10 hour drive. Deneb, the star that forms the top of the northern cross in Cygnus, would be at least 1,400 miles away. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy would be about 25,000 miles away and the distance to the farthest object visible to the naked eye would be the Andromeda Galaxy about 2.4 million miles away.
Even in this shrunken state, the universe seems to be extremely large. To return to the actual size, we’d need to multiply the distances by almost six trillion since there is almost six trillion miles in a light-year and almost six trillion inches in an astronomical unit.
This analogy helps to understand the distances across space but does nothing to help understand the size of the objects. After shrinking the Earth-Sun distance to one inch, the Sun would be so small it would be invisible, and the Earth would be a point tiny enough to fit into the invisible speck of the Sun over one million times. That infinitesimal, tiny point of the Earth is a focal point, the focus of the infinite Creator.
Morris Yoder
And the Simple Method to Make Sense of It
186,000 miles per second sounds fast. It’s a speed fast enough to circle the Earth over seven times in one second. It’s also the speed of Light. Six trillion miles per year describes about the same speed but it’s a lot harder to comprehend, and because of this, it doesn’t really sound as fast. It’s hard for us to crunch these big numbers. We have to shrink them down to be able to understand them.
In the same way, it’s hard to comprehend the vast distance to the stars. It helps to downsize the distances to grasp the reality of the vastness of space. Large distances in space are often measured by astronomical units and light-years. The distances to the stars are usually expressed in light-years. When hearing about any distance expressed in light-years our minds start to glaze over. Fortunately, there happens to be a unique relationship between light-years and miles as compared to astronomical units and inches allowing us to bring things down to size. There’s a little more than 63,000 inches in one mile. There’s also a little more than 63,000 astronomical units in one light-year. One astronomical unit is about 93 million miles; the distance from the Earth to the Sun. This allows us the simple trick of shrinking the distance from the Earth to the Sun down to one inch, and at the same time, have each light year shrunk to one mile.
With this easy to remember relationship of miles to light-years we can downsize the universe into commonly used numbers and make sense of the scale of the distances. Using this method, the Earth would be one inch from the Sun. Jupiter, being five astronomical units away from the Sun, would be five inches away. The nearest star, Proxima Centauri, being 4.3 light-years distant in reality, would be shrunk to a distance of 4.3 miles. The distance to Sirius, the brightest nighttime star, would be 8.6 miles away. Betelgeuse would be well over 600 miles away, about a 10 hour drive. Deneb, the star that forms the top of the northern cross in Cygnus, would be at least 1,400 miles away. The center of the Milky Way Galaxy would be about 25,000 miles away and the distance to the farthest object visible to the naked eye would be the Andromeda Galaxy about 2.4 million miles away.
Even in this shrunken state, the universe seems to be extremely large. To return to the actual size, we’d need to multiply the distances by almost six trillion since there is almost six trillion miles in a light-year and almost six trillion inches in an astronomical unit.
This analogy helps to understand the distances across space but does nothing to help understand the size of the objects. After shrinking the Earth-Sun distance to one inch, the Sun would be so small it would be invisible, and the Earth would be a point tiny enough to fit into the invisible speck of the Sun over one million times. That infinitesimal, tiny point of the Earth is a focal point, the focus of the infinite Creator.
Morris Yoder
DECEPTIONS OF DUSK AND DAWN
The Sun is huge -- big enough that it would take about two months to fly across its diameter in a jet at 600 miles per hour. Yet, we usually never think about how big it is until we see it rise or set. It’s then that it appears bigger than ever. However, if it seems the Sun is bigger than normal at that time, it’s not that there’s something strange about the Sun, but rather that there’s something strange in our heads. It’s all an illusion and the brain is tricked into thinking the Sun is bigger when it’s close to the horizon. The same effect is seen just as easily on the Moon.
We perceive the sky to be somewhat flattened. For example, we are used to thinking of clouds directly above us as being much closer to us than those far out at the horizon. So when the Sun is at the horizon, we subconsciously think of it as being farther away too. If the Sun were to move farther away, we would naturally expect it to appear smaller, but it doesn’t. Since it still has the same ½ degree apparent size in the sky, we assume it has gotten bigger! Taking a photograph of the Sun every 10 minutes for about an hour after sunrise will show that, in reality, the Sun doesn’t change its apparent size at all as it rises.
There are some equally strange things that do happen with the Sun at sunsets and in reverse order at sunrises. These are not mind bending like the large Sun illusion, but instead are light bending. As the Sun lowers, it shines through more of Earth’s atmosphere. This causes a refraction of light that makes the Sun appear higher than it actually is. The bottom of the Sun shines through more atmosphere, so it is lifted more than the top portion of the Sun which is shining through less atmosphere. As a result, the Sun looks as if it were slightly flattened into an oval shape instead of a circle. The closer the Sun gets to the horizon, the more pronounced the flattening effect is.
The Sun normally moves one degree across the sky every 4 minutes. The Sun is about ½ degree in diameter so it covers the distance of its width every two minutes. By the time the Sun appears to touch the horizon, its image has been refracted upward by ½ degree, or one solar diameter, which means that it is actually just below the horizon instead of just above! Seeing the mirage of a faraway city or structure on the horizon is a rare occurrence but we can see a solar mirage every time we see the Sun rise or set. Since the light from the Sun is slightly refracted around the curve of the Earth, we get to have an extra two minutes of daylight in the morning and two minutes extra in the evening.
The equinox is supposed to be the day of the year when we have equal lengths of day and night. On the day of the March 20th equinox, the town of Quito, Ecuador near the equator has a sunrise at 6:18 a.m. If the day and night were equal, we would naturally expect to have a sunset at 6:18 p.m. Instead the sunset comes at 6:24 p.m. – 6 minutes late. There are the two minutes extra at sunrise and two minutes extra at sunset because of the refraction effect, giving us four extra minutes, but that still leaves two minutes unaccounted for. This is because sunrises are calculated at the moment the uppermost part of the Sun peaks over the horizon, when it first starts to rise, but sunsets are calculated at the moment the uppermost part of the Sun disappears below the horizon when it has finished setting. The Sun traverses its own width every two minutes so we end up with an extra two minutes to add to the four bringing us to the additional six minutes of official daytime at the equinox near the equator.
For parts of the world away from the equator, the Sun does not set in a straight down direction. North of the equator, the Sun slides to the right as it sets making it take longer than two minutes to completely disappear after it first contacts the horizon. In Georgia where I live at 32 degrees north latitude, it takes about one and a half minutes longer for the Sun to rise or set, giving a total of nine minutes of extra daytime on the equinox -- more time to decipher the illusory incidents of the deceptions of dusk and dawn.
Morris Yoder
The Sun is huge -- big enough that it would take about two months to fly across its diameter in a jet at 600 miles per hour. Yet, we usually never think about how big it is until we see it rise or set. It’s then that it appears bigger than ever. However, if it seems the Sun is bigger than normal at that time, it’s not that there’s something strange about the Sun, but rather that there’s something strange in our heads. It’s all an illusion and the brain is tricked into thinking the Sun is bigger when it’s close to the horizon. The same effect is seen just as easily on the Moon.
We perceive the sky to be somewhat flattened. For example, we are used to thinking of clouds directly above us as being much closer to us than those far out at the horizon. So when the Sun is at the horizon, we subconsciously think of it as being farther away too. If the Sun were to move farther away, we would naturally expect it to appear smaller, but it doesn’t. Since it still has the same ½ degree apparent size in the sky, we assume it has gotten bigger! Taking a photograph of the Sun every 10 minutes for about an hour after sunrise will show that, in reality, the Sun doesn’t change its apparent size at all as it rises.
There are some equally strange things that do happen with the Sun at sunsets and in reverse order at sunrises. These are not mind bending like the large Sun illusion, but instead are light bending. As the Sun lowers, it shines through more of Earth’s atmosphere. This causes a refraction of light that makes the Sun appear higher than it actually is. The bottom of the Sun shines through more atmosphere, so it is lifted more than the top portion of the Sun which is shining through less atmosphere. As a result, the Sun looks as if it were slightly flattened into an oval shape instead of a circle. The closer the Sun gets to the horizon, the more pronounced the flattening effect is.
The Sun normally moves one degree across the sky every 4 minutes. The Sun is about ½ degree in diameter so it covers the distance of its width every two minutes. By the time the Sun appears to touch the horizon, its image has been refracted upward by ½ degree, or one solar diameter, which means that it is actually just below the horizon instead of just above! Seeing the mirage of a faraway city or structure on the horizon is a rare occurrence but we can see a solar mirage every time we see the Sun rise or set. Since the light from the Sun is slightly refracted around the curve of the Earth, we get to have an extra two minutes of daylight in the morning and two minutes extra in the evening.
The equinox is supposed to be the day of the year when we have equal lengths of day and night. On the day of the March 20th equinox, the town of Quito, Ecuador near the equator has a sunrise at 6:18 a.m. If the day and night were equal, we would naturally expect to have a sunset at 6:18 p.m. Instead the sunset comes at 6:24 p.m. – 6 minutes late. There are the two minutes extra at sunrise and two minutes extra at sunset because of the refraction effect, giving us four extra minutes, but that still leaves two minutes unaccounted for. This is because sunrises are calculated at the moment the uppermost part of the Sun peaks over the horizon, when it first starts to rise, but sunsets are calculated at the moment the uppermost part of the Sun disappears below the horizon when it has finished setting. The Sun traverses its own width every two minutes so we end up with an extra two minutes to add to the four bringing us to the additional six minutes of official daytime at the equinox near the equator.
For parts of the world away from the equator, the Sun does not set in a straight down direction. North of the equator, the Sun slides to the right as it sets making it take longer than two minutes to completely disappear after it first contacts the horizon. In Georgia where I live at 32 degrees north latitude, it takes about one and a half minutes longer for the Sun to rise or set, giving a total of nine minutes of extra daytime on the equinox -- more time to decipher the illusory incidents of the deceptions of dusk and dawn.
Morris Yoder
COLD OR HOT?
When you pick up a cube of ice, does the cold seep into your hand? Interestingly, the answer is no. What’s happening is the heat from your hand is rapidly escaping into the cool ice causing your hand to feel a cold sensation. We have a tendency to think of coldness as something of substance that can spread into other objects, but that is simply a misconception. Coldness is simply lack of heat, just as darkness is only a lack of light. All objects, whether we call them cold or hot, merely have varying degrees of heat. Even an ice cube has lots of heat in it. We perceive it as cold only because it is cooler than our skin. If we could remove all heat from the ice cube it would settle to minus 459.67° Fahrenheit. This means our ice cube is actually basking in hundreds of degrees of heat above absolute zero, so it’s not really cold after all!
Everything around us is made up of spinning particles called atoms. Particles in liquids and gases, like air and water, zip around and bump into their neighbors. Particles in solids like iron basically vibrate in place, bumping against other particles next to them. As the particles within an object move or vibrate faster, the object feels hotter. Microwave ovens heat food quickly by causing water molecules throughout the entire portion of food to rapidly spin. Conventional ovens heat the outsides of food only; this heat from the outside is then slowly conducted in to the center.
Now, back to the cube of ice; when the fast vibrations of the particles in your warm hand bang into the slower moving, cooler particles of the ice, it causes the kinetic (moving) energy to be transferred into the ice and those particles start vibrating faster while the ones in your hand vibrate slower. Since the ice is stealing heat energy from your hand, your hand begins to feel cold and the ice melts into water. This energy exchange will continue until both the water and your hand reach the same temperature.
When a blacksmith heats a piece of iron it changes color from black to red as the particles in it vibrate faster. As the iron gets even hotter still, it turns from red to orange, then to yellow, and eventually becomes white if it gets hot enough. Stars show the same shift in color according to their temperature. The stars with the least amount of heat are called red dwarfs; they appear red and are about 5,000° F on the surface. Betelgeuse, the bright star in the constellation Orion’s left shoulder is about 6,900° F and appears orange because of this extra heat. The Sun is even hotter at about 10,000° F; this gives it a yellow-white color. The surface of the Sun is much hotter than your oven could ever get so it’s no wonder that it’s glowing white-hot. A surprising thing happens though as stars get even hotter. As they get close to 20,000° F they begin to appear blue. The color blue seems to be the signal of something cold but it’s actually the color of extreme heat.
The Sun transmits its heat energy in the form of infra-red radiation 93,000,000 miles across space to the Earth in a time span of about 8 minutes. In that time, the radiation crosses the frigid emptiness of space where the temperature is hovering only a few degrees above absolute zero. The fact that the Sun doesn’t heat space around it seems to be a violation of heat’s tendency to transfer into cooler areas. However, there is practically nothing in space to absorb the energy from the Sun so this energy is not wasted but conserved as it passes freely through space until it reaches the Earth. Once the Sun’s rays of infra-red radiation strike the Earth and its atmosphere they instantly begin exciting billions of particles into faster spins, vibrations, and darting motions, thereby keeping this planet at a balmy average temperature of over 500° F above absolute zero! It all works according to the grand plan that’s laid out by our great Creator.
Morris Yoder
HEAVYWEIGHTS
What is heavier than the Sun and all the planets yet smaller than a city?
What is bigger than the Sun and all the planets yet lighter than air?
These two riddles above can be solved by reading this article.
All stars are heavy but some are bloated like a hot air balloon on a summer day, while others are so burnt out (literally and figuratively) that they collapse under their own weight and are crushed down to extreme density (compactness). The range of densities of stars is enough to baffle anyone. Our Sun is at neither one of the extremes, not too light and not too heavy. In fact, it wouldn’t be hard to carry part of the Sun around in a bucket.
A one gallon bucket of water weighs a little over 8 pounds. We could dump the bucket out and fill it with dirt, it would then weigh about 10 pounds. If we dumped it out again and filled it with average density plasma from the Sun, it would weigh almost 12 pounds, heavier than dirt but not nearly as heavy as iron. One gallon of iron would start to strain our bucket at 65 pounds. So solar material is not nearly as heavy as metal but there are stars other than the Sun that are even much lighter yet. Many of the supergiant stars have their mass spread out over such a large area of space that something interesting would happen if we were to fill our bucket with material from these stars. After filling the bucket with supergiant star material the bucket would be lighter than it was before it was filled and would start to float directly up into the air! These stars are typically lighter than air itself.
The Earth is the densest object in the solar system. Our one gallon bucket filled with average density Earth would tip the scales at 46 pounds. By comparison, material from Saturn would weigh less than six pounds; this means Saturn is light enough to float on the ten pound water! Just because the Earth is the heavyweight king of the solar system doesn’t mean that it can hold out against the competition from interstellar space. The nearest star to us after leaving the Sun is Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf that would weigh down our fragile bucket with over 450 pounds. Not very many people could pick up a bucket load like that.
We could double the distance and get to the nearest white dwarf, Sirius B, a clear winner in this super-dense category of stars. Our trusty bucket would fail miserably at this point. Pouring in a gallon of Sirius B would crush the bottom and burst out the sides as the 10 million pounds of plasma ran out across the ground. It would be impossible to clean up the mess; a teaspoonful of it would still weigh five tons!
White dwarfs seem like the very definition of heavy but they appear like downy fluff in comparison to a neutron star. One teaspoonful of neutron star material weighs in at one billion tons; equal to 500 million cars! This type of star has more mass overall than the Sun but is less than 10 miles across. If you haven’t guessed it, this star is the answer to the first riddle. Interestingly, it is the end result of the same star that is the answer to the second riddle; a supergiant star. Supergiants are extremely unstable and can explode into a supernova; the remaining mass can then form a neutron star.
As if these mind crushing weights weren’t enough; we have the universe’s most mysterious objects: black holes. These are the most compact massive objects known; so dense they go beyond our understanding of density. Because of that, our spoon sits useless. We have no way of knowing how much the black hole would weigh, or even if the ball of matter in it would be big enough that we could scoop it up with our spoon!
Morris Yoder