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To: FredZarguna
Still complete bollocks.

Yep. I think it's pretty appalling so many people still give astrology so much weight, which proves the inadequacy of our educational system. I mean, the history of science, conceptual physics, etc., are fascinating subjects, require little or no math, and could be taught at the elementary level. There is no reason any student entering middle school should believe in astrology or any of the other pseudo-scientific shams floating around out there!

22 posted on 07/12/2015 11:36:50 PM PDT by LibWhacker ("Because once you pee on someone's face, you HAVE to shoot him.")
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To: LibWhacker
A question my introductory astronomy professor [who, quite understandably, had a blinding white hatred of astrology] asked back in 1970 on our first exam was: Given that Jupiter has a mass of 317 Earth masses, and that a fat obstetrician has a mass of 150 kg [which is 2.5x10-23 Earth masses] and that Jupiter is 4.2 astronomical units from earth, while 1 meter is 6.7x10-12 a.u., how close does the obstetrician need to stand to the birth canal in order to have a larger gravitational influence than the planet Jupiter at the instant of your birth?

The answer is that if [s]he's about half a foot away, the gravitational force he exerts is about the same as the largest planet in the solar system. That's the best case. Jupiter could actually be as far away as ~7 a.u. from earth at the instant you're born, in which case the obstetrician can be in the room next door and pull more g's your way.

You could probably not ask that question any more, what with "products of conception," how they get in there, and where they come out and what-not.

23 posted on 07/13/2015 12:38:08 AM PDT by FredZarguna (Now, which is bigger, Pluto or Goofy?)
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