[...]... spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System This page intentionally left blank 2 9in x 6in ch01 FA1 August 30, 2007 10:17 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in ch01 Chapter 1 Theories Come and Theories Go It’s all kinds of old defunct theories, all sorts of old defunct beliefs, and things like that It’s not that they actually live on in us; they are simply lodged there and we cannot get rid of. .. understand it The mathematical model of the bigbang is plain enough and many physicists and astronomers, including myself, can deal with that but I doubt that there are many people xv fm FA1 August 30, 2007 10:19 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in The Formation of the Solar System on this Earth that really understand it My own test of whether or not I understand something is whether... like the Solar System has proved to be a very difficult exercise 6 FA1 August 30, 2007 10:17 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in ch01 Theories Come and Theories Go 1.3 New Theories for Old The history of science is peppered with ideas that have held sway, that were eventually found to be flawed and were then replaced by some new ideas The lesson to be learnt from this is that no theory... Although by no stretch of the imagination could one envisage any practical outcome from the deflection of a beam of light passing the Sun, at least it was possible to do the experiment to show that the prediction was true There are other areas of science where there 5 FA1 August 30, 2007 10:17 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in ch01 The Formation of the Solar System is limited opportunity... 30, 2007 10:19 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in The Formation of the Solar System some of them were superficially attractive they all failed because they contravened some important scientific principle; it is a basic requirement of any theory that every aspect of it must be consistent with the science that we know If a theory explains many things in the Solar System but is in conflict... Hydrogen Bomb The Colliding Planets xi FA1 August 30, 2007 10:19 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in fm The Formation of the Solar System 34.6 The Collision 34.7 Summary and Comments 244 246 Chapter 35 Behold the Wandering Moon 247 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 35.5 247 248 252 253 255 Orphans of the Storm A Lopsided Moon The Lopsided Moon — An Answer and a Question Collision to the Rescue A... struggling to find ways of just producing the Sun, planets and satellites, let alone all the other bodies of the Solar System Part of the problem has been that scientists have tended to concentrate on parts of the system rather than looking at it as a whole It is as though one was trying to understand the structure and workings of a car by studying just the wheels, the transmission system or the seats It is... is the length of the shortest sprint race in the Olympics For longer distances the kilometre (km), for example, one thousand metres is a better unit, i.e the distance from London to Edinburgh is 658 km Time has a variety of units, although for the scientist the basic unit is the second 9 FA1 August 30, 2007 10:17 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in ch02 The Formation of the Solar System. .. is turned on at one of the corners and the chamber fills with gas Once the gas has occupied the whole chamber there is no way of telling from which of the corners the gas came in The event was irreversible and one cannot make the molecules of the gas reverse their motions and re-enter the cylinder from which they came For an irreversible change, the past state cannot be deduced from the present state... spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in ch02 Measuring Atoms and the Universe 2.4 Measuring Things in the Solar System Tiny atomic particles are important to scientists and, indeed, to technologists as well since much of the modern communications industry depends on the way that electrons behave However, they have no obvious part to play in explaining how the Solar System and other planetary systems . without written permission from the Publisher. Copyright © 2007 by Imperial College Press THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM Theories Old and New Alvin - The Formation of the. pmd 11/22/2007, 6:35 PM1 August. Man Ahead of his Time 21 v August 30, 2007 10:19 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in f m FA1 The Formation of the Solar System 3.4 Eratosthenes — The Man who Measured the Earth. 2007 10:19 spi-b525 The Formation of the Solar System 9in x 6in f m FA1 The Formation of the Solar System some of them were superficially attractive they all failed because they contravened some