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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!ihuxr!lew
From: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: correction and addition to Setterfield critique
Message-ID: <769@ihuxr.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Nov-83 17:57:42 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxr.769
Posted: Sun Nov 13 17:57:42 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Nov-83 23:55:52 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 42

I concluded my critique of Setterfield's speed of light function with the
comment that the simplest function which gave the same fit was:

	C(t) = C0 * exp( (t/2737.71)^2 )

... but the time constant is too small by a factor of sqrt(2). I thought I had
checked it, and indeed I had, but with the corrected factor! Naturally, I
went ahead and reported the erroneous one. So the correct formula is:

	C(t) = C0 * exp( (t/3871.7)^2 )

The value I gave for C(6000), namely 3.3e6, was correct.

As long as I'm on the air again, I'll note that this function gives a value
of C great enough to cross the visible universe in a short time within
a few tens of thousands of years. It reaches Setterfield's "cutoff value"
of 5e11 * C0, which he assumed constant during "Creation Week", at about
t = 20000. I imagine, however, that a creationist would as soon concede
4 billion years as 20 thousand, since either would entail abandoning their
scriptural chronology.

And furthermore, since log(1+x) ~= x (I already used this once,) the REALLY
simplest function is simply:

	C(t) = C0 * (1 + (t/3871.7)^2)

This still gives better agreement with Setterfield's "exact" function than
does his approximation, which he declares completely equivalent. Note the
following values for t= 285 ( 1675 AD):

	C(t)				C(285)

	C0*sec(pi*t/12000)^1.9466	301423  /* exact */
	C0*sec(pi*t/12000)^2		301468  /* approximate */
	C0*exp( (t/3871.7)^2 )		301421
	C0*(1 + (t/3871.7)^2 )		301417

The last formula reaches 5e11 * C0 at about 3 billion years ago! Striking
confirmation of the evolutionary time scale :-)

	Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew