Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!seismo!columbia!heathcliff.columbia.edu!zdenek From: zdenek@heathcliff.columbia.edu (Zdenek Radouch) Newsgroups: sci.physics Subject: Re: Flashes in space Message-ID: <3792@columbia.UUCP> Date: Thu, 6-Nov-86 19:51:40 EST Article-I.D.: columbia.3792 Posted: Thu Nov 6 19:51:40 1986 Date-Received: Fri, 7-Nov-86 22:39:18 EST References: <130@cpro.UUCP> <3640@columbia.UUCP> <1298@ttrdc.UUCP> Sender: nobody@columbia.UUCP Reply-To: zdenek@heathcliff.columbia.edu.UUCP (Zdenek Radouch) Followup-To: sci.physics Distribution: net Organization: Columbia University CS Department Lines: 58 Summary: Please, could we turn this group into sci.physics? In article <1298@ttrdc.UUCP> levy@ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes: >In article <3640@columbia.UUCP>, zdenek@heathcliff.columbia.edu (Zdenek Radouch) writes: >> >>Don't be so fast with your conclusions. Let me remind you that the eye >>is a very very bad optical device. It is the brain what makes you see >>so clearly! I'm not going to start the never ending discussion about how > >Perhaps Glenn was mistaken, but wasn't his impression of something which >was _hovering_, that is, not moving? I don't even know if Glenn said anything, let alone what he said. All I was trying to say was that if one wants to do physics, he has to THINK before making conclusion based on something somebody else might have seen. > ...Cerenkov flashes would just appear as >sparkles with no particular position and orientation. I also said that with something like a flash it's not even possible or at least very difficult (using an eye) to determine it's origin. Given all that, there's no point in speculating about the position. What's orientation of a flash? >And what medium were the flashes taking place in? What flashes? >If in the eye, the flashes would seem to follow Glenn's gaze. Why? There's one more thing I'd like to mention. In the original posting, the author remembers astronauts reporting seeing strange flashes. He asks: "Does anyone else remember anything about this and/or the cause?" J.R. Stoner's reply starts "No." and continues "They could not have been Cerenkov flashes because...". I follow this with an article about the eye and its unreliability and there comes a followup that quotes me, asks questions that (I think) I answered and speculates about poor Cerenkov again. I understand that Cerenkov radiation is really exciting subject but can you PLEASE read the article, you are responding to, before writing the response? Thank you, zdenek ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Men are four: He who knows and knows that he knows, he is wise - follow him; He who knows and knows not that he knows, he is asleep - wake him; He who knows not and knows that he knows not, he is simple - teach him; He who knows not and knows not that he knows not, he is a fool - shun him! zdenek@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU or ...!seismo!columbia!cs!zdenek Zdenek Radouch, 457 Computer Science, Columbia University, 500 West 120th St., New York, NY 10027