Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!actnyc!gcf
From: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Plantes & actions (was Re: Omni-Americans)
Message-ID: <743@actnyc.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 88 15:00:20 GMT
References: <5017@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <2790@gryphon.CTS.COM> <1221@uop.edu> <1077@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <465@flatline.UUCP> <133@aplcomm.UUCP>
Reply-To: gcf@actnyc.UUCP (Gordon Fitch)
Organization: InterACT Corporation
Lines: 62

In article <133@aplcomm.UUCP> jwm@stdc.jhuapl.edu.UUCP (James W. Meritt) writes:
}In article <465@flatline.UUCP> erict@flatline.UUCP (eric townsend) writes:
}>I'm no fan of astrology, but I have a question or three...
}>
}>In article <1077@PT.CS.CMU.EDU>, lindsay@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay) writes:
}>> In article <5143@uwmcsd1.UUCP> markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins) writes:
}>> >And yet, despite the fact that this shows
}>> >there to be nothing inherently absurd about Astrology, many scientists will 
}>> >scoff just at hearing the very idea.  
}>> 
}>> The idea that planets influence you is subject to calculation, and hence can
}>> be proved (and has been proved) absurd.
}>
}>Ok, first off, who's "proved" this, and how have they proved it?
}>It seems to me that since:
}>
}
}
}
}
}How about you?  I provide some assumptions, you do the calculations
}and that way we may both be satisfied?
}
}Known influences: gravity & electromagnetic
}Test case for gravity:
}test object 1 - closest planet: venus
}test object 2 - biggest planet: jupiter
}(ineligable:	sun:	you said PLANET
}		moon:	ibid
}		earth:	nolo contendre on that, piedro!
}test object 3 - empire state building
}
}Look up masses & distances.  What is the order they influence us?
}

Yeah, but the theory is that people are somehow _tuned_in_ to the
planets.  Also (a) the Empire State Building doesn't move around,
and (b) it's occluded from most persons.  By the way, sun and
moon are planets, astrologically speaking.

}Test case for EM radiation:
}test object 1 - noisest EM planet: jupiter
}test object 2 - WTOP FM 105 on your dial, Washington DC
}test object 3 - doctor (ir emitter, 98.6, range < 1 meter)
}
}Look up transmitting power, look up distance. rank.
}

See above.

The only valid test I can see would be to choose some metric
astrologers would agree on and measure a large population for
it (them) over a reasonable period of time.  We should then be
able to use our ingenious machines to determine whether there
was any correlation between astrological data and the results
of the measurement.  I don't believe the astrological columns
in the newspapers will pollute the measurement because they
contradict either other, insofar as they say anything.

Of course, if you "disprove" astrology, it's going to take
a lot of fun out of the world.  No more walking into a bar
and saying, "Hi, what's your sign?"  On the other hand....