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"Friends of Science" billboard

P

Perspicuo

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
1,289
Location
Costa Rica
Basic Beliefs
Empiricist, ergo agnostic
"FriendsOfScience" Organization Do Not F Love Science
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/friendsofscience-organization-do-not-fucking-love-science

billboard_0.jpg


:shock:
I almost got a heart attack when I saw this.
 
Well, sure.

It's the same game that creationists play. People who believe in evolution are practicing "bad science," but people who practice "good science" understand that creationism is true and evolution is false.

Why would you expect the climate denialist religion to be any different?
 
One has to concede their point. If there was no sun, the earth's climate would never change.
 
Showing the scale of the sun as compared to the earth is one giant non-sequitur. We should make a Photoshop contest out of this. I can see my new headline. THERE ARE NO SEASONS, ONLY ENDLESS DESERT. WELCOME TO TATOOINE.
 
Funny. They put the size to scale but not the distance. By my reckoning the Earth should appear on a second billboard about one and a quarter miles away (assuming that the billboard is 12' x 24').
 
connick said:
Funny. They put the size to scale but not the distance. By my reckoning the Earth should appear on a second billboard about one and a quarter miles away (assuming that the billboard is 12' x 24').
Click to expand...

But if it is showing how the two would look from some distant vantage point, then it could indeed look that way as projected on the sky from that vantage point.
 
It's sure hot today, hotter than yesterday!

If I were to heed to what that billboard says, to account for hotter days I must conclude either the Earth's orbit is like a yo-yo or the Sun has a variable fuel source, but not too variable because it's never a barbecue over here.

The Frienenmies of Science ad's argument is taking one factor as the sole factor. Simplicity is the logic of fools.
 
Shadowy Man said:
connick said:
Funny. They put the size to scale but not the distance. By my reckoning the Earth should appear on a second billboard about one and a quarter miles away (assuming that the billboard is 12' x 24').
Click to expand...

But if it is showing how the two would look from some distant vantage point, then it could indeed look that way as projected on the sky from that vantage point.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm not thinking this all the way through but, I don't think that can be the case. The Sun and Earth are supposed to be to scale in the picture so there should be almost 12,000 Earth diameters separating them (on average). If the Earth is supposed to be millions of miles behind the Sun on the billboard then it is much too big. I think by scaling the two together they must be in the same plane and not foreshortened or lengthened. Right? Doesn't scaling them together automatically imply that you are viewing them as though they were both the same distance away from you?
 
connick said:
Shadowy Man said:
connick said:
Funny. They put the size to scale but not the distance. By my reckoning the Earth should appear on a second billboard about one and a quarter miles away (assuming that the billboard is 12' x 24').
Click to expand...

But if it is showing how the two would look from some distant vantage point, then it could indeed look that way as projected on the sky from that vantage point.
Click to expand...


Maybe I'm not thinking this all the way through but, I don't think that can be the case. The Sun and Earth are supposed to be to scale in the picture so there should be almost 12,000 Earth diameters separating them (on average). If the Earth is supposed to be millions of miles behind the Sun on the billboard then it is much too big. I think by scaling the two together they must be in the same plane and not foreshortened or lengthened. Right? Doesn't scaling them together automatically imply that you are viewing them as though they were both the same distance away from you?
Click to expand...

But if that distance is much, much, much larger than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, then you'd get the appropriate scales correct. Think of what imaging an exoplanet about to transit its star would look like. Would they not appear scaled properly?
 
Shadowy Man said:
connick said:
Shadowy Man said:
connick said:
Funny. They put the size to scale but not the distance. By my reckoning the Earth should appear on a second billboard about one and a quarter miles away (assuming that the billboard is 12' x 24').
Click to expand...

But if it is showing how the two would look from some distant vantage point, then it could indeed look that way as projected on the sky from that vantage point.
Click to expand...


Maybe I'm not thinking this all the way through but, I don't think that can be the case. The Sun and Earth are supposed to be to scale in the picture so there should be almost 12,000 Earth diameters separating them (on average). If the Earth is supposed to be millions of miles behind the Sun on the billboard then it is much too big. I think by scaling the two together they must be in the same plane and not foreshortened or lengthened. Right? Doesn't scaling them together automatically imply that you are viewing them as though they were both the same distance away from you?
Click to expand...

But if that distance is much, much, much larger than the distance between the Earth and the Sun, then you'd get the appropriate scales correct. Think of what imaging an exoplanet about to transit its star would look like. Would they not appear scaled properly?
Click to expand...
I think that an image of a planet transiting or about to transit its star must not show the two in equal scale. I think you are right that the distance between an exoplanet and its star is minute compared to their distance from Earth but, nevertheless I imagine the transiting exoplanet must appear forelengthened to some degree.

If you look at a photograph of, say, Mercury transiting the Sun we know that Mercury is about 40 million miles closer to us than the Sun is. That means, in order for it to be properly scaled with the Sun we'd need to see what it looked like an additional 40 million miles away. I'm still pretty sure that the billboard either shows the Earth too close to the Sun or, if it is meant to be beyond the Sun, the Earth is much too big.
 
connick said:
I think that an image of a planet transiting or about to transit its star must not show the two in equal scale. I think you are right that the distance between an exoplanet and its star is minute compared to their distance from Earth but, nevertheless I imagine the transiting exoplanet must appear forelengthened to some degree.

If you look at a photograph of, say, Mercury transiting the Sun we know that Mercury is about 40 million miles closer to us than the Sun is. That means, in order for it to be properly scaled with the Sun we'd need to see what it looked like an additional 40 million miles away. I'm still pretty sure that the billboard either shows the Earth too close to the Sun or, if it is meant to be beyond the Sun, the Earth is much too big.
Click to expand...

Mercury is much, much, much closer to us than any exoplanetary system. If you imagine an exoplanet that is 1 Astronomical Unit (1AU = 93 million miles or so) from its star but that star is 4 light years away (closer than the closest star and equal to 2.4 x 10^13 miles), the ratio of those two distances is 4 parts in a million. Any "forelengthening" is exceedingly negligible. That was my point.
 
Friends? FRIENDS???

I had some "friends" like that once.
Once.
 
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