This is a great bit of news. We have know for a long time that the history of a war is written by those winning the war. This simply extends this theory a bit.
It is very interesting that the history of the world is written by the dominant group of the time. All the European discoveries are posed as someone discovering something new. The ver fact that there were people in the USA when Columbous landed proves that he did not "discover" it at all - he simply opened the minds of the dominant group of people of the time (The Europeans)
South African history is an example of this. Up till about 15 years ago, the only known history of South Africa was that it was discovered by Europeans, liberated from the savages and made a civilised country. REcent events have shown the barbarism of the European nations in the colonisation of the country, and has started to show the positive side of the indigenous people.
I think it is great that something like this will shake some of the beliefs of the American people. It is nice to see that places outside the European nations actually did some discovery prior to the Europeans.
On a final note - it is interesting that all the histories of the oriental races I have come across, everytime there is a meeting between the europeans (or other leaders of the known world) the Chinese are seen as very shrewd, civilised people - very few of the other cultured have had this benefit. Does it really surprise me (against this background) that the chinese charted Australia and the Americas before the Europeans? No...
Not really,
Although you have a valid point, the article specifically states that the effect only worked on smaller weighted pendulums - larger ones would have a stronger gravitational effect.
On top of this, if both pendulums were started in the same direction, then they would not be moving away from each other and thus the gravitational effects on each other would be unchanging. Thus gravitational effect would have no bearing at all.
In the article at Science News (http://www.sciencenews.org/20001007/mathtrek.asp) they specifically mention that the pendulums were started in opposite directions, and also in the same direction.
Slashdot Mirror
This is a great bit of news. We have know for a long time that the history of a war is written by those winning the war. This simply extends this theory a bit.
It is very interesting that the history of the world is written by the dominant group of the time. All the European discoveries are posed as someone discovering something new. The ver fact that there were people in the USA when Columbous landed proves that he did not "discover" it at all - he simply opened the minds of the dominant group of people of the time (The Europeans)
South African history is an example of this. Up till about 15 years ago, the only known history of South Africa was that it was discovered by Europeans, liberated from the savages and made a civilised country. REcent events have shown the barbarism of the European nations in the colonisation of the country, and has started to show the positive side of the indigenous people.
I think it is great that something like this will shake some of the beliefs of the American people. It is nice to see that places outside the European nations actually did some discovery prior to the Europeans.
On a final note - it is interesting that all the histories of the oriental races I have come across, everytime there is a meeting between the europeans (or other leaders of the known world) the Chinese are seen as very shrewd, civilised people - very few of the other cultured have had this benefit. Does it really surprise me (against this background) that the chinese charted Australia and the Americas before the Europeans? No...
Not really, Although you have a valid point, the article specifically states that the effect only worked on smaller weighted pendulums - larger ones would have a stronger gravitational effect. On top of this, if both pendulums were started in the same direction, then they would not be moving away from each other and thus the gravitational effects on each other would be unchanging. Thus gravitational effect would have no bearing at all. In the article at Science News (http://www.sciencenews.org/20001007/mathtrek.asp) they specifically mention that the pendulums were started in opposite directions, and also in the same direction.