Infinitely short days
The following quote is from Proofs of God’s Existence
Proponents of the Big Bang theory (of the earth’s origin) have noted that, looking back, the length of the day diminishes by 0.002 seconds every century, which means it decreases by 1 second every 50,000 years. By counting back to a day of zero length, they claim to have discovered the age of the earth: four-and-a-half billion years.
Is it just me, or does this make no sense? How exactly can a day have zero length? Wouldn’t the planet have to be rotating with infinite speed in order to go around once every no seconds?
I’m more of a philosophy person than a physics person, so I’d appreciate input from someone with more information.
on June 13, 2013 at 11:05 pm
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This definitely makes no sense. Even supposing his numbers are right and the days are getting shorter each successive century, going back in time would mean longer days. You couldn’t “count back to a day of zero length” by making days longer.
We calculate the age of the earth primarily through radiometric dating. I don’t know what cosmologists this guy has been talking to, but I think they have some 100 years of journal articles to catch up on.
on June 14, 2013 at 4:18 am
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The numbers aren’t right, days are getting longer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12311119