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He... explain[ed] how the astronomers... had to grapple with the problem of defining definition, because for 2 1/2 millennia there had been just one … - Julian Barbour
" "He... explain[ed] how the astronomers... had to grapple with the problem of defining definition, because for 2 1/2 millennia there had been just one standard of time... the rotation of the earth. ...[T]hat had provided an incredibly accurate clock. It's... lost only a few hours in 2 1/2 thousand years. ...Very easy to use. Astronomers only... had to glance at the night sky, at the... Big Dipper... to tell the time within a minute or two... But in the 1890s a crisis developed when they found that using the earth... and... Newton's laws of motion and gravity... the Moon was speeding up. ...[T]hey thought ...the earth was slowing down because of the tidal effects of the moon... and... this would mean that the earth was not a good timekeeper at the accuracy that they wanted.
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About Julian Barbour
Julian Barbour (born in 1937) is a British physicist with research interests in quantum gravity and the history of science.
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Additional quotes by Julian Barbour
In fact, I once had a discussion with a distinguished astrophysicist who said to me, well, this is what Mach said, and this is what Mach did and what he required. And I said to him, now excuse me, if you don't mind me saying, what you've just told me is your interpretation of Dennis Sciama's interpretation of Einstein's interpretation of Mach. And he said you're quite right. I’ve never read a word of Mach.
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Consider the example of a time capsule... geologists... establish[ed] detailed correlations between the structure of fossils and rocks... They concluded... an immense , vastly longer than the bible-deduced... 6000 years. They explained... a long process... in accordance with... laws of nature. They discovered ... and... present evidence for it extends today... to all branches of science, especially cosmology and genetics.
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