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Gerald Therrien's avatar

Salviati seems to be asking questions like Socrates would have.

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thinking-turtle's avatar

In the seventh reason Salviati makes the same mistake he accuses Simplicio of making? He says that "moving the rotating heavens would require incredible strength and power". But only a change in velocity requires power. A rotating dome keeps rotating by itself. That's the argument Salviati used earlier to explain why a stone that falls from a tower falls down straight.

If you sail around the globe, the model of a fixed earth in a spinning dome of stars is useful. If you want to explain the trajectories and retrogade movement of the planets, a model where the sun is fixed is useful.

"All models are wrong, but some are useful."

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