Re [No.?]: A Matter of Degrees, Pt. 2

[Vaska Tumir]

Will Karlin writes: 

>>Am I confusing this with some other stuff --  or is it the case
>> that the earth's solar merry-go-round is not a true circle at all?  
>
>  Nope.  It sure doesn't, mildly elliptical with the sun at one foci.  The
>effect of the non-circular orbit is small, but observable -- especially
>now with our sophisicated observational and time-keeping abilties.  
>
>  to further complicate matters the ellipse the earth traces out around
>the sun changes orientation slowly (it precesses) as does the relative
>position of the north pole to the "fixed" background stars (which are
>really moving around themselves). The precession motion of the north pole
>has a period of about 26,000 years! Our north pole star was no where near
>the north pole around 6,000 years ago.  Add to this all the effects of the
>other planets' gravitational pulls on us, and you see that the actual
>motion of the earth is extremely complicated.  So *any* attempt to base a
>system of measurement or time-keeping on this motion (which the ancients
>saw as being absolute) would run into problems.  Better to pick some
>standard here on earth and make minor adjustments as needed (such as leap
>seconds).

Sorry for quoting such a large chunk, but I think all of this has a lot to
do with how I [for one] have to read _M&D_.  Now, several other list-members
have sent me basically the same information as Will does here -- who says
there's no friendly co-operation on this list?!!! -- and the more I think
about it the more I wonder what on earth [no pun intended] Pynchon might be
up to in the section where that Fr. Maire etc. stuff comes up.  

I mean, is TPR pulling a Milton on us: you know, Milton knew perfectly well
that the cosmology he was using in "Paradise Lost" had nothing do with
anything approaching the real thing.  It merely suited the ideological
points he wanted to make.  Same thing here?  Or something close enough to be
analogous?  Hmm.  

>  One last note, Eratosthenes proved the earth was round (and calculated
>it's size to within 2%) using the 360 degrees in a circle rule -- this
>back around 200 B.C.E.

Yeah: those Greek rationalists were quite something, weren't they?  In my
more lyrical [or lunatic, take your pick] moments, I wish for a heaven where
one could meet those guys, some of the Stoics, Spinoza, the incomparable
Hume, even the old Voltaire himself.  Not to forget Sapho, say, or Diotima,
but especially that Alexandrian woman mathematician the Christian rabble
shred to death using sea-shells.... If only Tariq Ali had remembered to put
them all in together with the Red Rosa et al. in *his* imaginary heaven in
_Redemption_ [a great, light read and *highly* recommended].

>  a big fan of the "sciento-fascist" (ouch!) metric system,

Me, too.  In my case, I *had* to switch from the metric to the imperial --
and it's OK now, but what a mind-boggling affair the whole thing was at first.

Vaska