Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"

288 Pages·2002·1.15 MB·English

by  Philip C. Plait

Bad
Astronomy
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Misconceptions and Misuses
Revealed, from Astrology to
the Moon Landing “Hoax”
PHILIP C. PLAIT
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Bad
Astronomy
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Bad
Astronomy
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
Misconceptions and Misuses
Revealed, from Astrology to
the Moon Landing “Hoax”
PHILIP C. PLAIT
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Copyright © 2002 by Philip C. Plait. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York
Illustrations by Tina Cash Walsh
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
PART I Bad Astronomy Begins at Home 9
1 The Yolk’s on You: Egg Balancing and the Equinox 11
2 Flushed with Embarrassment: The Coriolis Effect
and Your Bathroom 21
3 Idiom’s Delight: Bad Astronomy in Everyday Language 28
PART II From the Earth to the Moon 37
4 Blue Skies Smiling at Me: Why the Sky Is Blue 39
5 A Dash of Seasons: Why Summer Turns to Fall 48
6 Phase the Nation: The Moon’s Changing Face 57
7 The Gravity of the Situation: The Moon and the Tides 64
8 The Moon Hits Your Eye Like a Big Pizza Pie:
The Big Moon Illusion 77
PART III Skies at Night Are Big and Bright 87
9 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star: Why Stars Appear
to Twinkle 89
10 Star Light, Star White: Stars of Many Colors 97
v
vi CONTENTS
11 Well, Well: The Difficulty of Daylight Star Sighting 103
12 The Brightest Star: Polaris—Just Another Face
in the Crowd 111
13 Shadows in the Sky: Eclipses and Sun-Watching 116
14 The Disaster that Wasn’t: The Great Planetary
Alignment of 2000 125
15 Meteors, Meteoroids, and Meteorites, Oh My!:
The Impact of Meteors and Asteroids 133
16 When the Universe Throws You a Curve:
Misunderstanding the Beginning of It All 142
PART IV Artificial Intelligence 153
17 Appalled at Apollo: Uncovering the Moon-Landing
Hoax 155
18 Worlds in Derision: Velikovsky vs. Modern Science 174
19 In the Beginning: Creationism and Astronomy 187
20 Misidentified Flying Objects: UFOs and Illusions
of the Mind and Eye 202
21 Mars Is in the Seventh House, But Venus Has Left
the Building: Why Astrology Doesn’t Work 212
PARTV Beam Me Up 221
22 Hubble Trouble: Hubble Space Telescope
Misconceptions 223
23 Star Hustlers: Star Naming for Dummies 236
24 Bad Astronomy Goes Hollywood: The Top-Ten
Examples of Bad Astronomy in Major Motion Pictures 245
CONTENTS vii
Recommended Reading 259
Acknowledgments 263
Index 265