World

Saudi cleric claims Earth is stationary, does not revolve around Sun

If a plane stops still in the air, China would be coming towards Earth, says cleric

Web Desk February 17, 2015

If a plane stops still in the air, China would be coming towards Earth, says cleric . PHOTO: ALARABIYA NEWS

A Saudi cleric in a recent video rejected the theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun and claimed that the opposite is true, Al Arabia News reported.

His statements sparked a wave of social media remarks across the globe.

When a student questioned him about whether the Earth was stationary or moving, Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari responded with "stationary and does not move."

To support his theory, Khaibari quoted some clerics and chose to present some religious statements. He then used some visuals to further strengthen his argument.

Holding up a sealed water cup, he questioned "First of all, where are we now? We go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear? Focus with me, this is Earth," he said pointing at the sealed cup.

He then argued that if a plane stops still in the air, "China would be coming towards it in case the Earth rotates in one direction. If the Earth rotates in the opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because China is also rotating," he explained.

A wave of controversial remarks flooded social media, following the clerics video, so much so that a new hashtag began trending on Twitter: #cleric_rejects_rotation_of_Earth

Several Twitter users ridiculed the cleric for this notion.

https://twitter.com/CookKnife/status/567511753882607616

Now we know the source of Saudi #moonsighting problem, #cleric_rejects_rotation_of_Earth
— Zaheer Hussain (@ZaheerHuss) February 16, 2015

https://twitter.com/aleemuddeenkhan/status/567546943119687681

In an interesting remark, one user tweeted: "What a coincidence that this would occur on Galileo's birthday!"

Galileo was accused by the church for many of his beliefs including his support for the Copernican theory that the Earth and other planets revolved around the sun.

COMMENTS (110)

Rem | 8 years ago | Reply This guy needs a lesson in theory of relativity

sam | 9 years ago | Reply I also think that. and one day it will be proven

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KHAN | 9 years ago | Reply I believe they are of no good ... Brainless saudis and religion is being mocked because of them

Viking Star | 9 years ago | Reply @Vish: You better come out of your ethnic shell. The cleric could be wrong and could be right as well. The distance between New Your and California is 4000 km. The Earth rotates at about 70 km an hour. So traveling in a plane from NY to CA (with earth rotating east to west / anticlock), should reach CA more quickly than traveling the same distance the other way round - CA to NY. Is this the case? The flight time from New York to California is 5 hours and 20 mins and it is the same for CA to NY, why? Considering Earth's rotation at 70 km/hr, the plane should reach CA (from NY) in 4 hrs 30 mins (approx.). So things have to be proved otherwise (before you start using your beautiful brain)

friend | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: I will give you a task to understand. Just try to play a ball game by throwing it in the air for 1 feet in a moving bus and try to catch it. See what happens, ball will come back to same place from where it was thrown unless speed of bus changes.

Mark Scheuer | 9 years ago | Reply Rather than ridicule the man, perhaps someone should take him to see a Foucault pendulum in action, preferably far from the equator. (We were all this ignorant at some point in our lives.) Follow this up with an explanation about air friction so he can understand how a plane can actually travel to China.on a rotating Earth, since through friction the air is rotating at nearly the same speed as the planet (The difference being something we call "wind.").

Jay | 9 years ago | Reply I wonder what kind of books he reads to enhance his knowledge !

Rahul tudu | 9 years ago | Reply May be the earth is centre of universe and every other heavenly body rotates around it ..or maybe with respect to earth every thing rotates around it ..what ever it is the scientists must clarify this doubt otherwise we all will be confuse .

Khargosh | 9 years ago | Reply all above comments are yet to challenge his presented logic directly :) i must say, ppl including me, have failed to logically & scientifically defy his logic ;)

Deepak | 9 years ago | Reply I wonder why people have a problem with a “religious” guy being wrong while talking about “science. Now comparision between the great Einstein and this mullah shows your mental ability to discriminate. Grow up boy! Einsteins errors were far subtle than you and I can comprehend.

Sun Tzu | 9 years ago | Reply @I am a Khan: people are ridiculing because the question betrays gross ignorance! If for somehow the place became stationary in the air - this means - it has become stationary WITH RESPECT TO the surface of the earth. Since China is also on the surface of the earth, it will be stationary with respect to China. But the plane ( and also China) are moving WITH RESPECT TO THE SUN -- at a tremendous speed covering one round in 365 days. To extend this concept further, the Sun and all the planets are MOVING WITH RESPECT to the GALAXY.

Stephen | 9 years ago | Reply Maybe, hit on the head by a piece of the flying Blackstone meteorite. He certainly has the same dazed expression as our sword whirling prince Charles who speaks to floggers. But on a more serious note does not the Koran teach that the sun sets below the horizon somewhere on the earth! Its Saudi Arabia that remains stationary.

gebreal | 9 years ago | Reply why this people cant be only clerics not astronomers, if they like astronomer so much why you became clerics

Deicide Hayat | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: Because scientists like Einstein seldom talk about religion, and when they do, they are articulate, rational, and often very understanding.

Bewildered | 9 years ago | Reply @ All Indian Commentators: While Saudi cleric is certainly an imbecile nutcase of insignificance, here is what prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, recently said: “We worship (elephant god) Lord Ganesha. There must have been some plastic surgeon at that time who got an elephant’s head on the body of a human being and began the practice of plastic surgery,” Modi said. And a former Indian pilot turned author Anand J. Bodas claimed that "some of the jumbo aeroplanes of ancient India (7000 BC) had 40 small engines and could move not only forward but backward as well and were able to travel between planets". You guys were clapping then, but for a neutral observer, the gold meddle of eccentricity goes to your PM, not the illiterate poor cleric.

sridhar | 9 years ago | Reply The cleric says (Holding up a sealed water cup, he questioned “First of all, where are we now? We go to Sharjah airport to travel to China by plane, clear? Focus with me, this is Earth,” he said pointing at the sealed cup. He then argued that if a plane stops still in the air, “China would be coming towards it in case the Earth rotates in one direction. If the Earth rotates in the opposite direction, the plane would never reach China, because China is also rotating,” he explained.) In other words, if you keep a stationary balloon at a certain height over say Point X, as per this cleric, this balloon should recede away from the Point X. Guess what, that does not happen. When earth rotates, the atmosphere above it, being part of the whole system, also moves with that rotation. That is to say, the balloon will also be rotating with the earth's rotation and will stay right on top of Point X (unless moved by other forces like wind etc). That is my simple explanation from Physics. I am however a physician and would welcome a more sophisticated explanation. As a 7 year old kid I used to argue with the same logic as this cleric. This cleric therefore has the brain of a 7 year old!

Tariq | 9 years ago | Reply @Shoaib: The poster is correct, Islamic world did not have an observatory after Ottoman clerics had the Sultan destroy Taqi-ud-Din's observatory in 1580 on the grounds that studying astronomy was an infringement on the realm of the Almighty. Certainly, the Islamic world was at the forefront in the study of Astronomy during the Abbassid rule. However, once the jahil mullahs took over during the latter ottoman era, the Islamic world sank into the pit of ignorance from which it has yet to emerge. At the same time, the Western world entered its renaissance period and today is light years ahead of the Islamic world in science.

Sobriquet | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: The earth rotates along with its atmosphere and everything in it, right up to the region where space begins. This is called the force of GRAVITY. Only objects outside the gravity field are independent of the earth. This is why geostationary satellites, which appear motionless (have a fixed position in the sky) are actually moving at a velocity of 3.07 km/s, in the same direction of the earth's rotation. They are all orbiting at a height of 35,786 km above sea-level, directly above the equator.

Shoaib | 9 years ago | Reply @Sodomite: Oh really, Islamic world did not have an observatory? 800-33 - The first modern observatory research institute built in Baghdad, Iraq, by Arabic astronomers during time of Al-Mamun 825-35 - Al-Shammisiyyah observatory by Habash al-Hasib al-Marwazi in Baghdad, Iraq 1000 - Mokattam observatory in Egypt for Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. The list is very long but I hope this will suffice. PS. Who built the first observatory in Europe?

Shoaib | 9 years ago | Reply LOL, Why bother. People like him existed throughout the history. For example, the Catholic Church persecuted Galileo for abandoning the geocentric (earth-at-the-center) view of the solar system for the heliocentric (sun-at-the-center) view. Though the trouble is, this cleric is saying this in the modern times but hey we mostly live in the past anyway, so whats all the fuss about

Klaas | 9 years ago | Reply @Stan: Actually the question whether time is continuous or discrete, or even branching, is a deep philosophical question. It gives all sorts of interesting modal logics when you assume the different axiomata. We used to assume that time was a well founded set at least (it had a beginning, i.e., the big bang). Now there is are several new models in which this is not the case. Two that seem most interesting is where the big bang gave rise to two time axes, running in opposite directions, so that our infinite future is the other universe's infinite past, and one in which the universe (and time) starts with a big bang, expands, empties out and starts over again. It's hard to say which is true. They are all models that allow for a completely consistent physics. A bit like three axioms of Euclid allow for different completely consistent geometry, one of which allows an infinite number of parallel lines run through the same point. As for the sheikh, I like to think of myself hurling through space at a stunning 700.000 miles/hour (and that is only taking into account our rotation along the center of the milky way, not the local cluster). The equations are much simpler that way, and I can state that I'm not doing nothing. I'm moving very fast.

talat | 9 years ago | Reply Mr. heng. if a person just stands at the equator, he would not be moving, relative to the earth. there is a fundamental error in your argument. Unfortunately, the writers of the comments to this page have a very important thing in common with the Saudi clerk. it is that the Saudi clerk and them know just that the earths revolving around is something which is universally accepted. It is something the teacher marked as correct when they went to schools. The Saudi clerk denies it, but they don't. This does not make the clerk less learned on the subject than the most of them. It could be his point rather that it does not matter to the layman.

Timorlane | 9 years ago | Reply The illiterate heap of ignorance does not know that it were Muslims who first presented the theory that Earth revolves around sun. These creatures can stoop to any level for cheap publicity

Bin Ibraiim | 9 years ago | Reply This would equal saying that a passenger in a traveling train starting to walk forwards from its last wagon will never reach the first wagon. I sincerely hope that this is not true. In absence of the surrounding landscape nobody could truly say whether the train is moving or the passenger.// Now, to someone standing in the landscape the train would be moving by while to someone sitting in the train the landscape would be moving by.Who is right and who is wrong? The best way to avoid quarrel is the understanding that it depends solely on where one stands, in the landscape or in the train. If this understanding is not possible due to lack of spirit,then the second best solution is to assess any movement in relation to a chosen third point not in the landscape and not in the train.

aftab | 9 years ago | Reply "Religion is the opium of the people" Karl Marx

PrasadDeccani | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: Yes, it will remain there even after one year. Google for rotation of earth's atmosphere, you will find interesting answers to your question. Also, why ocean water is not falling off the earth into space? :-)

Iftekhar Khokhar | 9 years ago | Reply "Saudi cleric's remarks seem unjust & uncalled for, as the same are not scientifically proven. These so-called findings on his part are merely based on gut feeling, therefore, don't carry weight."

Mr Punjab | 9 years ago | Reply Nothing more than a publicity stunt. Dont pay attention, get on with your lives.

Mr Punjab | 9 years ago | Reply @Pankaj: Its pointless paying attention to this cleric. Apparently if he has lost his plot, not everyone in Pakistan would agree with him. Mind you, there are numerous rituals performed by your nation which are worse than any comedy show. So keep your stereotype comments to yourself. RESPECT!

?Heck | 9 years ago | Reply It is not entirely fair to criticize the cleric. One only knows what one is taught or what one has learned. If the author knew the earth was round and revolved around the sun, he would/should have written it in the book. That would have saved hundreds of people who were killed for blasphemy during the dark ages.

Asad | 9 years ago | Reply So plane stopped in the air and earth rotating will feel like Plane in Reverse Gear :p

Alladitta | 9 years ago | Reply If there was an Islamic Nobel Prize for Physics, he would win it hands down.

Amy | 9 years ago | Reply Imagine being a woman and having to deal with this type of guy every day because you're stuck in the house with him and can't drive. You also can't go out and meet normal guys. I'd go nuts.

Amy | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: We know the Earth revolves around the sun. It's a fact. You don't know Einstine was wrong about religion. It's just your opinion. There is a difference between things you know and can prove are true, and things you just personally believe are true.

Sun Tzu | 9 years ago | Reply I'd suggest the cleric (and few others to understand this scientifically) read the Physics Concept of "Frame or Reference". If you are standing still inside a train - you are still 'with respect to the train'. But with respect to the earth - you are moving at the speed of the train. Similarly, if a plane stopped (still) in the air, it is stationary with respect to the surface of the earth below. But with respect to the Sun /Solar System, it is moving with the speed of the Earth!!! On the same rule, the entire Solar System is also moving at some lightening speed, with respect to the Galaxy, although you are stationary with respect to the Sun.

Syerix | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: Physics 101. Discover the concept of Gravity mate.

Simon | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed Who says Einstein was wrong about religion. In fact he was more right about the concepts of religion, theology and god than he gets credit for.

Mujahid Hussain | 9 years ago | Reply According to a book 'Nahj al-Balagha' written by Hazrat Imam Ali AS. "Then Almighty raised the foam on to the open wind and vast firmament and made therefrom the seven skies and made the lower one as a stationary surge and the upper one as protective ceiling and a high edifice without any pole to support it or nail to hold it together. Then He decorated them with stars and the light of meteors and hung in it the shining sun and effulgent moon under the revolving sky, moving ceiling and rotating firmament." I hope this is the enough answer for cleric. http://www.al-islam.org/printpdf/book/export/html/20582

Zalmai | 9 years ago | Reply Pakistanis idolize the retarded Saudis, no wonder talk of cars running on water and teleporting come out of Pakistan.

Yak | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: http://www.physicscentral.com/experiment/askaphysicist/physics-answer.cfm?uid=20110218025229

sarbuland | 9 years ago | Reply The cleric can be considered for appointment as chief khateeb at lal masjid in place of maulana abdul aziz..

Mansoor | 9 years ago | Reply To make him understand the rule of relativity using a simple example could be of a fly or a bird flying in a plane while plane is moving at a speed of 800 ks an hour. That doesn't mean tht the fly or a bird is flying at the same speed though in the air within the plane. Hope it makes sense what am trying to say

Sal | 9 years ago | Reply @Sajjad: The earth's rotation was discovered long before Ali so you can not credit this to him.

Saz | 9 years ago | Reply Actually he is reinventing the wheel or rather holding up a cube and saying that this is.a wheel, that is not he same as questening and thinking @Pakistani:

Saz | 9 years ago | Reply LoL yes my friend you are a true Khan@I am a Khan:

Sal | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: A science guy is usually never wrong about religion. A science guy's mind is open, have read many a books which is the exact opposite of a religious mind.

Saz | 9 years ago | Reply The really scary thing is that guys like these have influence over the ummah . may Allah help us all.

India Pakistan team up | 9 years ago | Reply Guys - lets make him a Youtube hit. This is one thing Pakistanis and Indians can work together on - lets all view this clip and make it viral. It will be so funny

SilverT | 9 years ago | Reply remember Agha Waqar's Car

ham | 9 years ago | Reply Hi All Well, this is another approach the problems, remind every one that the approach that the revolves around the Sun is just a theory and not a fact! so after all he might have a right who knows Regards Ham

roarwali | 9 years ago | Reply What an ignorant man he is! shame on these maulvis.

Eagle | 9 years ago | Reply Hats off to all physicists reading this!

AA | 9 years ago | Reply @Sodomite: Muslim have observatories long before renaissance happened in Europe, don't be ignorant. All medieval Muslim archeological sights have specialized observatory, in fact the first institutionalized observatory with its specialized staff was built in 9th century CE under the patronage of Al-Mamun in Baghdad. The ignorant Cleric is a prime example of Madrassa plague we are observing among Muslim youth.

AA | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: Yes, have you travel in the train at speed faster than 60 miles an our and yet feel like you are stationary on your seat ? Sipping your coffee without spilling it ? reach to the other side of the compartment without feeling that you are moving your hand in the direction of travel more than sixty miles an hour or in opposite direction without feeling of flying back? This motion is relative to train, The cleric flunked his physics class, if he had one, The earths atmosphere is like a train moving everything with it. Only something that moves relative to it moves in either direction just like you move inside the plane or a moving train.

mehdi | 9 years ago | Reply sura 21, verse 33: "(God is) the One Who created the night, the day, the sun and the moon. Each one is travelling in an orbit with its own motion."

Adnan Bashir | 9 years ago | Reply I recommend The Express Tribune paper should focus on publishing stories which are productive for their readers rather than "discoveries" of this kind which are hundreds in the market. They are not only wrong but later take up hours of the readers' time in meaningless discussions.

shumayel | 9 years ago | Reply This is one really confused cleric. He is trying to prove the circulation of earth in solar orbit with the movement of earth on its own axis??? These are two completely different things. Somebody please explain to him how satellites work in earth orbit. By the way what about moon? does moon revolve around earth or does the earth revolve around moon?

prabhjyot singh madan | 9 years ago | Reply Rabji save Pakistan from these clerics. It is a known fact earth is round and moves around the sun. Each rotation makes a year around the sun and it's own rotation makes a day. The petro dollar will ruin the country of my ancestors. The satellites move around the earth to match the movement of days around earth. Crazy guys, what is his qualifications in astronomy and physics.

Nasir | 9 years ago | Reply What rubbish? He doesn't make sense. And I'm really curious about the intelligence of the "student" who asked this question? Why would you ask the question to a cleric who doesn't know science at all, secondly, these questions were related to medieval West. So obviously this cleric has been coached into speak none-sense!! I bet later on the Western media will pick up this story and will ridicule Islam's teachings!!

marwat khan | 9 years ago | Reply @Stan because there is no such thing like time in it's own form, time is a conventional quantitative defined as delay between two events occurring relative to universally adopted event which is the distance of 3x10^8 meter light travel. whenever light travel 3x10^8 meter, an event is supposed to be occur when a second event in series happen, the lap between these two event is 1 second. so it is actually events

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply And these are the folks funding our madrassas! No wonder Pakistan so messed up

MJ | 9 years ago | Reply We used to have a troll like that in our physics class. But he said such things to make everyone laugh and annoy our teachers. If this guy is serious I would pay to watch his videos for entertainment value. Can someone put subtitles on his videos and upload them on youtube or dailymotion?

Kamal | 9 years ago | Reply Religion has never supported technology, as we can clearly see in historical records. Pity!

Tariq | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: You have to factor in Gravity. An object suspended in air will still be subject to gravitational force. Unless you spend energy holding it above the surface of the earth, it will simply come down. In addition to Gravity, all earth bound objects are also subject to the rotational force due to earth's movement. Closer to earth, the gravitational force is dominant. However, as you get farther away from earth, the gravitational force becomes lesser and lesser and at some point, the rotational force takes over and the object assumes an orbit and begins to rotate around the Earth. That is how Satellites work. An object placed in Earth's orbit 26,199 miles away will have the same angular velocity as earth, so that object will appear to be looking at the same part of Planet. These Satellites are called geo synchronous satellites. I suggest you read Newton's "Principia Mathematica". Newton figured all this out in 1679.

G Indian | 9 years ago | Reply Ignorance is not a crime. This Saudi cleric is at least using his thinking brain. From pure logical stand of view, he has a point. Instead of ridiculing him, it is the duty of learned people to offer counter example that he can understand. Ask the cleric to imagine that he is travelling in a train. Suppose one end of the train is Sharjah and the other end is China. A kid flies a toy plane from Sharjah end to the China end. The toy plane will reach the China end. The China end of the train will not move to the Sharjah end.

proud Pak | 9 years ago | Reply Unfortunately He failed to understand that a plane can never ever be made stationery in the air.This is because the fact that every object while being flown up in the air has the same rotational velocity ie Omega which the earth has.

abc | 9 years ago | Reply Too much knowledge is also dangerous

Cramer_SS | 9 years ago | Reply @Stan: It is part of Zeno's Paradox, a thought experiment which isn't actually true. In fact, it is deliberately designed to be flawed. Time actually has a quanta, called the Planck time.

Pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply Better Late than never......Questioning and reasoning is the way to realize the truth (if the intention is to seek truth)...... By the way, I am sure, most of the Aristotle's (commentators in this forum) have never tried questioning any issue rather simply learned most of their knowledge from third source, based on which pseudo-Aristotle's pride themselves.

Fawad | 9 years ago | Reply While media pays attention to this cleric, meanwhile his cousin kills thousand endangered wild birds illegally in Pakistan (Court is still pondering ban on hunt is legal or not). Government says they not here to hunt, still fights.

Humayun Bhatty | 9 years ago | Reply Poor cleric is uneducated in sciences and in Islam as well. He should have known that the stationary place is locked within the air which also moves with the rotating air. So plane is moved within the air and also the gravitational force of the earth locks the aeroplane in its place. Hence, China does not come to it. If the aeroplane went out into outer space out of Earth's gravitational pull then indeed China and all other counties would move towards it at the speed of Earth's rotation. Any object locked by Earth's gravitational force in air can not move but stays in place. Simple science and common sense.

turbo | 9 years ago | Reply genius!!!

John B | 9 years ago | Reply This cleric forgot to mention that the earth is flat

3rdRockFromTheSun | 9 years ago | Reply I think this cleric should be given the Nobel Prize in Physics for the "Invention of Time Travel"! Just one flight to Saudi Arabia takes you back 800 years!! Wow.

scientificguy | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: Yes you idiot. Because it is already rotating with the earth and continues to do so because of GRAVITY!!!

scientificguy | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: Because science never claimed to be right all the time, just that this is what explains what we can observe for now. That can change over time. Religion, and the appointed interpreters of religion claim these things without any evidence and/or scientific knowledge. They are free to say whatever they want and the religious follow this, setting all of humanity back by a few decades. Incidentally, I'm unclear where Einstein was "wrong" about religion. Given its gobbledygook anyway, what do you mean by "wrong".

pakistani | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: He shouldn't be taking abt science if he doesn't know it. It's because of guys like him the whole religion get blame.

Salman | 9 years ago | Reply Agha waqar wasn't an engineer @tanu:

I am a Khan | 9 years ago | Reply Well he has made his point with an example about a plane being stationary in the air and then china should either come closer or go further away, if the earth revolved. If we think other wise we have to refute using an example, rather than ridiculing him.

GK | 9 years ago | Reply Did he really said "if a plane stops still in the air"... buahhh....

Sam@ABE | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed - "I wonder why people have a problem with a “religious” guy being wrong while talking about “science.... etc" Its because most people know that geniuses and cretins are found at the opposite extremes of the bell curve. @Ijaz - "We have already traveled back in time, by centuries! " Or perhaps this time traveler from the past find himself in the 21st century.

Proton | 9 years ago | Reply @T Francis: If i remeber it correctly, it's because you, being something that exists, has movement. You will keep that movement until you change it yourself. Like if you get into a car and drive it at 80 km/h, you'll keep that movement of 80 km/h relative to the earth until something changes it, like friction from the wheels or the air, you braking or from gravity. If you crash your car, all that energy of you motion will be transfered to the object you crash into. But if you crash into the car in front of you, while you are travelling at 80 km/h and the other car at 75 km/h, the diffrence between your motion relative to the eratha nd the other cars motion relative tot the earth is only 5 km/h, which is not close to as much energy. You'll also keep you movement relative to earth if you jump staight up, because your movement (angular momentum?) will still be the same in the direction the earth moves. If you jump in the direction opposed tot hte rotation of earth, you would keep the new movement i that direction if there weren't forces that brought you back to the movement of the earth. Gravity will keep you down, and friction will drag you along the surface until you are moving exactly like the reast of the earth is. But since a jump includes so little energy, you won't notice much of the friction at all.

Ijaz | 9 years ago | Reply Ibn al Shatir, the 14th century time keeper in Umayyad Mosque in Damascus was a far better astronomer than this 21st century's Muslim cleric. We have already traveled back in time, by centuries!

Mansoor | 9 years ago | Reply It makes sense!

Lord | 9 years ago | Reply This shows there mental intellect.

heng | 9 years ago | Reply

T Francis:

Ok, that totally relies on how exactly you suspend your object... If it does not move, as per your definition, it will not move... scratches-head So, I will leap to the assumption, that what you meant is this: It is somehow trying to maintain its height above ground without inducing any lateral motion on its own, completly ignoring any effects from wind, obstacles, and/or people poking it with sticks. The surface of the earth rotates around the center at roughly a thousand miles per hour... at the equator - zero miles per hour (~0 km/h) at the poles. Further more earth itself rotates at roughly avaraged 67 thousand miles per hour around the sun... So - again, assumption by me - if you lift an object at the equator from ground to 100 feet, and apply the rules established above... The lateral velocity of the object will be slightly lower than the surface. It has the "velocity" to travel at the exact speed as the ground, but now it has to run around in a circle with an increased radius (+50 feet). Ergo: Your object would drift west very, very slowly - faster, if at the equator, slower elsewhere, not at all at the poles. HTH heng

mime | 9 years ago | Reply @Logical: Science is more controversial and conflicting then Religion. Every now and then you get a myth busted, or a theory revised. But I agree with you, we have to cope with the latest scientific knowledge to teach our children. But have to keep in mind that it can be busted any time. So science is only a knowledge-base while religion is a set of beliefs.

Umar R. | 9 years ago | Reply The speed of Plane is relative to earth's speed. So it won't make a difference no matter what direction a plane flies," Lets say you are inside an airplane (or train for that matter) and you have to go to restroom, there are restrooms at both ends of the plane and your seat is in the middle of it. Which restroom would you reach faster? STUPID cleric...

Muhammad Usman | 9 years ago | Reply How time is composed of instants when they are duration-less?? @ Toba Alu

tanu | 9 years ago | Reply Put this guy with pakistani engineer who made water run car, they will surely discover the god particle without spending anything. Let us enjoy these comic characters for what they are! great entertainment!

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply Another USD 1.5 billion from them.....and we to will believe this.

Asad Zaidi | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed: The religious guy should present some substantial evidence to support his argument. Yes, scientific theories change and can be ruled wrong but then you need to prove your hypothesis.

Stan | 9 years ago | Reply @Toba Alu: You said: "...and time is entirely composed of instants..." Is it? Proof please, or your statement is flawed.

Logical | 9 years ago | Reply @Ahmed - Because religious beliefs can be different hence people are ok you have your own way of belief. But Scientific reason for a fact is common, so people dont want anyone to create confusion on those facts. Else you can't teach science to your Children, religion is just an option for many.

T Francis | 9 years ago | Reply I am no genius infact dumb to the study of earths motion. But I have a question. What if we can put something in the air like say 100 feet of the ground. That object should be floating in air with no connection to the ground or anything else it's just staying there in air not moving like a flying saucer. What would happen after one year? Would it still be found in the same place.

Pankaj | 9 years ago | Reply Hahaha....... Now, since Saudi masters have spoken in no uncertain terms...... our Pakistani slaves have to agree with complete submission........ Next logical step is to include this in Pakistani School text books........

Zohaib | 9 years ago | Reply Why do people bash Saudi clerics so much? I find them to be an excellent source of lulz. They make us smile. They tell us exactly what not to think, so we can do the exact opposite of what they say.

Tony Singh | 9 years ago | Reply The cleric perhaps travelled in time to pre-Galileo Era. @Toba Alu: Perhaps Zeno forgot that if there is no time then there are no "instants" or events.

Vish | 9 years ago | Reply Well What to say for these type of cult deficit in science and follow the friction from the stupid book which is causing the whole world to burn,...

Zindabadi | 9 years ago | Reply He must be the missing link evolutionary scientists have been looking for.

goggi (Lahore) | 9 years ago | Reply Sand philosophies and religions have no place in the evergreen heavenly Indian subcontinent.

Toba Alu | 9 years ago | Reply Paradox of Zeno of Elea (490 - 430 BC). "Zeno states that for motion to occur, an object must change the position which it occupies. He gives an example of an arrow in flight. He states that in any one (durationless) instant of time, the arrow is neither moving to where it is, nor to where it is not. It cannot move to where it is not, because no time elapses for it to move there; it cannot move to where it is, because it is already there. In other words, at every instant of time there is no motion occurring. If everything is motionless at every instant, and time is entirely composed of instants, then motion is impossible." This cleric needs to learn and study a bit more. I advice some pre-school lessons first and then if successful he might be allowed to enter primary school. (Pls no beards in the primary school that may frighten other kids).

Sajjad | 9 years ago | Reply Hazrat Ali a.s has clearly mentioned that every part of earth is moving 1400 years ago. This bugger is talking crap which goes to show their inefficient intelligence

Ali S | 9 years ago | Reply The momentthe last drop of Saudi oil is consumed, they will go back to being the 8th-century camel riders that they've always mentally been and the Muslim world will breathe a collective sigh of relief.

Sodomite | 9 years ago | Reply Like Saudi Clerics, the Ottoman Clerics destroyed Taqi-ad Din's Observatory in 1580, only 3 years after its completion in 1577. Islamic World did not have an Observatory until Mustafa Kemal permitted one to be built in the 1920s. The Saudis live in the stone age and their thoughts mirror that age.

Bilal Choudry | 9 years ago | Reply Physics should be taught in madrassas .. and journo schools too ... since Hamid Mir would probably agree with this

Utpal | 9 years ago | Reply In Kolkata, a person named K.C.Paul also claimed the same from last about 40Yrs. He used to print a booklet with his all logic. Few years back one article was published in a Bengali Daily, Anadabazar Patrika. At that time that man used to stay on pavements and everybody considered him as mad.

Anon | 9 years ago | Reply Hmm... sounds to me like he's talking about relativity... with that plane example...

Ahmed | 9 years ago | Reply I wonder why people have a problem with a "religious" guy being wrong while talking about "science. While they never have a problem with a "science" guy(Einstein) being wrong while talking about "religion".

Sodomite | 9 years ago | Reply The Great Saudi Leap Forward. Way to Go!!!

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