page 3
(The Study of Threes)
http://threesology.org
Here is another perspective of the rate at which the Earth's rotation is slowing:
The secular change in the rotation rate of Earth currently increases the length of day by 2.3 milliseconds per century. While this amount may seem astonishingly small, its accumulated effects have important consequences. In one century, Earth looses about 40 seconds, while in one millennium, the planet is over one hour "behind schedule." Astronomers use the quantity delta-T to describe this time difference. Unfortunately, Earth's rotation is not slowing down at a uniform rate. Non-tidal effects of climate (global warming, polar ice caps and ocean depths) and the dynamics of Earth's molten core make it impossible to predict the exact value of delta-T in the remote past or distant future.
Stephenson and collaborators have made a number of important contributions concerning Earth's rotation during the past several millennia. In particular, they have identified hundreds of eclipse and occultation observations in early European, Middle Eastern and Chinese annals, manuscripts, canons and records. In spite of their relatively low precision, these data represent our only record of the value of delta-T during the past several millennia.
In particular, Stephenson and Morrison (1984) have fit hundreds of records with simple polynomials to achieve a best fit for describing the value of delta-T from 700 BCE to 1600 CE. An abbreviated table of their results is as follows:
| Year | Delta-T (sec) | Longitude Shift |
| 1500 BCE | 39610 = 11h 00m | 165.0° |
| 1000 BCE | 27364 = 07h 36m | 114.0° |
| 500 BCE | 17444 = 04h 51m | 72.7° |
| 1 BCE | 9848 = 02h 44m | 41.0° |
| 500 CE | 4577 = 01h 16m | 19.1° |
| 1000 CE | 1625 = 00h 27m | 6.8° |
| 1500 CE | 275 = 00h 05m | 1.1° |
Note: BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) are secular alternatives for the terms BC and AD, respectively.
Take special note of the column labeled "Longitude Shift." This is the amount that an eclipse path must be shifted in order to take into account the cumulative effects of delta-T. The historical eclipse and occultation records for:
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/deltaT2.html
...only extends back to about 700 BCE. Thus, any values of delta-T before this time must either be 1) a direct extrapolation from known values, or 2) based on theoretical models of purely tidal breaking of Earth's rotation. The best available solution is probably to combine both of the above methods when looking into the distant past (before 1000 BCE), but the uncertainties grow so rapidly that no meaningful results can be obtained earlier than about 2000 BCE.
Stephenson and Houlden (1986) estimate the uncertainties in the adopted values of delta-T as follows:
| Year | Uncertainty (Time) | Uncertainty (Longitude) |
| 1500 BCE | ~900 sec | ~4° |
| 400 BCE | ~420 sec | ~2° |
| 1000 CE | ~80 sec | 20' (0.33°) |
| 1600 CE | 30 sec | 7.5' (0.13°) |
| 1700 CE | 5 sec | 75" |
| 1800 CE | 1 sec | 15" |
| 1900 CE | 0.1 sec | 1.5" |
The uncertainty in delta-T means that reliable eclipse paths prior to about 1500 BCE are not possible. Similarly, all future values of delta-T are simple extrapolations of current values and trends. Such estimates are prone to growing uncertainty as one extrapolates further and further into the future. By the year 3000 CE, the value of delta-T could be on the order of one hour with an extrapolated uncertainty of about ten minutes or several degrees in longitude.
In more recent work, Stephenson (1997) has made improvements in his analysis of delta-T using additional historical records.
| Year | delta-T (sec) | Longitude Shift |
| 500 BCE | 16800 = 04h 40m | 70.0° |
| 1 BCE | 10600 = 02h 57m | 44.2° |
| 500 CE | 5700 = 01h 35m | 23.7° |
| 1000 CE | 1600 = 00h 27m | 6.7° |
| 1500 CE | 180 = 00h 03m | 0.8° |
by Fred Espenak
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhelp/rotation.html
Three ways for us to actually measure the effects of tidal friction:
- Measure the change in the length of the lunar month over time.
This can be accomplished by examining the thickness of tidal deposits preserved in rocks, called tidal rhythmites, which can be billions of years old, although measurements only exist for rhythmites that are 900 million years old. (These measurements have only been done since the early 90's.)
- Measure the change in the distance between the Earth and the Moon.
This is accomplished in modern times by bouncing lasers off reflectors left on the surface of the Moon by the Apollo astronauts. Less accurate measurements were obtained in the early 70's.
- Measure the change in the rotational period of the Earth over time.
Nowadays, the rotation of the Earth is measured using the Very Long Baseline Interferometry, a technique using many radio telescopes a great distance apart. With VLBI, the positions of quasars (tiny, distant, radio-bright objects) can be measured very accurately. Since the rotating Earth carries the antennas along, these measurements can tell us the rotation speed of the Earth very accurately.
However, the change in the Earth's rotational period was first measured using eclipses, of all things. Astronomers who studied the timing of eclipses over many centuries found that the Moon seemed to be accelerating in its orbit, but what was actually happening was the the Earth's rotation was slowing down. The effect was first noticed by Edmund Halley in 1695, and first measured by Richard Dunthorne in 1748- though neither one really understood what they were seeing. I think this is the earliest discovery of the effect.
By Britt Scharringhausen
http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=124
Note: My initial suggestion concerning the rate of the Earth's rotation billions of years ago (that it was spinning at a rate of a few seconds to about an hour or so) during the primordial beginnings of biological development, are rates that are viewed by some geophysicists as being extreme and would have caused the early Earth to spin apart, or if it did not spin apart, it may have been in a (molten?) pancake form. This observation was a "guess-timation" based on a very simplified mathematical model that did not use any corroborating geological or fossil evidence. Nonetheless, my intent was and is to simply provide an example which will give the general reader some easily identifiable model as an explicit indication that there was indeed a difference in the rate of the Earth's rotation billions of years ago, as it will be in the future, and that this difference does in fact represent another variable when considering the development of biological life under environmental conditions very different from today.
Because humanity, (based on fossil evidence) has only existed during the period in which the rotation rate of the Earth is in a 23 hour "window," this suggests we humans may be rotation - rate - specific. In other words, there are no fossils to give evidence that humans lived during the time when the Earth was in a 22 hour rotation and which may also indicate that humans can not live on Earth with a 24 hour rotation rate, or humans may need to evolve accordingly.
See the rotation rate specificity discussion on this page:
http://www.threesology.org/rotation-rate-1.php
Metaphorically speaking: (Billions of years ago...)
Quite obviously the young elements of life couldn't get it together at first because they were holding on for dear life (and getting dizzy) on this fast spinning merry-go-round. The Earth was spinning so fast, these elements saw/felt nothing but the Sun (and moon) day in and day out for years and years and years. It was not until sometime later that these elements began getting a chance to get out of the Sun (and relax their white-knuckle grip) when the Earth had slowed down enough whereby a period of nighttime was created. No doubt some of the elements and those that hung out with them, began to prefer the night life on the town in the primordial soup and elsewhere, while others continued to wake up with the birds (so to speak), as they had always done merely out of habit. Further slowing of the Earth made the Sun's three "moments," Dawn~ Noon~ Dusk, produce a disco-like 3-patterned strobe light effect. You should have been there. Some elements, were dressed to kill, others were dressed to the "nines" and still others were streaking (nude) about the place. To watch them, one might think they had a blind date with destiny or something.
The building blocks of life had endured a 1-patterned total irradiation of the Sun that changed to a 2-patterned night/day sequence, which was followed by a 3-patterned Circadian-rhythm-producing strobe light effect. And along with this, because of the fast spinning Earth, as well as the very naive perception of the world that these young elements had, the ascent and descent of the Sun displayed a triangular pattern and not a circular one as we (with our current level/type of consciousness) perceive today. No less, as the Earth continues to slow down and the Sun continues to enlarge as it decays, the Sun's 3 "moments" are slowly "fusing" together thereby creating a 3 to 1 scenario.
Hence, concepts like the religious notion of 3 persons in 1 god may be nothing more than a symbolic representation of an environmental event that has been impressed upon a sensitive organism that adapts to and reflects those conditions it is subjected to.
We humans, as an Earth-borne complex biological organism, symbolically express the impressions created by the 1~ 2~ 3 sequence, triangular pattern and fusion images that were and are repeated to us like a non-stop record whose lyrics, melody and/or rhythm may be, metaphorically speaking, sung, hummed, whistled, tapped, danced, or stay perpetually on one's mind because they were absorbed by our basic biological development which affects our physiological development which in turn affects us psychologically. In short, all life forms, in their own way, will exhibit these images with respect to how, when, and where such images became impressed upon them within the constraints of their physical form.
You might want to think of the Sun as a rancher's branding iron whose design(s) and subsequent mark/label/brand on the "hide" of a biological organism during different stages of its development, changed over time due to the sensitivity, impressionability and level of susceptibility of various life forms that were/are developing under various Earth terrains over millions of years. Another analogy is to recall the after-image of a television screen that is seen after watching TV for awhile and then turn it off in a dark room. A "flash bulb memory" with respect to the old "Now Print" theory might help some to appreciate the above idea if they will visualize the Sun as a flash-bulb which would be the case with an accelerated spinning Earth. A final example is to review the studies of imprinting and the associated idea of critical periods, but also to expand upon the idea of critical periods to include biological development as a whole, an entire species/race, as well as the customary notion of critical periods assigned to a single person/life form.
Note: My usage of the phrase "Flash Bulb Memory" with respect to the old "Now Print" theory of memorization developed by Roger Brown & James Kulik in the 1970's, is meant to give the reader the impression of an after-image effect typically seen when subjected to a camera's flash bulb or television screen by turning it off in a dark room after having watched it for awhile. I am not trying to give the impression that an exact picture-perfect image is perceived nor expressed. In other words, I am not trying to suggest that a particular image is "frozen" in some sort of suspended animation framework that provides an exact photographic preservation of an original scene. Nonetheless, an intense environmental event that takes place over billions of years of biological development does provide certain pre-requisites for long term memorization:
- Occurs during different biological, physiological, mental/emotional stages of development.
- Is present for sustained rehearsal.
- Promotes individualized as well as group experiences of the phenomena that are shared linguistically, culturally, and involves species-specificity.
Some links which refer to the "Flash Bulb Memory" idea:
http://www.brainchannels.com/Memory/emotion/emotion.html
--- Everyday Memory ---
http://psycho.psy.ohio-state.edu/dept/psy312/everyday.html
--- Autobiographical Memory ---
http://www.utdallas.edu/~juliak/ltm2.html
--- Psychology Webpages ---
http://avru1.derby.ac.uk/~gary/Mpa/memory-seminar.html
--- Cognition Journal- levels of processing ---
http://www.uark.edu/misc/lampinen/jlevels.htm
The present 2-part theory of biological development, "Ontogeny ("Embryologeny") recapitulates (Embryogenetic) - Phylogeny," is made more complete by evolving into a 3-part theory, "Embryologeny recapitulates Embryogenetic-Phylogeny recapitulates Geoheliogeny" (Earth/(Moon)/Sun Development).
Have changes in the rotation rate of the Earth influenced biological development in a fashion which replicates such an impression; thereby giving another "tweaking" of the definition to the phrase: That God made man in his image, by describing How God did it? Is it a three-patterned image (formula) somehow related to the changes in the Earth's rotation rate in relation to the auxiliary consequential effects? | ||||||||
|
Pattern-of-1 Was due to an accelerated rotation rate: |
Pattern-of-2 Night/Day- sequence was due to Earth's slowing rotation: |
Pattern-of-3 "Flashing" of Dawn ~ Noon ~ Dusk was due to further slowing: | ||||||
 |
 |
| ||||||
These "patterns" are related to the intensity and duration of illumination as well as darkness, which are key influences of biological processes. However, we cannot dismiss such things as planetary polarity reversals and gravity as having no influence. With respect to gravity, it is speculated that one of the influences in the evolutionary development of the heart is due to changes in gravity, with more gravity requiring a stronger heart, and a change in gravity thus affects the types of species inhabiting the land at that time. |
||||||||
Pattern-of-One was due to an accelerated rotation rate.
Path of Sun (and Moon) is a biologically-affectingtriangular image- producer, and not a circular nor singularly linear (as in a visualized image of a literal interpretation of the expression "across the sky").
Future expansion of the Sun as it decays, will increase the influence of the three solar "moments" fusing together creating additional circumstances of a 3 to l ratio. This "fusion" of the Sun's three "moments" (dawn - noon - dusk), with a concurrent change in the Earth that eventually becomes consumed by the Sun's expansion as it turns into a red giant. As is shown in the image to the right, the idea of an expanding Sun can also give the impression of a shrinking Earth.
The following image is of the Moon in eclipse, though the picture could just as easily be a picture of the Sun. I inverted the picture in order to show the complete pathway of ascent and descent. This is an actual picture taken from page 80 of the 10/97 issue of Natural History magazine.
 |
 |
The usage of time-lapsed photography gives us some indication of the environmental conditions early biological life processes were subjected to many billions of years ago when the Earth was spinning faster. Early biological processes would have been subjected to a repeating triangular image for long periods of time. It should be no wonder that we find this image being expressed in a variety of ways by different organisms, within the limitations of their physical/mental ability to do so. If we humans of today can get sun-burned, it's not too difficult to appreciate how such a triangular image could have been "branded" on the sensitive, impressionable, (highly "suggestive") "hide" of our early biological beginnings. As a child, I would get the image of standing on a fast spinning Earth and watching the Sun, Moon, and Stars whisk by in a flickering (blinking) motion.
This picture clearly shows that there is a triangular pathway. The usage of time-lapsed photography to capture the slanted (triangular) path gives a good indication of how a fast spinning Earth during life's pristine biological development helped to create different environmental conditions. Some three and a half to four/five billion years ago, the Earth's rate of daily revolution was considerably faster than our present 24-hour rate. This accelerated rate would have caused the triangular image to occur more frequently during life's sensitive and impressionable development. If we humans of today can get sun-burned, it's not too difficult to appreciate how such a triangular image could have been "branded" on the "hide" of our early biological beginnings. But let us now consider what other effects could have been produced by an accelerated spinning Earth.
The above image was adapted from:
http://www.umass.edu/sunwheel/
...and you can find a link for the original on this page at the Sunwheel logo:
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/folklore/folklore.html
How fast would the Earth have to be spinning in order for such an accelerated pace of the Sun (or Moon) to occur? In asking such a question, my thoughts turn towards a moment of reverie as I look back upon my life and attempt to recall when such a notion may have had its initial impetus in my thoughts:
As a child riding a bus to summer camp, I remember intently "analyzing" the intermittent alternation of shadows and sunlight images which occurred as we drove along a street beneath trees at different speeds. I am also reminded of the overhead fluorescent lights that seemed to flicker incessantly while in grade-school to the extent I complained about them to the teacher and other students, but to my surprise, the teacher and other students did not recognize them as readily as I did until I had pointed them out.
Link to comments about flickering fluorescent lights affecting some students:
Article: Perception by Stephen Shore
http://www.asw4autism.org/aswnews/news0602.htm
Fortunately, it was not until years later that I found out some autistic children seem to be unusually distracted by such flickering and are unable to do any work in class. If I had been told I was autistic or was looked upon as being "different" by other students or the teacher, it's quite likely I might have been placed into a "special" class and treated in such a way that I would have been unable to get the straight A's that I did nor given advanced placement. It's not that I was autistic, I was merely more observant and not distracted by typical things that others were which makes them "normal" because they all share the same observations in a collectively agreed upon way by mimicking the interests of the dominant person in the group.
Nowadays, a child who is "different" in some way or another, is commonly given a drug and placed into some type of "sub" category that is entitled with an era-specific politically correct phrase because our education system (and society) is ill-prepared for collective, much less individualized expressions of evolutionary change in the human species. Hence, they are given a drug, label, or both in order to make them conform to some socially defined/measured configuration of normalcy which eliminates the need for others to question themselves about their so-called "normalness."
The idea of a fast spinning Earth also reminds me of the accelerated scenery seen in the old 1960 movie entitled "The Time Machine," which starred Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux. After viewing the movie on TV when I was about seven years old, I went into the attic and made myself a replica of it fashioned out of an old fold-apart baby play pen. (The kind which had wooden staves and looked like a miniaturized jail cell.) As I sat in my time machine, I imagined seeing alternating images of night and day with the Sun traveling at an accelerated pace. Little did I realize how these impressions of childhood would influence later interests in rotation speeds of the Earth.
It seems that in keeping with tradition, the triangular paths are named Sun "wheels" which give the impression of the primitive ideas of a circle-like path. However, if you were to use the above path of the Sun and Moon as a diagram from which to construct tires for your car, you would have pointed tires that would give you a ride comparable to those in a covered wagon traveling across a bumpy mountain pass.
When looking at the animated image, imagine yourself to be on a fast spinning Earth many billions of years ago. Also imagine being able to view yourself as a very sensitive, impressionable, malleable organism that is subjected to this pattern for millions of years as the biological materials you are made of begin to evolve under environmental conditions where the intensity of solar irradiation may be more intense than it is today, gravity may be different, and there are periodic changes in the polarity conditions of the Earth's magnetic geophysical properties.
Note: It is well documented that the Earth's geophysical polarity does in fact reverse from time to time as is indicated in ancient deposits (called the palaeomagnetic record) that were affected by the magnetic reversals, yet it is overlooked that present-day representations of triangular figures in so many different forms, are also accounts of another geophysical-linked influence.
Here is one link concerning reversals of the Earth's magnetic field:
http://www.psc.edu/science/Glatzmaier/glatzmaier.html
As you continue to watch yourself as an evolving organism, you observe other organisms getting caught in cracks, crevices, and various shadows which limits their exposure to the solar (and lunar) triangular pattern, whereby their "evolved self" millions of years hence is that of a "higher" termite that designs triangular-shaped mounds, yet your "evolved self" is that of a human that designs triangular-shaped structures such as: pyramids, stealth fighter wings, pyramid business schemes, triangular mathematics called trigonometry, triadic music theory, triangle love affairs, tripods for cameras, surveying equipment, telescopes, etc., as well as building triple nuclear warheads, triangle-shaped arrow and spearheads, triangular cleats for astronauts, food pyramid diagrams, 3-phase electric service, triple-bladed razors, single- double- triple chain rings on bicycles, three types of main gas dispensing pumps, 3-holed bowling balls, etc...
In the pages which follow, you will encounter examples of patterns-of-three that we of the present consider to be THE truth, and are superior to THE truth that peoples of the past believed in. However, our assessment of THE truth should be held with a measure of reservation and suspect, in that peoples of the future may just as well view our ideas as the simplistic meanderings of a primitive mind. From such a perspective, it is necessary for us to consider the possibility that our present views are the result of one or more environmental influences that are characteristic of the present geological period. That such influences are particularly influential on our present type of physiology which predisposes us to formulate the recurring patterns we do, and that as the environment and human physiology changes, so will the resultant influences and subsequent views of TRUTH. Hence, when physicists ask why there are three families of fundamental particles and not 17, or not 80, or not 900, this "three" idea (like so many others) is due to particular environmental influences on a particular organism during a particular stage of its evolutionary adaptation.
Herb O. Buckland
herbobuckland@hotmail.com