By: David Rice
To: Jesse Hornbacher
Re: Mark Fox
>MF> microscopic spheres not filled in? Hans Petersson, COSMIC
>MF> SPHERICALS AND METEORITIC DUST, Scientific American p 202,
>MF> February 123. Keep in mind that fine dust particals can move
>MF> only at such a speed that the marria can be filled to an
>MF> average depth of perhaps a thousand feet in a period that may
>MF> be three thousand million years. -- Gold, ROYAL ASTRONIMICAL
>MF> SOCIETY OF LONDON, Monthly notic 115:585 1955 p 598. So where
>MF> is all the fine dust?
JH> Not bad.
You are agreeing with a lie.
JH> It makes a theory that the world is 8000 years old or less. At
JH> least it is as valid a dating method as Carbon 14. Not bad at
JH> all!
I don't know why I bother, but here's the real facts, as I roughly
paraphrase Ron Dippold:
The calculation Mark refers to is given by Henry Morris on pp.
151-153 of _Scientific Creationism_. It is based on a grossly
erroneous figure of 14 million tons of meteoritic dust per
year, quoted by Petterson in 1960. Morris, and Mark via Morris,
willfully misinterpreted Petterson's article. Hans Petterson
published a figure of 15 (not 14) million tons per year as an
upper limit. In other words, Hans Petterson said that the
value is not more than 15 million tons per year. HE WAS NOT
ABLE TO MEASURE AN ACTUAL VALUE, and he said so!
Morris erroneously chose to interpret this to mean it was EQUAL
to 14 million tons per year. Accurate values were measured in
the late 1960's. The actual value is -much- lower than 15
million tons per year. Dalrymple gives the value of 22,000 tons
per year, NEARLY 700 TIMES SMALLER than Mark's figure which he
got from MORRIS, -NOT- _Scientific_American!_ That changes
Morris's 54 foot figure into about 2 cm, which is quite
consistent with the amount of surface soil the astronauts found
on the Moon.
"Everyman's Astronomy" indicates that the earth collects about
9,000 kg per day from meteors of visual magnitude 5.0 or
brighter. Assuming a typical rock density of 3 g/cc, this
corresponds to an accumulation rate of one inch per 10 billion
years. Unfortunately no data is presented for fainter meteors.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that the actual rate is one or
two orders of magnitude higher, but "1 inch in 8000 years"
which Morris asserts, and Mark Fox is asserting above, is off
BY SIX ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE.
Mark's figures should create a spectacular year-round meteor
shower, and cause severe pitting of the space shuttle
windshields in just a single orbit.
In other words, Mark Fox is in gross error. I already let him
know, but he whined "Is NOT!" and ran away.
If you also want a lesson in 14C, just ask.
