The Equation of Creation. Really?

[Blog of Reason]

Discussion thread for the blog entry "The Equation of Creation. Really?" by AndromedasWake.

Permalink: http://blog.leagueofreason.org.uk/science/the-equation-of-creation-really/

 

[monitoradiation]

Wow. This man fails at dimensional analysis.

I find it hilarious that he has to use Thoms (or whatever the heck unit I've never even heard of) to express it in because, hey, the creator just likes to hide little secrets here and there for his creations to find and be in awe when they do. Like the hot coffee for GTA.

Good laughs.

 

[rabbitpirate]

I have to be honest and admit that I didn't understand everything you said there, dude your brain scares me at times, but the bit I did understand seems to equate to "if you make up your own units of measurement and pick numbers at random you can make equations say anything you like."

Sounds like fun to me. RabbitPirate, while mildly confused and maintaining a rugged and mysterious demeanour, is suitably impressed with your analysis.

 

[AndromedasWake]

I have to be honest and admit that I didn't understand everything you said there, dude your brain scares me at times, but the bit I did understand seems to equate to "if you make up your own units of measurement and pick numbers at random you can make equations say anything you like."

Just to simplify it a bit, Cumming et al. have simply churned out an equation of the type v= f λ
Essentially, the speed of a particle is its wave frequency multiplied by its wavelength. In the case of a photon, this is the speed of light. So there's nothing miraculous about the equation itself. He's taken the case of a hydrogen line photon. When a hydrogen electron drops from the first state to the ground state, a photon is emitted with a given frequency (around 1.4 GHz) which is very prevalent in astronomy because it penetrates dust in the interstellar medium. Therefore, it would be a good broadcast frequency for intelligent signals and is commonly investigated by SETI. By constructing the above equation, he needs to make pi/omega equal to a hydrogen line photon's wavelength. The problem is, pi is dimensionless and omega is just stated as 0.0123456789 (also dimensionless). He thinks omega is significant just because it's a fairly pleasing looking number. He further attributes this significance to a code of course. It is merely a coincidence that pi/0.0123456789 is very close to the hydrogen line wavelength (about 21 cm). But it's only close, if you convert your units of measurement to this ancient megalithic yard or Thom. From his report (emphasis mine):

"Take ,  , Ãâ‚¬/Ω , and , work , this , out. , 3.141592653 , divided , by , 0.0123456789 , equals , 254.4690072 , (10 , 
significant , figures , are , used , for , Pi, , as , this , is , what , ÃŽÂ© , uses) , . , The , result , of , the , calculation , is , actually , a , 
value , in , Thoms , (Th), , namely ,  , 254 , milliThoms, , or , more , conveniently , expressed , as , 0.2544690072 , Ths, ,  as , we , shall , see."

The bold text is just stated, not justified. He states this *just* because the numbers are similar. The whole thing only works if you take his word for it. But in order to magically grant that number units, he has to grant units to his constant omega, which he also claims contains the ratio of the Earth-Moon masses (again, it's close but not exact). In essence, this constant omega has no physical meaning. it just happens to look nice and makes the equation work to a high degree of accuracy (it's not exact).

By the way, this Megalithic Yard (MY) was a unit Alexander Thom convinced himself he found all over the world by studying hundreds of ancient monuments. In actuality, he derived it statistically, but the precise locations of the measure were not stated in his works. Further analysis of his findings has shown that he deliberately went looking for the unit, and if he couldn't find it, moved the goal posts with respect to where it might appear until he found something close to it. He claimed a high precision in his measurement of the MY which has been discredited. The MY/Thom pops up frequently in numerology and is associated with pseudoscience, even by paleo-archeologists.

This whole thing reeks of IDiocy.

"Scientists , working , in , Edinburgh , and , Yorkshire, , in , the , UK, , have , discovered , scientific , evidence , that , the ,  Creation , of , the , Earth, , Sun, , and , Moon, , was , a , deliberate , act."

Why else would they capitalise 'creation'? And what the hell were those scientists working on? Bunging interesting numbers into calculators all day?

 

[Jorick]

I have to admit that most of the science-y talk went over my head, but what I understood was interesting. I find it amusing that creationists are actually trying to use mathematical tricks to prove the existence of their deity. Most of them I know of tend to avoid math like the plague since it's all hard fact and no room for their gap-wedge wiggle-room god. But I guess pseudoscience numerology nonsense helps there, eh?

Speaking of which... If you take my height in inches and convert it to yards, then you take the yardage out to the fifth decimal place, and then you add all of the digits together, you get 21. That's how old I'll be on my next birthday. Coincidence? I think not. It clearly means that the Flying Spaghetti Monster created me specially like this. :lol:

 

[rabbitpirate]

Just to simplify it a bit,

Thanks for that, I think it all made a lot more sense the second time round.

 

[jrparri]

I thoroughly enjoyed your analysis on this topic, AD (or TK?)! I liked PZ Meyer's also, but he didn't really delve into the math as much.

Keep it up!

 

[Pulsar]

1/81 equates to the very unusual decimal fraction 0.0123456789

Really? On my calculator 1/81 = 0.0123456790... He must have used one of these creation-calculators. Those things have a tendency to round things off conveniently...

 

[AndromedasWake]

1/81 equates to the very unusual decimal fraction 0.0123456789

Really? On my calculator 1/81 = 0.0123456790... He must have used one of these creation-calculators. Those things have a tendency to round things off conveniently...

Good spot!

He really did pull omega out of his backside, and only likes it because it includes each digit in the base 10 system. Although, by our convention it contains two zeros. Wouldn't 0.123456789 or 1,234,567,890 be better?

You just know if they read this, they're going to go back to their calculators for months until they find something else...

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

God - developer of the first Eater egg. CERTAINLY this is proof!
Coincidence? Rationalization? Foolish searching for Proof of my Faith? No~
Who cares if the equation could be rant through with a pike? It works 4 meh - Jesus is concerned ever-so-much with people being busy to try to rationalize faith with Rationalized coincidences even though the Bible spacifically states Faith being over everything, and that Wise men will observe the Universe and love knowledge and the Fool will Rationalize and Troll?

 

[5810Singer]

God - developer of the first Eater egg. CERTAINLY this is proof!
Coincidence? Rationalization? Foolish searching for Proof of my Faith? No~
Who cares if the equation could be rant through with a pike? It works 4 meh - Jesus is concerned ever-so-much with people being busy to try to rationalize faith with Rationalized coincidences even though the Bible spacifically states Faith being over everything, and that Wise men will observe the Universe and love knowledge and the Fool will Rationalize and Troll?

Dude......get some sleep.

 

[sgrunterundt]

Xkcd can do better, his units actually checks out.