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SHIFTS IN POSITION OF GELESTIAL POLE DIFFERENT FROM SHIFTS IN POSITION
OF GEOGRAPHICAL POLES

The material reproduced on the next four pages is reprinted solely for
critical and educational purposes from:
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"Gyroscopic Precession and Celestial Axis Displacement by Chris S.
Sherrerd in Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered, a collection of pieces
that originally appeared Pensee journal. Sherrard comments, below,
appeared in the Fall issue, 1973.
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Speaking of Velikovsky's idea that some extraterrestrial force, such
as a comet fly-by, could cause the appearance of the Sun standing
still, Sherrerd talks about the hypothetic causes and results, "severe
peturbations...in the rotation of the Earth about its polar axis. One
would think intuit-ively, at first glance, that such occurrences would
require impossibly large angular decelerating and accelerating forces,
which in turn would so totally disrupt the earth's crust as to make
impossible any human survival.

"Sudden and major displacements in the geographical position of the
Earth's polar axis would most likely require such unthinkable
circumstances. Those geological shifts which have occurred during
historical time involved at most a few degrees of arc distance on the
surface of the globe, and were indeed tectonically quite disruptive at
that.

"However, unusual changes in the Sun's apparent position in the sky
would also result from major shifts in the celestial position of the
poles, i.e., the direction of the Earth's spin axis in the celestial
sphere. These could occur without large angular decelerating and
accelerating forces and without major tectonic disruptions, by the
phenomenon of gyroscopic precession. Since gyroscopic precession
involves a temporary transfer of angular momentum from spin to
precession, when beginning and terminating it moderately affects the
rate of rotation of a spinning object and introduces small horizontal
forces on points on its surface; but it significantly shifts the
absolute orientation of the spin axis in space as long as the
precession continues in effect."

Before you continue on, think carefully about what Sherrerd just said.

Students of astronomy, geology and physics, etc., do you agree with
the science and the logic of Sherrerd's argument so far? If so, why?
If not, why not?

[ Sherrerd's more mathematical argument comes next, as a page reprint]

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