Re: TDD: Test-Driven Design or Test-Driven Development?

From: Nick Landsberg (hukolau_at_NOSPAM.att.net)
Date: 03/05/04 

Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 18:54:19 GMT

Robert C. Martin wrote:

> On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 20:58:20 GMT, "Shayne Wissler"
> <thalesNOSPAM000@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>That's the reason why I love this example of certainty in science. It's so
>>obvious to any modern human being with even a rudimentary scientific
>>background that it can be used as a litmus test to root out the crackpots
>>who say things like this (and no, relativity theory does not make that
>>claim, only modern pseudo-scientific distortions of relativity theory make
>>such claims).
>
>
> The cardinals in Rome used a different litmus test that was just as
> obvious (to them).
>
>
>>Not that it deserves any reply at all, but it would be interesting to see
>>these crackpots figure out the forces that would be put on the sun if it did
>>rotate around the earth at the velocities involved. My guess is that it'd be
>>ripped apart.
>
>
> Are you sure? Might it be that the 24 hour Earth centered rotation of
> the universe would put just the right gravitational fields in place to
> keep the sun in freefall, orbiting around a position that just
> happened to be where the Earth was? Think of asteroids orbiting
> around a Lagrange point. There's nothing there for them to orbit
> around. The gravitational field they are orbiting around is created
> by other moving objects much further away.
>

One can develop a set of equations using almost anything as the
central point of reference. With certain points of reference
the equations get downright "ugly". For example, one could
develop a set of equations in which the whole Sun
revolves around a grain of sand on Laguna Beach.
This would be an "ugly" set of equations to use to compute
the position of, e.g. Phobos in relation to anything
else.

Thus, using Occam's Razor in principle, one would claim
that the simpler the equation to describe the behavior,
the closer it comes to help us describe what is really happening. 

-- 
Ñ
"It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so 
ingenious" - A. Bloch

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