Plate Spinning and Solar System Balance

Plate spinning can be an interesting analogy for the balance of the solar system. Have you ever seen people twirl plates on thin sticks at carnivals and other entertainment venues? It has been around in various forms for a mighty long time.

Sure, sometimes the plates may be tweaked for better results or even rigged, but the performer selects the right style of plate for the act. After getting set up, the plate spins nicely before wobbling, and it eventually falls.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons / אנדר-ויק (CC BY-SA 3.0)

At creation, God put the universe in balance. The outer planets of our solar system contribute to the balance of the rest, but everything is running down. This balance, like everything else, does not improve over time.

Even though fine-tuned processes keep the overall balance intact, our universe quietly transforms over time. The orbits of Earth, our moon, the solar system planets and their moons, and even the burn of the sun and other stars are constantly changing. The magnetic fields possessed by many planets and moons measurably change over time. With each passing year, our moon slides slightly farther away from Earth. There aren’t enough supernova remnants from the billions of supposed stars that would’ve died out if the universe were billions of years old—and blue stars can only last a couple million years. Most of these changes are quite slow and virtually imperceptible from day to day, but the bodies in the heavens continually change.

To read the full article, see "The Plate Twirler and Our Solar System".