Good books about the moon landings hoax?

[JayUtah]

Here is my response to Burn's alleged physics thesis, from pp. 11-13 of Haunted by Neil Armstrong.

http://www.clavius.org/bibburnsthesis.html

None of these claims rests on a supernatural premise.  It is his recollection of a paper he wrote in 1963 for a physics degree, and which he still stands by as evidence the Moon landings must have been hoaxed because they were supposedly impossible.

[Nowhere Man]

Well done.  Some of the images are missing their credits, having just an opening parenthesis.  Also, at one point you state

Hence "two nines" of reliability (a suitable non-critical standard) is a probability of success p > 0.999 or 99.9%. Three to four nines is more commonplace for a critical component.

How many nines is that, again?

Is this a Ph.D. thesis, or just a paper?  If the former, might the school still have a copy gathering dust in the library?

Fred

[JayUtah]

Some of the images are missing their credits, having just an opening parenthesis.

Odd.  Fixed, but odd.

How many nines is that, again?

Also fixed, thanks.  I changed the example when I wrote the second draft and I guess I didn't change all the numbers.  I wanted to give a non-critical example.

Is this a Ph.D. thesis, or just a paper?

Unknown.  Burns' meandering description of its genesis is unclear and inconsistent.  And maybe too long to post.  But at the same time I realize there are important differences in the U.K. higher education system and its terminology.  He calls it a "thesis" and insinuates he was given some kind of degree on the basis of it.

If the former, might the school still have a copy gathering dust in the library?

No.  Burns' "modesty" prevents him from giving the details that would enable us to verify it.

[Bob B.]

Excellent job, Jay.  You really took him apart point by point.

Here are a few more minor errors:

"Most often the remote-update feature was used during manned missions to read up a refreshed state vector, integrating information received from the ground-based tracking tracking network. This was very helpful, but not strictly necessary. It enhanced mission success, but was not required for it." [duplicate word]

"This is too simplistic. First, Burns' 90-percent guess from the previous poitn is now taken as gospel." [misspelling]

"If we hypothetically set the reliability of PGNS to two nines (p > 0.99) and the reliability of AGS to three nines (p > 0.999, owing to its simpler design), then we that probability of failure, pf, is 1-p in each case." [I think you want to delete 'we']

[JayUtah]

Excellent job, Jay.  You really took him apart point by point.

Thanks; I've fixed those typos.  Also I borrowed your orbit insertion diagram.  There isn't any better one around.  Thanks for that too.

[Bob B.]

Also I borrowed your orbit insertion diagram.

That explains why it looked so familiar.

[raven]

Unknown.  Burns' meandering description of its genesis is unclear and inconsistent.  And maybe too long to post.  But at the same time I realize there are important differences in the U.K. higher education system and its terminology.  He calls it a "thesis" and insinuates he was given some kind of degree on the basis of it.

Probably the third degree if he turned anything like that into a genuine university while in a  genuine physics course.

[JayUtah]

Probably the third degree if he turned anything like that into a genuine university while in a  genuine physics course.

Exactly my point.  I think the story surrounding the alleged submission of the thesis and the subsequent granting of the degree is intentionally nebulous.  "Thesis" and "degree" mean a certain thing in the United States, and this small offering is (1) not even remotely at the scope of what would be required, and (2) egregiously wrong.

[Andromeda]

If it's not ~80,000 words long and based on original research, it's not a "thesis" for which a degree would be awarded here in the UK.

It sounds more like a poorly-written essay, which he may or may not have actually written and submitted as part of coursework towards a BSc.  In that case, the university would not still have a copy.

[Dr_Orpheus]

First time poster.  I notice a couple of things about Burns that bugged me.

Did he actually claim that he was writing QuickBasic accounting programs in the 1960s?  That would be quite a feat since Microsoft (founded in the 1970s) didn't release QuickBasic until 1985.

Also, I looked through the posts he made back in '12 and he didn't mention anything about the physics thesis he wrote in 1963 which proved the moon landings were impossible.  Did he forget that he wrote it?  Did modesty prevent him from mentioning it? 

[smartcooky]

A systematic and comprehensive dismemberment of Burns' preposterous paper.

Excellent work Jay

[ineluki]

Here is my response to Burn's alleged physics thesis, from pp. 11-13 of Haunted by Neil Armstrong.

The funniest part for me is this:

"Coming up with a plan that everyone can get behind is hugely difficult."

That's pretty much what all accountants, following their country's version of "Generally accepted accounting principles" do, isn't it?

[Andromeda]

Welcome to the forum, Dr_Orpheus

[Andromeda]

Here is my response to Burn's alleged physics thesis, from pp. 11-13 of Haunted by Neil Armstrong.

http://www.clavius.org/bibburnsthesis.html

Very good.

I don't know why this point popped into my head particularly, but with that business about 'passing something between moving cars' (my paraphrasing) being impossible in Burns' mind... does he not believe in aircraft being refuelled in flight then?  Such a thing was done quite commonly by the time he claims to have produced his essay, so why would he be so sure that such and similar procedures were impossible?

Does he therefore claim Gemini 8 (and all the other Gemini and Mercury missions) were hoaxed?  Or is he, like so many HBs, unaware of them?

[frenat]

Well done.  Some of the images are missing their credits, having just an opening parenthesis.  Also, at one point you state

Hence "two nines" of reliability (a suitable non-critical standard) is a probability of success p > 0.999 or 99.9%. Three to four nines is more commonplace for a critical component.

How many nines is that, again?

Is this a Ph.D. thesis, or just a paper?  If the former, might the school still have a copy gathering dust in the library?

Fred

If the age of 70 is accurate then he was 19 in 63 for the paper.  Not impossible for a thesis but unlikely.
I'm guessing it was more for creative writing.