In Answers Research Journal 9 (2016): 131-147
The “Pacemaker of the Ice Ages” paper by Hays, Imbrie, and Shackleton convinced the uniformitarian scientific community of the validity of the modern version of the Milankovitch hypothesis of Pleistocene ice ages. Spectral analyses performed on data from two Indian Ocean seafloor sediment cores showed prominent spectral peaks at periods corresponding to dominant cycles within the Milankovitch hypothesis. General reasons to question the validity of this iconic paper were presented in Part I of this series. In order to fully understand the methodology used by the paper’s authors, it is necessary to discuss some technical background material regarding Fourier transforms, the Blackman-Tukey method of spectral analysis, and statistical significance. Results from the first part of the Pacemaker paper are then reproduced.
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