Tim Maroney wrote:
>
> >> Saying that the
> >> planets orbit the sun in ellipses is saying that the sun's frame of
> >> reference is preferred to the earth's.
>
> > This is a common myth, but it is untrue for two reasons.
>
> It's a pretty mainstream interpretation of Mach's Principle, though not one
> that all scientists accept.
A properly unbiased frame of reference would consider the center of
orbital rotation, the point both the sun and its planet rotate about. Lo
and behold, because the sun is so much more massive than any other
planet, the center of rotation is only a few meters from the center of
the sun. That the sun follows ellipses about this point as well is
really irrelevant, because the point is inside the stellar envelope.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:22 MDT