Lee Corbin wrote:
>
> > 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.
>
> Not a few meters: more like about 500,000. (Mass of sun: 2x10^30kg,
> mass of Jupiter: 2x10^27, a ratio of 1000 to 1. But the distance
> between the sun and Jupiter, 5.2 AU, is around 500,000,000 miles.)
> So the center of revolution isn't really inside the sun (diameter
> 867,000 miles), but lies outside it many thousands of miles.
By my calculation, 500,000 meters is 500 km, which is still inside the
sun.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:40:22 MDT