180 degrees off. Just think of the timing a sniper would need to shoot a laser pulse at someone on the earth, 180 degrees or 8.5 minutes of lead time.
Or conversely think of it this way. At dawn the sun would be at 90 degrees and at sunset 8.5 minutes later it would be at 270 degrees from the perspective of someone on the earth. So if the Sun got turned on just before dawn the observer on the earth wouldn't see the sun until just before sunset, exactly 180 degrees off.
Said mrjesse: Please just answer this one question: If the earth were turning at the rate of 180 degrees per 8.5 minutes, how far lagged would the sun's optical image be from its real position?180 degrees off.
Now wait just a second. You said that my merry go round experiment conclusion was wrong. But what's the difference between my merry go around rotating 180 degrees in 8.5 minutes and the earth rotating 180 degrees in 8.5 minutes? I don't see any difference as regards to whether the sun's apparent position would change.
Except that you knew that if you said "Yes, rotating the merry go around would change the apparent position of the sun," you know full well that I'd go out and try it and know you were wrong :-))
Just think of the timing a sniper would need to shoot a laser pulse at someone on the earth, 180 degrees or 8.5 minutes of lead time.
The sniper would aim at the exact same point that he intended to hit - only he would have to fire 8.5 minutes early. But he'd still be pointing in the exact same direction if his laser beam traveled instantly - he just wouldn't have to fire it as soon.
So what about stars that aren't particularly orbiting the earth, but are as Ethan Clive Osgoode mentioned, stars which are several lightyears away. Are you saying that when I look up at the night sky half the stars I see are actually on the other side of the world? When I look up and see mars, is it also not where it appears? When nasa sent the mars rovers up to mars, did they have to calculate this in? Can you find anyone at nasa who plans space missions and who agrees with you? The more I hear of your idea the more crazy it sounds.
What's your best evidence that this absurd-sounding idea is true? Why can't I replicate it on the merry go around? What is different between the merry go around rotating 180 degrees per 8.5 minutes and the earth doing the same?
If you answer no others, (but please do), please answer at least this one:
So let's say it's a sunny summer and an Eskimo is standing on the north poll watching the sun through his bone-slit sunglasses. Will he notice that the sun appears to change position as he rotates his head left to right and back? How is that different then the world speeding up or slowing down?
Thanks,
-Jesse
[LeGrande] 180 degrees off.
So, then, it would be daytime on the side facing away from the sun, and nighttime on the side facing toward the sun, and the Earth, in this case, would cast a shadow toward the sun, according to you.
We need not look far for illustrations of this. Neptune is 30 AU from the sun. Neptune's period of rotation is 16 hours. For an observer on Neptune, the LeGrandean optical lag of the sun would be 30*8.3 = 249 minutes (4.15 hours) or 360*4.15/16 = 93.3 degrees. Thus, Neptune casts a shadow which is nearly perpendicular to the line joining Neptune and the Sun.