[LeGrande]

I wrote earlier that if the Sun were to suddenly vanish, Earth wouldn't feel the effects for about 8 minutes. Do you disagree with that?

No, because it would take that long for the field to collapse. Both propagation and collapse are at the speed of light.

The more interesting question is if the precise location of the sun as you see it would agree with the Suns actual position?

After we hash this out, we can figure out the ladder in the garage paradox : )

[ETL]

No, because it would take that long for the field to collapse. Both propagation and collapse are at the speed of light.

So in an existing gravitational field, the 'bond' between objects is instantaneous? Wouldn't this be apparent, one way or the other, in galaxies where stars orbit a hundred or more thousand light-years from the center? Or do galaxies behave as if they were a rigid solid object?