Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Aric2000
"It wouldn't matter, because even if the gravity that left the sun 8 1/2 minutes ago is what is effecting it, it would have the SAME effect no matter where the earth was in it's orbit"

Unless you think that Gravity can predict *where* the Sun and the Earth will be in the future, then Gravity must pull towards the center of the mass that originated it... where that center of mass was located when the Gravity wave first propagated away from that center of mass.

If the Sun didn't move, then this would yield us no useful information.

But the Sun does move, in fact it is moving rapidly (157 miles per second).

Light, for instance, takes 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth. In that 8.3 minutes, the Sun will have moved 78,186 miles. Thus, when you "see" the Sun, you are actually seeing where the Sun was located 8.3 minutes ago.

...And if Gravity travels as slow as Light, then the Earth is going to be orbiting in a plane that is centered around where the Sun was located 8.3 minutes ago, too.

And we *can* measure and observe the angle and center of the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, FYI...

143 posted on 06/25/2003 10:39:47 PM PDT by Southack (Media bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies ]


To: Southack
I seriously doubt it, you need something that is OUTSIDE the system, either moving towards us or away from us, in order to do such a measurement, because you need something outside the sytem to measure against.
144 posted on 06/25/2003 10:42:39 PM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 143 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson