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[Pnx]

You've probably heard me rant about my great books group before. So, I'll shorten it up this time. Three of them believe that is impossible to know if the sun circles the earth of the earth circles the sun. Three. Of. Them.

One of my favourite parts of the old heliocentrism debate was the whole issue of parallax in the stars, or rather the lack thereof.

Because as numerous people pointed out, the stars stay motionless relative to each other (at least to any measurements they were capable of making at the time), and if that's the case, but the earth revolves around the sun, then either the stars had to be "painted" on a sphere that was centred around the earth, or the stars were at such a great distance as to seem not to move when the earth made it's orbit. This latter was of course considered ridiculous, especially since the stars would have to have such a ludicrous size and brightness to still be visible from so far away that the earth would be tiny in comparison. Preposterous I say, preposterous!

[Descan]

I think one of the largest stars we know of is bigger than our solar system. At the very LEAST bigger than the inner solar system...

So cool. @_@

[Dutchling]

Doesn't stuff circle round a point between them anyway? Which in the case of the sun/earth is somewhere in or nearby the sun.

[Sirus]

Doesn't stuff circle round a point between them anyway? Which in the case of the sun/earth is somewhere in or nearby the sun.

Correct on both fronts.

[Descan]

Yeah, that's how it works. Gravity attracts each other, just the sun is so huge that it's inside the sun. It does wobble though, that's how we know.

[Pnx]

The thing that typically cinched the issue was the positioning of the other planets. Once you pay attention to the positioning and distance of all the planets it becomes obvious that they're orbiting the sun. There was some futzing around with the tychonic system and such where the earth stays still, but the sun revolves a fixed distance from the earth and the rest of the planets revolve a fixed distance from the sun, but honestly I think by that point a lot of people were just feeling silly.

There is of course still a certain argument to be made that the earth is the centre of the universe, but you'd have to accept that the entire solarsystem has to roll around the earth like a big circle with a hole where the earth is, and in turn the whole galaxy has to revolve around the earth in a similar fashion, and then the whole universe has to do some revolving around the earth as well...

[Sirus]

And that argument goes down the tubes when you realize that past a certain distance, things would have to be moving faster than the speed of light to revolve around Earth at the rate it does...

[Descan]

We ARE the center of the observable universe, though!

Kind of a technicality, though. We'd still be the center if we lived in Andromeda...

[Pnx]

And that argument goes down the tubes when you realize that past a certain distance, things would have to be moving faster than the speed of light to revolve around Earth at the rate it does...

Well obviously, but the speed of light is also obviously a conspiracy concocted to keep the heliocentric model in place. Don't you know anything?

[Dutchling]

In fact, technically, everywhere is the center, because no matter where you are, everything is expanding away from you.

But what if you're at the edge.

There is an edge right :?

[Loud Whispers]

What
The
Fuck

[Sirus]

What
The
Fuck

(standard disclaimer about not reading comments goes here)

[Flying Dice]

*Attempts at civil discourse*

"Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up! You're a hate group!"



Y'know, there's is a lot of sexism being hidden under the aegis of MRA, but holy shit I'm sick of these absolutist hypocrites opposing it.

[Graknorke]

You've probably heard me rant about my great books group before. So, I'll shorten it up this time. Three of them believe that is impossible to know if the sun circles the earth of the earth circles the sun. Three. Of. Them.

Is that as in a "You could portray the centre of the universe as anything" way, or a "Everything orbits the Earth because we are most important" way?

[Loud Whispers]

Y'know, there's is a lot of sexism being hidden under the aegis of MRA, but holy shit I'm sick of these absolutist hypocrites opposing it.

If you listen to the angry raging feminist she does bring up some half decent points. Shame she went about it trying to silence the opposition instead of having a civil discussion with them.