xkcd #2898: Orbital Argument
xkcd #2898: Orbital Argument
Alt text:
"Some people say light is waves, and some say it's particles, so I bet light is some in-between thing that's both wave and particle depending on how you look at it. Am I right?" "YES, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T BE!"
You're viewing a single thread.
Technically, the sun is pulled by the earth too so it’s sort of true.
I mean, yeah. That's the joke.
Oh thanks! I wasn’t sure. /s
A cunning display of deception!
May as well lose the /s
No it's not. The common center here is the center of our galaxy which both orbit. Even if the sun wobbles a miniscule bit there is no common orbit between them.
it is possible for objects to orbit multiple objects at the same time. Add the moon to the system. The moon is orbiting the earth that is orbiting the sun that is orbiting the center of our galaxy. And yes each of them have a common center, just that it is very very close to the center of mass of the larger object in each case.
For the moon the earth is the dominant gravitational force, for the earth it is the sun and for the sun it is the center of our galaxy
for the sun it is the center of gravity.
You mean the galactic center, which in turn orbits a point somewhere in the middle of our local galactic cluster.
And our local galactic cluster is heading towards something ominous called the Great Attractor. It’s direction is hidden by the horizon of the Milky Way, but it is most likely another larger cluster of galaxies
youre right, i miexd up the words and edited it. thank you.
There's a very famous smart man with zany hair and a big tongue that says your comment is wrong and it's all relative to your frame of reference.
zany hair and a big tongue
Gene Simmons?
I would have gone with Groucho Marx.
The Goblin Bulge King?
No the common center is called a barycenter and it’s somewhere just outside the middle of the sun.
Sorry bruv. I was trying to prove you right. I thought the joke was about the center of the galaxy too, but we're bot wrong.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2898:_Orbital_Argument
Except it's still inside the sun, so depending on how big you view the center of the sun it could still be wrong.
So if the point is inside the sun, do we not consider the sun as orbiting that point? I would think it is still orbiting a point.
It's usually not inside the sun thanks to Jupiter's fat ass
The sun isn't orbiting itself, though, so to say it's wrong is also wrong. The sun is orbiting a small point in space that is affected by the bodies around it. That the point is covered by the sun doesn't change that.
My thought exactly but isn't the common center still inside the sun?
Yes, but they still both orbit the black hole in the center of our galaxy
The urge to orbit a black hole is universal
Only until we find something heavier
Looks over shoulder Nobody's going to take this? Sighs Fine. I'll get this one. Clears throat
Now we all orbit KidnappedByKitties mom.
Get in line! It's you, everyone and the rest of the universe!
Orbiting...
Slowly watching...
Slowly descending towards the crushing abyss...
Fast or slow, near or far, there is inevitably only Mother...
And the complete annihilation of her touch
The common centre is the galaxy they both
orbitspiral around together.Then, the galaxy moves around some other point along with other galaxies.
Then, a bunch of aliens are playing with marbles.
Thanks, kurzkesagt
I was thinking Men in Black.
Then Jupiter and Saturn enter the dance and they're all sort of wrong.
Yeah, any 2 bodies actually orbit a common point in between themselves. In case of the Sun and Earth that point is probably still inside the Sun, not far from the center.
I mean, yeah, but the bigger argument here is that due to the sheer mass of Jupiter, the centre of mass of our solar system is actually very so slightly outside of the sun
Well, no, since for something "to orbit" something doesn't just mean that its path is affected by something, it means to go around that object in periodic, somewhat stable revolutions. The moon orbits the earth, the earth does not orbit the moon, although both can be said to orbit the sun.