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thomblake comments on Striving to Accept - Less Wrong
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Nitpick: We talk of the sun rising and setting because we're a planet rotating on its own axis, not because we're orbiting the sun. The orbiting causes seasons.
However, you make an interesting point. Whenever I can remember, I try to do what someone taught me years ago: Sit down to watch the sunset (ideally on a beach) and think about the fact that it is the Earth 'rising' and not the Sun 'setting'. It is a really fun exercise.
Even better: due to relativity, realize that if you're only considering the earth/sun system and not paying attention to other planets, you can go ahead and choose either one as your reference frame (traditionally, you pick the one you're in). So the sun really is quickly orbiting a stationary Earth.
"the sun goes around the Earth quickly while rotating slowly" and "the Earth is rotating quickly while orbiting the sun slowly" express the same sentiment.
EDIT: Okay, you got me - you can't rotate an inertial frame, and 'fictitious forces' would be detectable differently in each of those examples. But I stand by my first point.
IANAP, but this sounds wrong to me. It would feel different to be on a slowly rotating Earth than to be on a quickly rotating Earth.
Don't they both just move in straight lines through curved space-time, or is that just another way of percieving the math?
Like Camelot, "it's only a model".
Yes, that's another way of looking at it. More or less intuitive depending on the application.