Vladimir_Nesov comments on Living bias, not thinking bias - Less Wrong

19 Post author: crazy88 23 September 2011 08:30AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 23 September 2011 11:11:33AM *  10 points [-]

The Earth orbits the Sun. Once upon a time, we didn't believe this: We thought that the Sun orbited the Earth.

(The answer to "Is the Sun orbiting Earth?" is "No, the Earth is spinning, and the Sun stays put," not "No, the Earth orbits the Sun.")

Comment author: Vaniver 24 September 2011 01:48:10AM *  2 points [-]

Er, the sun orbits the center of mass of the solar system, doesn't it?

EDIT: I just now realized the question about orbits is not "how do these bodies travel through space?" but "why does the sun move across the sky?", and that makes everything make more sense.

Comment author: Desrtopa 24 September 2011 02:46:12AM 0 points [-]

Well, the center of mass of the solar system is close enough to the center of the sun that within the frame of reference of the solar system it can reasonably be said to be staying put.

Comment author: crazy88 23 September 2011 11:04:29PM 0 points [-]

Fixed, I hope.

I agree with what Jack said, in theory, but take your point in terms of the clarity of my writing.

Comment author: Jack 23 September 2011 08:00:49PM 0 points [-]

Sort of. You still need to explain the Sun moving along the eliptic- Ptolemaic astronomy that is done by having the Sun rotate around the Earth just a little slower than the stellar sphere rotates around the Earth. On occasion there were even a few people who hypothesized the Earth rotating to explain diurnal motion but kept the planets orbiting around the Earth. But reasons involving the mixed up internal logic of Aristotelian physics having the Earth move at all weakened the impulse to keep the Earth at the center.

Comment author: XiXiDu 23 September 2011 12:19:15PM 0 points [-]

Here is an interesting related video.