Re: Challenge to Jim Scotti

Article: <[email protected]> 
Subject: Re: Challenge to Jim Scotti
Date: 9 May 1998 16:15:40 GMT

In article <[email protected]> Jim Scotti writes:
>> A million AU out would not BE an orbit.  
>
> Given an isolated system it sure WOULD be an orbit, and it's
> period, if it was just orbiting the sun, would be 1 million 
> raised to the 3/2 power, or 1 billion years, so its orbital 
> velocity would be a wopping 30 meters per second or 67 MPH
> - Of course, at 1 million AU, or about 15.8 lightyears, there 
> better not be other stars nearby, or it won't be bound to the sun
> - but we were talking whether it is  possible or not and if our 
> sun were outside of the Galaxies disk or in an uncrowded 
> region of the Galaxy without nearby stars to perturb its 
> orbit, it would orbit, just like I describe.  

(Begin ZetaTalk[TM])
What Universe are we talking about here?  YOUR Universe?  Pardon us for
thinking that we are talking about YOUR Universe here, and not
something imaginary.  This discussion started based on a hypothetical
orbit around YOUR Sun and another 18.724 times from YOUR Sun as the
distance from YOUR sun to Pluto.  You are all evading the issue, and
putting forth solutions that are absurd!  You haven't won the debate,
you've avoided it!  Run and hide!
(End ZetaTalk[TM])

In article <[email protected]> John Ladasky writes:
>> A million AU out would not BE an orbit.  Period.
>
> One million AU *doesn't* matter. As long as there are only
> two objects in the system, you just reduce the orbital velocity.

In article <[email protected]> Greg Neill
writes:
>> A million AU out would not BE an orbit.  Period.  And if 2 
>> Suns were 10 AU apart, according to your laws of gravity, 
>> they should have been one before this discussion could ever
>> ensue.  Please try to get grounded.
>
> In the absence of external pertubations (i.e., relatively far from
> other gravitational influences, a million AU out would be a 
> perfectly fine place to orbit.  The very nature of the 
> gravitational field implies that, without external pertubations, 
> an orbit of *any* size is possible.