Earth Does Not Revolve Around the Sun

[bigtim]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex283trHBgE&feature=player_embedded

I am in a debate with someone who is defending this guy vehemently on another forum. Does anyone know of any link debunking what this guy is saying? The “adherent” of this point of view is quite vehement and I’d just love to throw data that basically shuts him down.

 

[FlexGunship]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex283trHBgE&feature=player_embedded

I am in a debate with someone who is defending this guy vehemently on another forum. Does anyone know of any link debunking what this guy is saying? The “adherent” of this point of view is quite vehement and I’d just love to throw data that basically shuts him down.

Okay, this is going to get locked really quickly so I want to post as soon as possible. I can't watch YouTube videos at work, but use the planetary arrangement and predictability of orbital patterns.

Seriously though, what the heck is in the video that someone is trying to negate a heliocentric solar system?

EDIT: What does he think of other planetary systems? Are all stars orbiting one or more of their respective planets?

DOUBLE EDIT: And why bother arguing with a troll?

 

[phinds]

Are you talking about the first part or the 2nd part? I can't comment on the 2nd part, but the first part (the sun moves through space) is correct although I think his graphic showing that the movement of the sun through space is exactly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic is very unlikely (but I can't say for sure) although he may have just done the graphic that way to avoid further confusing complication for his audience. Popularizers often do that, with mixed results, and I think in this case it's a terrible idea, if that is in fact what he has done. He seriously dilutes the validity of his claim.

As for the second part, I don't know what he was talking about with that toroidal spheroid, but if he meant that to be a representation of space-time then he's likely not the only one to have argued for that geometry but if there were any evidence of it, it would be more widely known.

 

[phinds]

Seriously though, what the heck is in the video that someone is trying to negate a heliocentric solar system?

What's wrong with the basic concept that the sun (and thus the whole solar system) moves through space? It does, you know. As I said in my post above, I don't think it moves perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic as he shows, but the fundamental concept is perfectly sound.

 

[D H]

Okay, this is going to get locked really quickly so I want to post as soon as possible.

Really. Quick.

I can't watch YouTube videos at work, but use the planetary arrangement and predictability of orbital patterns.

Proof by YouTube video is the crackpot's favorite weapon of choice nowadays.

And this guy is cracked. Just google his name; you can find it in the comments that accompany the YouTube video.

In this particularly regard, he is both right and wrong.

He is forgetting that all frames of reference are equally valid. He is right in saying that one valid view of the solar system is that the solar system as a whole is orbiting the galaxy. He is very much wrong in saying that a heliocentric POV is wrong. You cannot say that one frame is "wrong" and another "right".

What one can say is that given some specific problem, some choices of reference frames will make the problem very hard to solve, while other choices can make the problem much more amenable to analysis. In this case, viewing the solar system as a whole as orbiting the galaxy adds no useful information to our understanding of the solar system and vastly complicates the (already complex) problem of analyzing the behavior of the solar system. Nothing is gained, a whole lot is lost, so why adopt this point of view?