What if inertial mass did NOT = grav. mass?

[Farsight]

Noted Jorrie. It's an interesting one this. That 2a means the falling is faster, but dropping two objects also says it isn't. Hmmn.

I wonder if the Earth would have a different orbit if the moon wasn't there?

 

[Jorrie]

Noted Jorrie. It's an interesting one this. That 2a means the falling is faster, but dropping two objects also says it isn't. Hmmn.

I wonder if the Earth would have a different orbit if the moon wasn't there?

I think there would have been a minor difference - instead of the Earth cycling around the Earth-Moon baricentre every 28 days or so, the Earth would have had a more standard elliptical orbit around the Sun.

IMO, the crucial point is that the mass of the orbiting object has negligible effect on the orbit, as long as its mass is small compared to the primary mass (the Sun in this case). So the Earth-Moon baricentre follows an orbit that is roughly independent of the mass of the Earth-Moon system.

 

[Farsight]

Thanks Jorrie.