Re: Planets and Stars - an idea

Terence Nesbit wrote:

"Jonathan Schattke" <wizwom@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:gtgus4$ihe$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Terence Nesbit wrote:
I agree, that is why I have a problem with the ball spinning on its axis and making one revolution on its natural center as it makes a revolution from left to right as it circles the Sun under the heliocentric model. That is what all of these experiments I have been to told to try is supposed to do or show me.

There is no force acting on the ball to keep the axis pointed toward a focus of the orbit. In fact, the axis keeps pointing the same way as it goes around the ellipse which makes up its orbit.

That is what ALL these experiments have been TRYING to get across to you.

So, on the Summer Solstice, the axis is pointed toward the sun; on the Winter Solstice, away from the sun, and on the Equinoxes, sideways to the sun. But always the same direction in space, towards the north star, currently Polaris.

There is a thing, which acts on a HUGE timescale - about 26,000 years - called the "precession of the equinoxes." But, for seasonal changes over your lifetime, you can consider the axis stable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession_(astronomy)

It should not be so hard. Where is Polaris. You speak of it as if it is North, but in most models north is not where one might think it is. If North is up, above the plane of the Sun and Earth (as they are depicted in numerous diagrams), I don't understand why it must spin in order to face it. (Which I tried to show in the example of a person driving in a roundabout, the middle of the inner circle will always be in the middle, so there is no reason to turn directions in order to be facing it.)

NO - North is not "up". North merely happens to be the direction that our planet's spin has as one pole. That direction is NOT "up". UP is away from the gravitic center; every direction from the center of the Earth is "UP".
In the Earth-Sun system, the angle of "north" is 23.5 degrees off of perpendicular from the ecliptic, pointing in the direction of Polaris.
http://www.stellar-database.com/Scripts/search_star.exe?Name=Polaris

I have not even addressed the wobble yet.

Good - because it does NOT exist. The Earth is stabilized by it's spinning, exactly like a gyroscope, or a spinning top. It has a LOT of energy in it's spin, which means it has a huge amount of energy keeping it's axis of rotation pointed in exactly one direction.
.

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