Digest whorl.v010.n096

Kieran Mullen · 03 Apr 2000, 16:27 · from whorl-v0010.mbox · original

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From: Kieran Mullen <kieran at phyast.nhn.ou.edu>
Subject: (whorl) Re: Digest whorl.v010.n096
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 16:27:56
Message-ID: <whorl-v0010-0291 at digest.urth.net>
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>=20
>=20
> --------------- MESSAGE whorl.v010.n096.1 ---------------
>=20
> From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Horn's body, Green's orbit, and candles
> Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2000 14:52:58 -0700
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=3Dus-ascii
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> References: <200004021510.IAA12260 at lists1.best.com>
>=20
> alga wrote:
>=20
> I have a great deal of trouble putting together the fragmentary
> information in OBW on the orbits of Blue and Green.  At first I assumed
> that they orbited each other, like Earth and the Moon or St. Anne and
> St. Croix (possibly because I'd read the speculation that Blue and Green
> were St. Anne and St. Croix).  But then I read Horn's words on p. 182:
> "We know that conjunctions with Green occur every sixth year.  That
> interval is determined by the motion of both about the Short Sun."  This
> seems to say that Blue and Green independently orbit the Short Sun, and
> simply come near to each other in their separate orbits every sixth
> (Blue) year.  And if Green orbited Blue, and conjunction occurred only
> every six years, that would mean that Green's orbital period around Blue
> was six times as long as Blue's around the Short Sun, which I doubt
> would be possible.

   I don't think that is correct.  Imagine two cars circling a race track. =
 If=20
one catches the other every six laps, then that means it is going 7/6 (1.16=
)=20
times as fast.  If one were 6 times the speed of the other, it would pass i=
t 6=20
times or so in one year.

>  And
> again, on p. 195 when Horn is in the pit, he writes: "I remember seeing
> Green directly above my upturned face, and later seeing it no longer,
> but only the innocent stars that had fled before it and returned when it
> had gone."  This also suggests that Green moves visibly with respect to
> the stars in a single night.  True, it might just be a clumsy way of
> saying that the stars moved and Green moved with them; but elsewhere
> Horn's narration is neither clumsy or pedantic.=20

   I think that's exactly what it means.  The solid angle visible from the =
well=20
tracked across the night sky.  At some point Green filled the visible porti=
on=20
and later it didn't.  It looked like Green moved across the opening.

> Furthermore, as someone
> else once pointed out, if Blue and Green's orbits brought them into
> conjunction as frequently as every six years, they would not be stable:
> the repeated perturberations from each other's gravity would pull them
> into new orbits.
>=20

    Hmm... I don't think this is correct.  It is true that if their periods=
 were=20
exactly integer multiples, you would have a problem (like the Shepherd Moon=
s and=20
the Cassini divisions of Saturn's rings).  But if they are not integer mult=
iples=20
you should be ok, I think.  (After all, the gaps in Saturn's rings do not d=
eny=20
the existence of the rings themselves!)
   =20
   =20

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