this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2024
1357 points (99.5% liked)

xkcd

8773 readers
119 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

https://xkcd.com/2898

Alt text:

"Some people say light is waves, and some say it's particles, so I bet light is some in-between thing that's both wave and particle depending on how you look at it. Am I right?" "YES, BUT YOU SHOULDN'T BE!"

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Technically, the sun is pulled by the earth too so it’s sort of true.

[–] [email protected] 125 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I mean, yeah. That's the joke.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Except it's still inside the sun, so depending on how big you view the center of the sun it could still be wrong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It's usually not inside the sun thanks to Jupiter's fat ass

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

So if the point is inside the sun, do we not consider the sun as orbiting that point? I would think it is still orbiting a point.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

The sun isn't orbiting itself, though, so to say it's wrong is also wrong. The sun is orbiting a small point in space that is affected by the bodies around it. That the point is covered by the sun doesn't change that.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

My thought exactly but isn't the common center still inside the sun?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yes, but they still both orbit the black hole in the center of our galaxy

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The urge to orbit a black hole is universal

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Only until we find something heavier

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Looks over shoulder Nobody's going to take this? Sighs Fine. I'll get this one. Clears throat

Now we all orbit KidnappedByKitties mom.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Get in line! It's you, everyone and the rest of the universe!

Orbiting...

Slowly watching...

Slowly descending towards the crushing abyss...

Fast or slow, near or far, there is inevitably only Mother...

And the complete annihilation of her touch

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The common centre is the galaxy they both ~~orbit~~ spiral around together.

Then, the galaxy moves around some other point along with other galaxies.

Then, a bunch of aliens are playing with marbles.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I was thinking Men in Black.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Then Jupiter and Saturn enter the dance and they're all sort of wrong.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Yeah, any 2 bodies actually orbit a common point in between themselves. In case of the Sun and Earth that point is probably still inside the Sun, not far from the center.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I mean, yeah, but the bigger argument here is that due to the sheer mass of Jupiter, the centre of mass of our solar system is actually very so slightly outside of the sun