Feeling a bit philosophical tonight.

[DarkGravity]

So I tend to think about things others don't. Like I was just thinking about how every planet spontaneously emits a certain amount of electromagnetic radiation. The implications of that are astounding. Consider that during a solar eclipse, the sun is not only casting a shadow on the Earth, but that the reverse is also true. So the best definition of a solar eclipse would be when the planet and the star simultaneously cast shadows on each other.

Not sure why, but I have always had a fascination with things that are stone cold true, but make you sound like a complete idiot when you say them out loud.

Edited May 26, 2015 by DarkGravity

[John FX]

Interesting, had not thought of that one.

Technically it is an annular eclipse (with an antumbra) that the sun would see as the moon is much smaller than the earth and also much closer although you are right that they cast shadows on each other. There would have to be a body larger than the earth between us and the sun for us both to experience full eclipses. Jovian moons for example experience this sort of eclipse where all the sun is not visible from the moon (of Jupiter) and also the sun cannot see the moon either.

There is another interesting concept due to lightspeed taking 16 minutes to do a round trip (sun->earth->sun) where there is time for light from the sun to travel to earth, bounce back and be hitting the sun again by the time the moon has moved to the place that would block the light if light travelled at infinite speed.

There are also interesting phenomena concerning pendulums and eclipses which may be due to gravity ignoring lightspeed (or not, maybe someone with more info could comment) or the EM situation you describe.

Ah, that's it. The Allais effect.

[DarkGravity]

That Allais effect is very interesting. Never heard of it before. It would be interesting to know how the line formed by sun-moon-earth intersected with the direction of swing of those bobs. Although I must suspect they thought of simple explanations already. But I have said many times that good scientists remain skeptical about everything even gravity or the notion that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Since it has already been disproved once (when it was shown that they actually both revolve around their common C.O.M.) already. And that with all the questions raised by dark matter/energy I would expect further refinements in the who-revolves-around-whom issue in the future. That Allais effect is another reason to never get too comfortable with anything considered by most to already be proven. Even gravity. There is so much we don't know. Quick bring me an astrologer!

Edited June 2, 2015 by DarkGravity