[LeGrande]

The instant you consult the LRG, you know if you are spinning, and how much.

What does a Laser Ring Gyro, aligned north to south at the equator, tell you? Inquiring minds want to know : )

That only demonstrates the angular speed at which the Sun goes across the sky.

True and the time lag for the speed of light.

Only if the Sun orbits the Earth.

The spinning earth or orbiting Sun are equivalent from the view point of the observer on the Earth. In other words it makes no difference to the observation.

Once again, this is an inaccurate representation of what mrjesse has been saying.

What has mrjesse been saying then?

[mrjesse]

What does a Laser Ring Gyro, aligned north to south at the equator, tell you? Inquiring minds want to know : )

In other words, if set up at the wrong angle to measure the rotation in question? Who in their right mind would do that?

The spinning earth or orbiting Sun are equivalent from the view point of the observer on the Earth. In other words it makes no difference to the observation.

But this is a 3 body system we're talking about - the sun's light is the third body and it is not true to say that for a 3 body system there is no difference between rotating and being orbited. (I'm not even sure its true in a two body system if one takes into account mass.)

So when the light takes on its own path after leaving the sun, now it does matter whether the sun moves from its place after emitting the light.

What has mrjesse been saying then?

Easy. I've been saying that for an observer on earth, at any instant in time, the sun's apparent position will be different then its actual position by only about 20 arc seconds, and almost entirely due to the observer's transverse velocity as the earth flies through space on the path of its yearly journey around the sun.

Furthermore, I have been asking you, this:

For an observer on earth at an instant in time, for a stationary (relative to earth) planet that was bright and 12 light hours away and above earth's equator, where would it appear to be as compared to where it really was? Would its gravity pull to the east while its light came from the west?

Such a simple question and you have heretofore refused to answer it! I mean, it's so simple!

As a matter of fact, you keep trying to shift this over to a simple rate issue and try to prove your point by demonstrating that the sun appears to move across the sky at the rate of 2.1 degrees per 8.3 minutes - but I have been explicitly clear that I'm talking about an instantanious angular displacement between actual and apparent position for an observer on earth.

So how about it? Why not answer the question and get it over with? What could be so hard about it?

Thanks,

-Jesse