[RadioAstronomer]

We go around the core about every 200 million years at a distance of however far we are from the core. Somebody [preferably a 1st year engineering student] should cruch the numbers and tell us the result in feet or miles.

I am not a 1st year engineering student, but will I do?

Distance of the Earth to the center of the galaxy: about 30,000 light years
Total distance traveled for one rotation = Pi x D = 188,400 light years
Speed of light = 299,792,458 meters per second
There are 86400 seconds in one day with approximately 365.25 days per year giving us approximately 31,557,600 seconds/year.
So the distance of one light year is around 9.46 x 10¹⁵meters.

This gives us a total distance travel for one rotation of 1.78 x 10²¹meters.

Rotational period of the galaxy: 2.25 x 10⁸ years.

This gives us about 8 x 10¹²meters traveled per year.

8 x 10¹² divided by 365.24 = approximately 2.2 x 10¹⁰ meters/day or 912,600 kilometers per hour.

This then is approximately 565,837 miles per hour or 157 miles per second.

[Southack]

"157 miles per second"

Times 8.3 minutes = 78,186 miles (for some reason I had it in my head that the Sun traveled 270,000 miles in the time that it took Light to reach Earth from the Sun, bizarre).

So the question is whether the Earth rotates in an orbital plane around where the Sun was 8.3 minutes ago, which will always be 78,186 miles away from its current position (if your math is valid), or whether the Earth orbit is centered more closely to the actual position of the Sun at the present time.

And that answer will tell us the speed of Gravity.

[Aric2000]

Man, and they thought a train couldn't go more then 20 miles an hour!!

157 miles per second? Now THAT'S FAST!!!

[Doctor Stochastic]

So, the turtles are spinning all the way down?

[PatrickHenry]

This then is approximately 565,837 miles per hour or 157 miles per second.

Relative to me, the sun is motionless. It stays right where I want it, one AU from the earth. Nothing else matters. All your computations are for naught! Mrruuuhahahahahaha!