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Talk:Heliocentrism (view source)
Revision as of 19:44, September 27, 2008
, 19:44, September 27, 2008→Proposed changes: new section
: I did discuss the changes. By heliocentrism, people usually mean the models of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, etc, and they put the Sun at or near the center of the universe. I also fixed the statement about the 1700s and 1800s. [[User:RSchlafly|RSchlafly]] 02:06, 3 February 2008 (EST)
: I did discuss the changes. By heliocentrism, people usually mean the models of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, etc, and they put the Sun at or near the center of the universe. I also fixed the statement about the 1700s and 1800s. [[User:RSchlafly|RSchlafly]] 02:06, 3 February 2008 (EST)
== Proposed changes ==
Not sure why this got blocked after one instance of vandalism -- but so it goes.
1) Propose distinguishing between two types of heliocentrism -- the center of the universe and the center of the solar system. We're conflating two uses of the term here, and that causes confusion.
2) Propose clarifying that while systems can legitimately be described in any reference frame, ''inertial'' reference frames are privileged, because they don't require the introduction of fictitious forces. Thus, you can describe the universe as centered on an immobile Earth, but that requires you to introduce all sorts of fictitious forces to explain why the enormously massive sun inexplicably curves around us. the solar system is ''better'' and ''more simply'' described as centered on the sun. [[User:Ungtss|Ungtss]] 15:44, 27 September 2008 (EDT)