6 ms·

Probably a stupid question, but does this take into account the speed of light?

• pavel_lishin 16y ago
  How do you mean?
  • hook 16y ago
    The force of gravity is not instantaneous. It "travels" at the speed of light. The Earth is not attracted to where the Sun is "now", it is attracted to where the Sun was approx. 8 minutes ago (the length of time it takes for light to travel from the Sun to the Earth), and vice versa.
    • mchouza 16y ago
      The Earth is not attracted to where the Sun is "now", it is attracted to where the Sun was approx. 8 minutes ago That's not entirely true as there are higher order effects in GR canceling this lag "to second order". http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/grav_speed.html http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/grav_spe...
• deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
• teamonkey 16y ago
  No, it doesn't take special relativity or general relativity into account. It's purely Newtonian physics.