Scale of the solar system
Sir,—Donald Henry’s letter on the scale of the solar system (“The Press,” July 1) really debunks the silly rubbish that astrologists muster up. The moon is the greatest body to affect the earth, with the sun, millions of times the mass of the moon, having a pull of 0.458 of that of the moon. This is because gravitational pull varies inversely with the cube of the distance. On the scale of the heavenly bodies, if the sun is represented by a sphere one metre in diameter in Cathedral Square, the earth would be the size of a walnut in Timaru. Cube these distances for the other planets and invert the equation, and it will be found that there is verv little, if any, pull on the earth from the planets. The moon remains the greatest gravitational force, with a falling off from the earth as the distance from the earth increases.—Yours, etc., P. J. ALLEY. July 1, 1977.
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Press, 5 July 1977, Page 16
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163Scale of the solar system Press, 5 July 1977, Page 16
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