Planet closing in causing my family's bad luck ?

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by retina

Yep, let's blame Jupiter. That way we won't have to face the fact that life just sucks. It MUST be Jupiter's fault, damn stupid planet, should be banned.

Oh wait, what about all the comets and asteroids? Without Jupiter we would likely be dead.

doesn't surprise me I feel semi dead anyways and have been talked out of suicidal thinking before. also without Jupiter we probably wouldn't exist hence there is nothing to kill.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

The car parked out at the kerb has more influence on you than how much extra close Jupiter is.

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

I get 15 µN to 32 µN for Jupiter, depending on the relative position of Earth. For a 1000 kg car just 1 meter away, I get 6.7 µN.

I said extra close, i.e. the difference between a normal opposition and the current opposition.

[CRGreathouse]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

I said extra close, i.e. the difference between a normal opposition and the current opposition.

That's what I calculated -- 15 µN at furthest, 32 µN at closest. Of course I cheated and used mean solar distances; the actual extremes will depend also on eccentricity.

[davieddy]

What date did he come up with 3*10^8 m/s by timing how
the difference in the time of a moon's eclipse/transit depends on
Jupiter's distance away?

Some early astronomy/time-keeping/distance measurement
just blows your mind!

David

[rogue]

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by CRGreathouse

Interestingly, unless I miscalculate, that's wrong!

I get 15 µN to 32 µN for Jupiter, depending on the relative position of Earth. For a 1000 kg car just 1 meter away, I get 6.7 µN. (For the sake of round numbers I used a 100 kg man, but clearly this doesn't change the result.)

Well, for the sake of things, I used a 100 kg man, 1000 kg auto, 1m to the kerb distance, 1.8986×10²⁷ kg Jupiter mass^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter"]1[/URL]}, 592 million km current opposition^{[URL="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/09/100920-science-space-jupiter-closest-earth-uranus-brightest-full-moon/"]2[/URL]}, 667 million km average opposition^{[URL="http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/19/jupiter-closest-this-week-not-again-until-2022/"]3[/URL]}.

I get:
6.67µN for an auto 1m away
36.2µN for Jupiter this opposition
28.5µN for Jupiter for an average opposition
7.67µN differential

0.5 meter to the kerb gives: 26.7µN

So, I was off a bit. But still the concept of astrology is