RE: [GZG] AUs, Gravity wells and FTL

[Ryan Gill <rmgill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 10:46 PM +1000 8/7/05, R. Bryett wrote:
>  >>>> A dumb question - I recall that an AU, or Astronomical Unit, is the
> radius of Earth orbit, eg approx 93 million miles. <<<<
>
> The Earth's orbit doesn't *have* a radius, because it's not a circle. The
> Astronomical Unit is roughly the mean distance from the Earth to the Sun,
> and it is an arbitrary unit relating purely to our local solar system. For
> more detail, including the formal definition (which doesn't refer to the
> Earth's orbit at all, go here:

Still, I suspect that for the purposes of 
describing another system, AUs would be useful. 
People will still probably have Solar Day as a 
reference point when we move out there, even if 
they do tell time by local revolutions.

--
--
Ryan Gill              rmgill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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