Does that someone's "perfectly consistent general relativistic framework where the Sun would be going around the Earth" also explain Galileo's observed phases of Venus, Ole Roemer's measurements of Jupiter's moons, Bradley's stellar aberration, Bessel's parallax measurements of a star, Foucault's pendulum, and the geosynchronous satellite orbit?
Rick Strickert
Austin TX
-----Original Message-----
From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@www.phys-l.org] On Behalf Of Brian Blais
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 8:00 AM
To: Phys-l@phys-l.org
Subject: [Phys-L] Sun going around the Earth?
So, I was having an argument with someone about establishing that the Earth goes around the Sun, and he claimed that he could write down a perfectly consistent general relativistic framework where the Sun would be going around the Earth. Not having the time, I didn't get a chance to see this done, but I was wondering whether it *could* be done - even in principle. If so, then is the geocentric model "just as good" as the heliocentric model - in the sense of "just as consistent with reality" - as opposed to the "just as convenient"
sense?
The discussion was part of a more general discussion of epistemology, which is perhaps the only time that anyone argues such things. :)