Mercury’s orbit became very elongated due to the gravitational pull of Jupiter. . .

Right.  That settles it, then.  Jupiter’s got to go.

*gets out the extra-large brass knuckles*

Bye Jupiter!

David B. - 23 April 2008 01:17 PM

Special Relativity disagrees.

It depends on how many people (and the overall masses of said people) were falling off cliffs on the other side of the planet, too.  If there were more on the other side of the planet then it would actually be falling away from our protagonist and he would have to catch up to it, within his own frame of reference (which is the frame he would be referencing, after all).

Yes I added that last part just for your next argument, Dave. 

Charybdis - 24 April 2008 01:32 PM

It depends on how many people (and the overall masses of said people) were falling off cliffs on the other side of the planet, too.  If there were more on the other side of the planet then it would actually be falling away from our protagonist and he would have to catch up to it, within his own frame of reference (which is the frame he would be referencing, after all).

Only if he was especially privileged.

Of course, you could say that people jumping off cliffs between midnight and next midday have the planet hit them, while those who jump between midday and next midnight hit the planet. I’ll leave it as an ‘exercise for the reader’ to work out why.