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mixcoatl
03-15-2001, 08:32 PM
If you were suddenly to stop moving in relation to everything else, I can imagine being thrown across the room,
because of the rotation of the Earth. I can also imagine being hurled out into space, because of the orbit of the Earth around the sun. But since the solar system is rotating in the Milky Way Galaxy, and I think the current theory is that the universe is expanding, my question is this: in what direction would I *seem* to be travelling?

In other words, generally towards what stars would I seem to be advancing?

This has haunted me ever since I saw the movie, "The Time Machine", which I suppose should properly have been called "The Time/Space Machine".
dublos
03-15-2001, 08:41 PM
Ummm.. Well, the first problem is having this happen at a time that the part of the earth you're standing on has you facing the right direction. And your being outside with no obstructions in the direction you are about to travel, otherwise you're thin paste before anyone can notice what direction you'd be heading.

My WAG would be that you would appear to be mobing toward the galactic center.

-Doug
Monocracy
03-15-2001, 10:02 PM
I'm not sure if the Milky Way is in an orbital dance with other galaxies in our galactic cluster, or if our cluster orbits with other clusters in our super cluster, etc., but within our galaxy, our solar system is moving at 250 km/sec in the direction of the star Deneb.

Deneb is the alpha star (greatest apparent brightness) in the constellation Cygnus (The Swan), also known as the Northern Cross. It makes up the "tail" of the swan or the top of the cross.
Smeghead
03-15-2001, 10:59 PM
Originally posted by mixcoatl
If you were suddenly to stop moving in relation to everything else

Here's your problem. Since everything is moving in relation to everything else, stopping in relation to everything is well nigh impossible. If you did accomplish it, you would, obviously, not be thrown around or shot off into space or anything like that. You would be motionless with respect to everything. Thus, no movement whatsoever. Care to rephrase that a bit more precisely?