Titus-Bode rule

Wikipedia has a very interesting entry on the semi-regular spacing of the planets. I thought of a question that wasn’t covered though. The article did point out that the spacing shouldn’t necessarily be geocentric (Earth = 1.00) and even postulated an Mercury Unit (MU) to replace the AU. But wouldn’t a much better candidate be Jupiter? The most massive, most gravitationally influential of the planets? Does a JU give a better fit for the Titus-Bode rule?

The mathematical relationship expressed in the “Law” will be essentially the same, no matter the distance unit, only with different constants. If you wanted everything in Jupiter-AUs instead, you’d divide the T-B formula by 5.2. If you prefer Mercury-AUs, then you’d multiply it by 2.5.

If you picked one-tenth of an AU as your preferred unit, then all the distances will come out as nice round integers — assuming you like that sort of thing.

Personally I find it easier to just memorize the planets’ approximate distances in AU. No need for the “Law”, which as far as I know has no physical basis.