Millionaire Matchmaker (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

It is most accurate to say that the earth-moon system and the sun orbit
each other around a point which is near the center of the sun, so near
that we may consider it to be the center of the sun for most purposes.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Garson O'Toole
> Sent: Saturday, November 06, 2010 8:59 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Millionaire Matchmaker
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Millionaire Matchmaker
>
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> -
>
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>BONUS SOPHISTICATION INDICATOR:
> >>
> >>The show featured a commercial for something expensive whose score
included
> >>a guy crooning, "You got me circling like the moon around the sun!"
>
> Laurence Horn:
> > Maybe meaning 'not circling at all', like "ad kalendas Graecas" or
> > "till the twelfth of Never"?  Naaaah.
>
> Below is a question from the textbook "Physics, classical and modern":
> The magnitude of the force on the moon due to the sun is more than
> twice the magnitude of the force on the moon due to the earth. Would
> it be more accurate to say that the moon orbits the sun rather than
> the moon orbits the earth?
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=gt3iAAAAMAAJ&q=%22moon+orbits%22#search
_ancho
> r
>
> I do not know if astronomical nomenclature dictates an answer. With
> multiple objects the simple notion of "orbit" breaks down from my
> non-astronomer layperson perspective.
>
> "You got me circling like the moon around the sun!"
>
> There is a possible generous interpretation: You have me so
> dumbfounded that I am circling around you with a wobbling orbit as if
> I have a large companion object.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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