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Re: Sky People's solar system

From:John Cowan <cowan@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 19, 1999, 18:06
Christopher Atavus scripsit:

> I know > also that you can't place planets wherever you want (I think the average > radii of the orbits in our solar system follows a series of numbers that I > don't remember (but I remember having seen it!))
Yes, there is Bode's Law (or the Bode-Titius rule), but it's a purely empirical relationship, and we have no real reason to think it applies to other stellar systems. But if you want to use it, it predicts that planets are found at each value of 3n+4, where n = 0, 1, 2, .... It works fairly well for the Solar System if you count Mercury as planet 0, ..., Ceres as planet 4, Jupiter as planet 5, etc. Neptune however is completely off from Planet 8, with a distance of 301 arbitrary units instead of 388. (Pluto, generally thought to be an escaped moon, is at 394.) The Bode's Law web page (http://www.itsnet.com/home/bmager/public_html/pluto/bodeslaw.html) says: # The Titius-Bode Rule remains an interesting coincidence, for which # no one has offered a satisfactory explanation. -- John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn. You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn. Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)