Fact or fiction?

[pink_trike]

Can anyone tell me how close to reality this bit of information is:

 

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The distance between the Earth and Moon is 108 times the diameter of the Moon

 

The distance between the Earth and Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Sun

 

The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth

 

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Appreciate your help...

[Kyrisch]

The second bit hardly seems true. Take a look at this to-scale representation of the planets' orbits.

 

[toastywombel]

Can anyone tell me how close to reality this bit of information is:

 

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The distance between the Earth and Moon is 108 times the diameter of the Moon

 

The distance between the Earth and Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Sun

 

The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth

 

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Appreciate your help...

 

Diameter of Earth is 12,756.2 kilometers

 

"If you take the above number and multiply it by 108 you get 1,377,669.6 km that is about 20,000 kilometers off, or about 1.5 diameters of the earth off."

 

Diameter of sun is 1,391,000 kilometers

 

take sun divided by earth and you get around 108, its like 109 ish so that part is somewhat accurate.

 

diameter of moon is 3,474.8 kilometers

distance between moon and earth is 384,403 Km

 

do the same thing, divide and you get around 110. So its off by a bit there, plus its good to note that the moon is moving away from us very slowly, so a set in stone number like 108 will get ever less accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon

 

I'm not going to do the last one, because I think you can, but by the way this is not totally accurate, if you consider that the orbits of these objects are elliptical, therefore there are fluctuations in the distances between these objects.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit

 

Usually nothing in nature is mathematically that pretty. So that 108 thing, is around right, but not totally right and really a slew of numbers such as 115- 105 could be put forth and have the same point, and be considered by some as accurate, especially if thrown into a poem like you sited. It is easy to twist numbers, by just changing them a little.

[michel123456]

Our ouroborous friend wants to talk about 108 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_(number)

 

108 is also the next Peugeot model.

 

And my trousers don't fall due to the miraculous power of a belt exactly 108 cm long.

[Mr Skeptic]

Can anyone tell me how close to reality this bit of information is:

 

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The distance between the Earth and Moon is 108 times the diameter of the Moon

 

The distance between the Earth and Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Sun

 

The diameter of the Sun is 108 times the diameter of the Earth

 

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Appreciate your help...

 

They are all vaguely accurate (all a slight underestimate it seems). Coincidence? Perhaps. Is Earth 108 times the diameter of the moon? Not a chance!

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The second bit hardly seems true. Take a look at this to-scale representation of the planets' orbits.

 

Surprise!

2 * radius of Earth * 108 * 108 = 0.994587607 Astronomical Units

[Sisyphus]

Out of all the various distances in the solar system, there are indeed a few that are in ratios of 1 to 100-120 or so. If the implication is that 1:108 ratios are all over the place, then I have to say "fiction."

[swansont]

Out of all the various distances in the solar system, there are indeed a few that are in ratios of 1 to 100-120 or so. If the implication is that 1:108 ratios are all over the place, then I have to say "fiction."

 

It's more like there are a bunch of ratios, so it's not hard to find several that are in the vicinity of 108. As toastywombel has noted, the moon's orbit isn't fixed, so this was very inaccurate at some time in the past.

 

Numerology.

[pink_trike]

Our ouroborous friend wants to talk about 108 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_(number)

 

108 is also the next Peugeot model.

 

And my trousers don't fall due to the miraculous power of a belt exactly 108 cm long.

 

Not helpful. I asked for the science.

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Thanks, guys. I doubted the convenient perfection of such a number.

[michel123456]

Not helpful. I asked for the science.

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Thanks, guys. I doubted the convenient perfection of such a number.

 

Sorry, your question combined with your avatar misleaded me.

[tomgwyther]

I think the number you're looking for is nearer 390. It's what gives us lucky Earthlings such spectacular solar eclipses.

 

The Sun's distance from the Earth is about 390 times the Moon's distance, and the Sun's diameter is about 400 times the Moon's diameter. Because these ratios are approximately the same, the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be approximately the same size: about 0.5 degree of arc in angular measure.

 

From Wikipedia