User:Marcosk496

Note: I'm currently using this page as a scratchpad (sandbox?) for edits.

Centrifugal vs gravitational effects at equator miscalculation?

(For Sun article)

I believe there may be a mistake in the section Sun#Characteristics in the line "The centrifugal effect of the Sun's rotation is 18 million times weaker than the surface gravity at the Sun's equator." This is equivalent to saying the ratio of centrifugal to gravitational acceleration is a_c/g = 1/(1.8x10⁷) ≈ 5.6x10^-8. However, my own calculation for the centrifugal acceleration at the photosphere and equator (based on solar data from the main page, e.g. equatorial rotational period of 25.05 days) yields a_c = ω²R ≈ (2.90x10^-6 rad/s)²⋅(6.96x10⁸ m) ≈ 5.85x10^-3 m/s², and thus a_c/g ≈ (5.85x10^-3 m/s²)/(274 m/s²) ≈ 2.1x10^-5. This differs from the stated value by over two orders of magnitude. Perhaps the article meant to read "The centrifugal effect of the Sun's rotation is only 18 millionths as strong as the surface gravity at the equator"? This would be close to the value of 21 millionths I'm coming up with. Thoughts?Marcosk496 (talk) 05:43, 2 March 2015 (UTC)