[kat_princess]

Which planet spins backwards?

[Curlyben]

5 seconds + Google = Your answer

[Starman]

Just adding a curuious fact:

One spin for Venus takes 243 Earth days!
Now that's a heck of a long day by anyone's standards!

[andrewcocke]

Just adding a curuious fact:

One spin for Venus takes 243 Earth days!
Now that's a heck of a long day by anyone's standards!

Makes for a nice weekend though :)

[loverboy]

Only Venus

[Capuchin]

I'm sure a Venusian would argue that all the other planets spinning backwards, and they are the ones spinning forwards, right?

[Starman]

I'm sure a Venusian would argue that all the other planets spinning backwards, and they are the ones spinning forwards, right?

On what do you think he could base that conclusion?

[Thomas1970]

I'm sure a Venusian would argue that all the other planets spinning backwards, and they are the ones spinning forwards, right?

This is kind of like the "Coriolis Effect", and the argument whether all toilets flush counterclockwise in the Northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the south! :D
Probably quite true, but you'll never get everyone to agree. It's all dependent on your own personal view. It's always either half full or half empty. :)
Unless of course you are a nihlist, in which case the answer bears no relevance...

[Capuchin]

He would base the conclusion on the direction his planet is spinning, I'm just trying to highlight that 'backwards' isn't the best wording for the question, maybe 'clockwise' or 'anticlockwise' as seen from the northern pole would be better.

I'm a pedant.

Thomas, that's hardly an argument, haven't you seen the way sinks drain? :p

Yes, it's relative.

[Thomas1970]

Believe it or not, people actually do sit around and debate such things. :D

http://www.discovery.com/area/skinny...3/skinny1.html

Though you are right, clockwise in the Northern hemisphere. My mistake. :o :D

[Capuchin]

My explanation has nothing to do with the coriolis effect. THe argument over the coriolis effect is whether it affects small bodies of water draining or not (no it doesn't).

My argument is a parallel with relativity.

If you were moving forward through space very slowly, but had no knowledge of this motion, and you approached someone who was stationary, you would assume he was moving backwards.

In the same way, an inhabitant of Venus would assume that their world was spinning "forwards" and that the other worlds are abnormal, because they're spinning the other way.

(Just look at when astronomers assumed that the Earth was the center of the universe)

It isn't natural to assume that you are the one that is 'backwards'.
So I would happily argue with the teacher that posed this question that the other 7 planets are spinning 'backwards'.

[Thomas1970]

Just my humorous way of pointing out that someone on the other side of the world might as well say that your toilet is flushing in the wrong direction. :)
Just pointing out that it is all relative to your orientation. You'll never get everyone to agree on even the most trivial of matters. Never mind something that involves the entire galaxy. :)

[crybabypirate2255]

Ummmmmmm... this is weird. Can i be in the toilet fushing backwards planets cult too!?

[Capuchin]

But they have no reason to argue that your toilet is flushing the wrong direction, because toilets flush in both directions in both hemispheres. Please don't muddle up relativity with ignorance. ;p

[Starman]

To better evaluate the hypothetical Venesian conclusion: Why did humans conclude that

Venus is spinning backwards? If indeed a Venusian believed otherwise, he would have to convincingly refute or show as irrelevant or invalid the BASIS for the human conclusion of Venusian backward spin. Is that indeed possible? I don't think so unless Venusians have an altogether different way of thinking perhaps based on different sensory organs which causes them to view all the human evidence as illusory.


So as I see it, if indeed Venusians have our same sensory perceptive organs then thy are wrong since the standard for the conclusion is based on predominance of numbers. But if they have different poerception organs, then they might be right since we cannot say with 100% certainty that our perception is inherently more accurate than theirs.

But now we are leaving the realm of astronomy and going into metaphysics.