Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity. These
quantities are called vectors, not scalers, because there's a
direction associated with them, but we don't need to worry about that
right now.

There are times when the moon is accelerating away from the sun. That
does not mean its velocity is away from the sun, only that it is
decreasing. If it is decreasing then it is accelerating in the other
direction.

Mechanics are not part of the psych courses, you're quite right about
that. Never the less, the statement I made above is correct.

Also, for what it's worth, I'm not a pilot, at least not in the
certified sense. I probably get 50 hours of dual in a complex single a
year though, flying with my husband, and yes I know how to, in a real
airplane, fly a ILS approach under the hood to minimums and land.




On Jun 18, 2:49 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
writes:
Poor misunderestanding boy. Consider the cirumstance when the moon's
shadow is cast on the earth. Every movement then, until it's 90
degrees displaced, has an acceleration component away from the sun.
For that matter, 180 degrees later, when it lies along the earth path,
moving toward the moon, it has an acceleration vector with a component
away from the sun.

As I've said, plot the actual paths around the Sun. You'll see that the
moon's path is always concave to the Sun, that is, it is never accelerating
away from the star.

Heavens, I teach psych, and know this stuff.

I didn't think that celestial mechanics was part of the psychology curriculum.