Quote:
Originally Posted by
Antarctica!
"Erm, I'm not sure that's correct," Kiri spoke up quietly, blushing. She hated disagreeing with her classmates, and this girl looked much older than Kiri - and she was a Ravenclaw. Ordinarily, that would go towards convincing Kiri that she was wrong, but Astronomy was the only subject where she could argue with some authority.
She turned around in her seat to look at the girl. Or, at least, her general direction. "I mean, gravity clearly does not exert the same amount of pull all the time. It depends on the mass of an object and its distance - most of the time, anyway. If a planet is farther away, Earth feels less of its gravity than when it's closer. So, erm, yes, it changes over time. It's not constant."
Kiri was a little more encouraged as she continued, "And even if that was true, I don't think it would, you know, solve the problem stated in the article. If each planet just exerted its gravitational pull on Earth regardless of every other planet, in a conjunction, Earth would still feel all of their gravity coming from one side, and the tidal force would increase.
"I mean, I agree with you, there's absolutely no danger, but I don't think your argument, is, er... is entirely correct." Her face still felt a little hot.
Rachel blinked and turned as a girl began commenting on what she had said. Wha-? Oh. The seventh year nodded as she realised what the girl had said was very, VERY correct.
EEEK! She could NOT be going stupid now - this was her NEWT year!!! O_O
BAAAAAAAAD.
Breathe.
"Yeah, I see your point. And it's true - you're right; I didn't really consider the possibility of that before. Thanks," she smiled at the girl, honestly grateful for the correction. Mental note: seek out physics book and REREAD it. Smiling, Rachel turned back to the professor with a sort of apologetic grin. She HATED being wrong - that was something that will never change - but at least she could deal with it now.
Back in her first year she would have burst out crying if someone had actually pinpointed her answer and claimed it to be wrong. Wow - she had actually matured!
Amazing.