Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1exp 10/6/83; site ihlts.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!decvax!harpo!floyd!clyde!ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe
From: rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Stable Grav. points (reply to Bill Jefferys)
Message-ID: <261@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 2-Nov-83 18:05:26 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlts.261
Posted: Wed Nov  2 18:05:26 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 6-Nov-83 08:09:30 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 30


Bill jumped on a typographical error.  My article had a mistake in
the second line.  What I first said was:

>Yes, the center of mass of a two-body system is Lagrange libration point
>L1 if and only if the masses are equal.  But the barycenter in any
>event is L2.  Let m1 >= m2, u = m2/(m1+m2), and let the constant separation
...

The obvious error is that I typed "L1" before where I meant "L2".  That clears
THAT up.  I still maintain that the barycenter is a point sometimes called L2.
This peculiar nomenclature has NOTHING to do with libration.  I never said
that the BARYCENTER was a libration point (except when the masses are equal).  
I merely stated that the point existed and had mathematical significance in
and of itself.  Bill, do you really think I'm so ignorant of physics that I can
say in the same article that a point beneath the surface of the earth is a
libration point, stable or otherwise?  Hardly!  We're all very impressed with
your credentials (and your arguments) but you should realize that some other
people do know what they speak of once in a while.  I particularly take
exception to your unfounded speculations of the type "But Roger might think
 . . ." followed by some absurd contortion of well-understood laws of
celestial mechanics which you know as well as I.

Bill, please read more carefully next time before you post a followup to this
newsgroup and don't put words into the mouths of others.  And if you have
something to say that's not of interest to all readers of this newgroup, use
mail.

-- 
		Roger Noe		...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe