Does the hunter go around the squirrel? Vote and then move on already.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by glatt

I agree with IM on the driver/passenger example. The frame of reference for a driver and passenger is the car. The driver is stationary next to the passenger for the entire time. He does not go around the passenger. It isn't until you leave the car and make the frame of reference a flag pole in the middle of the circle, and the car is a convertible, that you can see the circular motions of each.

Everything is moving, and the observed motions depend on where you are standing. The earth spins. The earth orbits the sun. The sun orbits the center of the galaxy. The galaxy is careening through the universe. Am I sitting stationary at my desk or am I traveling at thousands of miles an hour on a rock shooting through space?

When we talk about drivers and passengers, they are sitting still in a car. It's the car that is moving.

Maybe all your examples, even the crazy hunter one too, is missing an important and necessary qualifier "relative to ______". Absent that qualifier, each of us can use some relative center, some relative frame of reference, RELATIVE TO WHICH each of these objects are doing or not doing something or other. Precision in language is the only way to resolve questions like this.