Re: 17 minutes

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
jacob navia  <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>The black hole at the center of the galaxy emits flares, and with
>careful analysis, the people at the VLT say:

>The most striking result is an apparent 17-minute periodicity in the
>light curves of two of the detected flares
><<

>Something rotating with 1/17 minutes has a maximum radius if we assume
>that its border (the circumference) can't travel faster than light.

>At (vacuum) light speed, this is 18 360 000 000 Km, the distance light
>travels in 17 minutes. The maximum circumference of the center can't
>go beyond that, and the radius is that divided by 2*pi = 2 922 084 755
>Km or 19.46 AU.

>Is this reasoning correct?

Something is wrong, and as I am lazy, I will not go over it,
but use a simpler approach.

The time for light to reach the Earth from the Sun is a little
more than 8 minutes.  Thus 17 minutes is just about the time
for light to travel a little more than 2 AU.  As we have to
divide by 2*pi, we get approximately 1/3 AU for the radius.

-- 
This address is for information only.  I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University
[EMAIL PROTECTED]         Phone: (765)494-6054   FAX: (765)494-0558