You're right, but then that wouldn't make for a very good video. He went a little overboard on the "Mercury is closest to all planets" angle in my opinion though and should have talked about the different definitions and how the results vary, e.g.
- Closest on average
- Minimum distance
- Maximum distance
Because some planets like Pluto have highly elliptical orbits, the standard textbook order of the planets doesn't guarantee a meaningful result since sometimes Neptune is further from the Sun than Pluto.
You're right, but then that wouldn't make for a very good video. He went a little overboard on the "Mercury is closest to all planets" angle in my opinion though and should have talked about the different definitions and how the results vary, e.g.
* Closest on average
* Minimum distance
* Maximum distance
Because some planets like Pluto have highly elliptical orbits, the standard textbook order of the planets doesn't guarantee a meaningful result since sometimes Neptune is further from the Sun than Pluto.
Yeah, there's an infinite number of definitions of representative 'closeness' in a situation like this. I have a soft-spot for the harmonic mean:
Yeah, there's an infinite number of definitions of representative 'closeness' in a situation like this. I have a soft-spot for the harmonic mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_mean
Whatever. I think the minimum separation distance is at least an equally sensible definition of 'closeness'. No planet comes closer to Earth than Venus.