h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Since both the squirrel and the photogropher would be orbiting around the axis of the tree trunk (its center) and the squirrel is closer to that center it would seem that the squirrel would be moving faster than the man. We see this same effect in the solar system. The Earth makes one orbit of the sun in 365.24 days, but Mars takes 686.98 days to cover the same distance. The circumfrence of their orbits differs because the Earth is closer to the sun than Mars is so even if they both travelled at the same speed round the sun it would seem to still take longer for Mars to complete the trip. So if the squirrel is twice as close to the center as the man is he should make 4 times the number of revolutions. Say the man is 4 ft away(from the center of the tree) and it takes him 2 min to circle the tree while the squirrel is 2 feet from the tree's center. Since the squirrel is only half as far from the center of the tree the squirrel would take only 1/4th of the time that it takes for the man to circle the tree once. So if it takes .5 minutes for the squirrel to make one circut of the tree that means that in the time the man makes one circut of the tree(2 minutes) the squirrel would circut the tree's center 4 times. I could be wrong but it would seem that even if you take time into account the man has no chance of ever catching up.

The squirrel is doing less distance (a smaller circle) in the same time, so is moving slower. The squirrel and the photographer are not in orbit, they are merely orbiting.

A body in orbit is balanced between its speed and gravity. Venus is closer to the sun than Mars is, therefore the sun's gravity is perceived on Venus as stronger, therefore Venus must move faster than Mars does to remain in orbit. No such considerations apply for the squirrel and the photographer. They can move as fast or as slow as they like. They may even stop.

TRiG.

Wouldn't they get bored?