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As mentioned already, ancient peoples didn’t know that Earth is 3rd planet from the sun and Saturn is 6th. But Saturn also has a ~30 earth-year long year, whic
by jacobolus 5y ago
As mentioned already, ancient peoples didn’t know that Earth is 3rd planet from the sun and Saturn is 6th.
But Saturn also has a ~30 earth-year long year, which means it goes about 1/12 of the way around its orbit each Earth year, relevant to hexagons which have symmetry axes at 12ths of a turn. (No idea if this is the source of any association between Saturn and hexagons.)
- jacobolus 5y agoEr, wait a sec, that doesn’t make any sense. Chalk it up to tiredness. With a ~30 Earth-year long year, Saturn of course goes about 1/30 of the way around its orbit each Earth year; this would just as closely relate it to a pentagon as a hexagon. It’s Jupiter with a ~12 Earth-year long year that would go about 1/12 of the way around its orbit each Earth year. Saturn and Jupiter together have orbits that return to about the same state every ~60 years.