In article ,
Merlin writes:
Would someone be kind enough to confirm the speed the earth travels through
space in it's Sun orbit - ignoring Galaxy expansion (son's science
homework).

Ignoring the rotation of the Galaxy as well, I imagine, which would give
quite a significant speed component.

I make it 466,017 metres per second on average.

Well, if we approximate the Earth's orbit by a circle of radius 93
million miles (when it's really an ellipse), and say that it takes
approximately 365.25 days to cover 2 x pi x 93,000,000 miles, then I
reckon that you get 32589 yards per second. With all the approximations
I've made, a yard is near enough the same as a metre. So unless I've
made a mistake, I reckon that your figure is too low by a factor of
about 7 or 8. Even if it's me that's made the mistake, I reckon you'll
have done extremely well if your answer is really correct to the 6
significant figures that you quote.
--
John Hall

"The covers of this book are too far apart."
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)