What Does It Mean When an Object Orbits Another?

The fact that the mass exactly cancels itself out is quite interesting and is actually one of the factors that led Einstein to develop his general theory of relativity. Now what does it mean when an object orbits another? I'm sure everyone listening to these podcasts has heard about the moon orbiting the Earth, the Earth orbiting the sun, satellites orbiting the Earth. But what does that actually mean? Well basically, the basic idea of an orbit is that an object,. when an object is an orbit around another, let's talk about a satellite orbiting the Earth... ItBasically means that the satellite is perpetually falling to the Earth. You might think, well why doesn't it hit the Earth? The reason that