Comment by Tistron
11 hours ago
I take it that the squirrel didn't circle the man? Two squirrels running around the same tree, are they circling each other? Or is it that when two bodies are orbiting the same center, then the body with the larger orbit is circling the one with the smaller? What is the definition of "circling"?
I think the main point of the story is that there 'going around' something is not necessarily precisely defined, and that there can be multiple interpretations of it, some of which depend from which perspective you are defining it. Which is a good way to get a sense of what mathematics is about, really (how can this be defined precisely? Is this definition consistent? What properties do different definitions have?).