If you thought science education was bad in the US

Maybe he didn't get enough homework as a child.
Maybe he's just stupid, along with the most of the audience.
[img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img] [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

You know, I bet a lot of people getting such a stupid question from a pollster might deliberately lie to them.

I want to make a philosophical point about this thread and attitudes toward education in general however. The education of a citzenry is not just about the education system, it's about the people themselves. It has to do with how parents raise their children, and the values the children have. I didn't learn about the moon orbiting the Earth from school I learnt it on my own. Throughout history, the record can be argued to show that the best education is that which people do on their own rather than from school structure. Schools cannot teach curiosity and intellectuality.

On the other hand, university taught me the moon doesn't orbit the Earth. Rather, both the moon and the Earth orbit around the center of mass of the Terra-Luna system.

I really should change my location line at some point, huh? [img]biggrin.gif" border="0[/img]

Ah fer ^*(#Y!*( #9(*R^@()) #*#$#W^)*^ #&*&*@!!

Everybody know it revolves around Dubya's ranch.

God, through Pat Robertson of course, says so.

So 56 per cent of that French audience thought it was the sun?! Must be a Gaulist crowd.

[img]http://images.cafepress.com/product/21933531v1_240x240_Front.jpg[/img]

Both the Earth and Mars revolve around the Sun, but since Mars revolves a bit further from the Sun then the Earth that make Mars also revolve around the Earth. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]

I think when you try to answer that question, a clue is given in the way it is framed to tell you that the answer they are looking for is the moon, as I would have answered, even knowing that the real answer is that the moon and earth revolve around each other's center of gravity or mass.

As far as most people thinking that the sun revolves around the earth, well, that is surely how it looks, doesn't it?

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quote:

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Not really, because Earth, by virtue of its smaller orbit, outpaces Mars on its travel around the Sun. What you say would only be true if the Martian year were less than 365 days, instead of 687 days, as it happens to be.

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Spector, but if you keep to your argument then the moon does not orbit the Earth either, since the Earth rotates every 24 hours and the moon takes about 28 days to rotate around the earth. Personally I do not think that the earths movement within the orbit of Mars has anything to do with it. The fact that it is within the Mars orbit is the critical fact.

And for our next topic we'll discuss how many angles dance on the head of a pin.

Ok so you passed physics! [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img] Still the best answer is the moon, but a contestant could argue any other answer except venus is correct. No?
Any arguements for venus?

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: Southlander ]

quote:

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Originally posted by Southlander:
[b]Ok so you passed physics! [img]rolleyes.gif" border="0[/img] Still the best answer is the moon, but a contestant could argue any other answer except venus is correct. No?
Any arguements for venus?

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: Southlander ][/b]

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Given that "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", then either the earth revolves around women, or the earth-woman system is what is revolving, or men revolve around women.
QED!

[ 07 January 2007: Message edited by: quart o' homomilk ]

You know, we can all sit here and pat ourselves on the back for being so much smarter than the French - but something like this has nothing to do with being smart. I don't think too many of us figured out for ourselves that the moon revolves around the Earth. We learned it in school.

And perhaps, the French decided that knowing astronomy wasn't of all that much use to the majority of its citizens and didn't bother to teach them. Perhaps they showed them how to make a radio with only a few parts, or how to make wine.

And if Canadians don't know these things, I'm sure the French would laugh and tell us how idiotic we are.

Just because we learn something at an early age, does not mean that all people that haven't learned it are stupid.

"War is nature's way of teaching geography to Americans" - bumper sticker.

ETA: "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" is attributed to Ambrose Bierce. Can anyone verify that?

[ 08 January 2007: Message edited by: M. Spector ]

Just to save everyone else 3 minutes and 12 seconds of wasted time: he picked the Sun.

56% of the audience also picked the Sun.

From a 1999 Gallup poll:

Quote:

"As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth?" In the new poll, about four out of five Americans (79%) correctly respond that the earth revolves around the sun, while 18% say it is the other way around. These results are comparable to those found in Germany when a similar question was asked there in 1996; in response to that poll, 74% of Germans gave the correct answer, while 16% thought the sun revolved around the earth, and 10% said they didn't know. When the question was asked in Great Britain that same year, 67% answered correctly, 19% answered incorrectly, and 14% didn't know.