Americans 'do not know....'

[Super Nova]

The question - "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth" - was answered incorrectly by 26 per cent of respondents.

Is this a surprise. What does it say for the most advance country on the planet. this is scary. Should this 1/4 have the right the vote.

You PAers who live in the US... is this credible?

It certainly does nothing for the rest of the world's impression of the US.


One in four Americans 'do not know the Earth circles the Sun'

Over a quarter of Americans do not know the Earth circles the Sun, according to a new survey

One in four Americans are completely unfamiliar with Nicolaus Copernicus's 1543 theory that the Earth circles the Sun, according to a study by the National Science Foundation.

The survey, released on Friday at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, asked 2,200 people nine factual questions about physical and biological science, with the average score being just 5.8 correct answers.

The question - "Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth" - was answered incorrectly by 26 per cent of respondents.

Fewer than half of the respondents - 48 per cent - are aware that humans evolved from earlier species of animals and just 39 percent answered correctly that "the universe began with a huge explosion".

A total of 42 per cent of Americans said that astrology is either "very scientific" or "sort of scientific".

Belief in astrology over science seems to be growing. In 2004, 66 per cent of Americans thought astrology was nonsense. "Fewer Americans rejected astrology in 2012 than in recent years," the 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators report said.

"The comparable percentage has not been this low since 1983."

In contrast, a study in China has shown that 92 per cent of people there believe horoscopes are unscientific.

John Besley of Michigan State University, the lead author of the report's chapter on public attitudes toward science, said there is a need to wait "to see if it's a real change" before assessing the significance of the results, but that the data "popped out to me when I saw it".

One in three respondents said science should get more funding from the government.

On a more encouraging note, nearly 90 per cent said the benefits of science outweigh any dangers, and about the same number expressed interest in learning about medical discoveries.

The study also asked people to state their primary sources of information. The results showed a decline in television and newspapers as a source for information on both current news events and science and technology since 2001 and an increase in the internet.

In 2001, 53 per cent of people said television was their primary source for current news events, 30 per cent said newspapers and seven per cent said the internet.

In 2012, that had changed to 44 per cent for television, 14 per cent for newspapers and 34 per cent the internet.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... e-Sun.html

[freediver]

It's an ellipse, not a circle.

[Super Nova]

It's an ellipse, not a circle.

"Earth circles the Sun" just means it goes around the sun in colloquial language.

In fact it is slightly elliptical and that cannot be a pure ellipse either as pull of the other objects in the solar system as it travels around. (the n-body problem)

Example of the 3 body problem - tending to N does get complex.

[Rorschach]

That's a bit of a worry SN, but then hey how many think Australia is in the middle of Europe?
Mind you don't around 50% of them not vote anyway?

Hmmm FD? Does he really want us to say the Earth ellipses around the Sun?

[Super Nova]

Yeah but they have the right to vote... that's the scary bit.

[Rorschach]

Well there are plenty of people on these forums that do vote and that's darn right scary.

[freediver]

Not around the sun. The sun and the earth travel in an ellipse around their combined centre of mass - with the obvious perturbations due to other planets etc (thanks SN). It is actually no less correct to say the sun circles the earth than to say the earth circles the sun. It's just that the motion of one is exaggerated due to the vast difference in mass.

That is of course if you assume a Newtonian world, which would be wrong.

Those who mock others' stupidity often get it wrong themselves. But that's OK because science is all about being wrong. And journalism too, apparently.

[boxy]

Not around the sun. The sun and the earth travel in an ellipse around their combined centre of mass - with the obvious perturbations due to other planets etc (thanks SN). It is actually no less correct to say the sun circles the earth than to say the earth circles the sun. It's just that the motion of one is exaggerated due to the vast difference in mass.

That is of course if you assume a Newtonian world, which would be wrong.

Those who mock others' stupidity often get it wrong themselves. But that's OK because science is all about being wrong. And journalism too, apparently.

Isn't the point that they both orbit around inside the sun, though?

[AiA in Atlanta]

Cher once thought that the moon was the backside of the sun and the faces on Mt Rushmore were natural so, yeah, I could see many Americans not knowing anything about the basics of astronomy, especially considering that many politicians attack the foundations of science openly ....

[Super Nova]

Cher once thought that the moon was the backside of the sun and the faces on Mt Rushmore were natural so, yeah, I could see many Americans not knowing anything about the basics of astronomy, especially considering that many politicians attack the foundations of science openly ....

Surely it is also a problem with basic education standards as well.

the basics of the world are not taught or communicated properly. This is beyond the religious slant. All religions accept we go around the sun now.