Please tell me people aren't this ignorant

[senua]

Working in a Science center you hear all sorts of mis conceptions and mis information.
I present planetarium shows and have had my fiar share of creationists moaning at me about telling their children that we are made of star dust and that the Earth is billions of years old.
One woman was surprised to discover that stars were Suns. She thought they were reflections from the Sun.
Another woman didn't know that everything was made of molecules.
The amount of ignorance is astounding.

[danscope]

But she can tell you all about the nail polish she worked with in highschool while some teacher blabbed on and on about gravity and stuff and
planets and stuff an all those retro rockets and stuff. Sounds like a few candidates for "Jaywalking Allstars" . Hmmmmm.....

[danscope]

I think the ignorant people can, at times, make you quite proud of your own education and celibrate the hard work you put into it.
Helps you to appreciate the Baut forum .
Here's to a proper education well earned ..... to everyone .

[Gillianren]

Can I (probably once again) point out that people who don't construct proper sentences only have so much room to criticize someone else's ignorance?

[danscope]

Hi Gillian , Am I guilty of playing with cyber sentences? Tsk tsk . Well I shall accept your criticism .

[99gecko]

Gillian,

There are a few reasons I do not post very often outside of the Fun 'n Games forum. One of them is that most of the time I am here to learn as astronomy and space is not my field. Secondly, is that on several occasions I have encountered comments like yours.

I know that my English is not very good. It is my second language ( I can communicate in three), but I am very proud of the fact that I acquired a university education in English, and work on a daily occurrence in two languages. Therefore with subjects that I am not entirely comfortable with I often make mistakes - written spelling, grammar, construction etc. For many years I have struggled with word choices. Unfortunately in my efforts to correct that, I often make additional grammatical errors. This is not uncommon in my experience. This fact is increasingly so, in that I often do not have much time to generate and review my posts here.

I most firmly believe The fact that I struggle with the English language should not deter from the content of my posts. I am most certain from looking at BAUT member's locations, that there are other members that likely are here with English not as their mother tongue, and feel the same way. Just because this forum operates in English, one should not assume English is native to all members.

I would like to suggest to you that some consideration be given when making statements such as yours in post #124. In my humble opinion, to do otherwise is approaching a straw-man fallacy position, or at worse, passive censorship.

I value your opinions and arguements, but I would hope you would value the content of the thoughts of your fellow members in return.

cheers.

[Gillianren]

Your English is excellent, as it happens. It also happens that I know several of the people at whom that comment was aimed speak English as a first language. I can also assure you that several of our non-native speakers ask me to correct them. I have assured those members that, when they make errors, I will.

[Swift]

Let's not turn this thread into a grammar debate, or into a debate as whether someone should correct others' grammar.

[caveman1917]

I can also assure you that several of our non-native speakers ask me to correct them. I have assured those members that, when they make errors, I will.

Would you put me on that list please? I know my english is far from decent, so a chance to learn would be appreciated

ETA: i hope this post didn't go against Swift's warning.

[Kyrre]

I would also be joining in for the grammar lessons, and find it actually close to the topic: it seems to be a close correlation between bothering to write well and having something worthwile to say. Grammatical errors can't bedevil the clearest argument chain, but sloppy writing is something different from honest mistakes, and the latter seem to go hand in hand with sloppy thinking.

[profloater]

There seems to be a lot of condescension confusing ignorance with stupidity and this ignorance is not necessarily a personal fault. The OP was about appreciating that the Earth spins, explaining the clear observation that the sun appears to orbit around the earth. If you are not told that in a clear way it would be a huge intellectual leap to guess that the earth is round and rotates in space. The issue is education (again) and motivation of students (again) and not stupidity. I cannot remember the point at which I was told about the earth spinning etc but it must have been very early in childhood and I wonder if I lived in an age of ignorance, would I ever work it out?

[Spoons]

... Grammatical errors can't bedevil the clearest argument chain, but sloppy writing is something different from honest mistakes, and the latter seem to go hand in hand with sloppy thinking.

You mean the former, right? That sloppy writing and sloppy thinking go hand in hand? I assume that was an honest mistake.

[slang]

You mean the former, right? That sloppy writing and sloppy thinking go hand in hand? I assume that was an honest mistake.

Ouch! But yes.

[astromark]

To the OP... Please tell me people are not this ignorant. OK. I can say People are not that ignorant, but that would be a lie.

The general masses simply have so little care for the science of astronomy that when some obscure statement is made,

Little or no knowledge is apparent. Nubaru is coming and will destroy life on Earth.. That is simply 'not true'.

However.. even a quick search across even this forum leaves you wondering where this rubbish comes from.

and why does it capture such enthusiastic fervent hysteria... ignorance rules. It would seem.

I have mentioned this previously...

A 40 year old came across the truck stop depo.. " What's the Moon in the daytime sky for ?"

At three pm on a clear day.. I said. ' Mark it on your calendar.. It will be there again in 28 days.'

He replied... " No its wrong, there's something wrong.." I replied with ' Google it. They will know.'

He never did come back at me... Did he leave to build a bunker...?

The truth is.. He did not care enough to enquire.. complacency is the enemy.

[Luckmeister]

A 40 year old came across the truck stop depo.. " What's the Moon in the daytime sky for ?"

At three pm on a clear day.. I said. ' Mark it on your calendar.. It will be there again in 28 days.'

He replied... " No its wrong, there's something wrong.." I replied with ' Google it. They will know.'

He never did come back at me... Did he leave to build a bunker...?

The truth is.. He did not care enough to enquire.. complacency is the enemy.

Or he may have had no idea what "Google it" meant.

[slang]

"What's the Moon in the daytime sky for ?"

That is ignorant! It might just as well be against something.

[Swift]

I'm reminded of this:

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright--
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done--
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

[matterdoc]

I have a hard time believing this is real. I *might* expect something like this from the US, but France? Can anyone confirm whether or not this is real, or if it was staged? It's hard for me to believe that 400 years after Galileo, 58% of people still don't know that the earth orbits about the sun, not the other way around.

Simple mechanics shows us that no free body can orbit around another moving body in any type of closed geometrical path. Sun is a moving body. Yet every text book and all literature show earth as orbiting around the sun in elliptical path. An ellipse is a closed geometrical figure. This incorrect view introduced too many errors in cosmology.

[Hornblower]

Simple mechanics shows us that no free body can orbit around another moving body in any type of closed geometrical path. Sun is a moving body. Yet every text book and all literature show earth as orbiting around the sun in elliptical path. An ellipse is a closed geometrical figure. This incorrect view introduced too many errors in cosmology.

If we observe from a frame of reference in which the solar system is moving across our line of sight, of course the Earth will appear to be moving in a looping, open path. That path can be described by the vector sum of the translational motion of the system and the orbital motion in an elliptical path around the Earth-Sun barycenter. When we transform our viewpoint to make the barycenter appear to be stationary, the Earth's observed motion becomes a closed ellipse around the barycenter.

Can you show us, in appropriate mathematical detail, why you think there is something incorrect about this analysis?

[astromark]

This;
Originally Posted by uniqueuponhim Quote;
I have a hard time believing this is real. I *might* expect something like this from the US, but France? Can anyone confirm whether or not this is real, or if it was staged? It's hard for me to believe that 400 years after Galileo, 58% of people still don't know that the earth orbits about the sun, not the other way around. End Quote...

I can assure you that a frighteningly large number of people know so little of things astronomicle as to render this 'TRUE'.
That they simply do not care is also 'TRUE'.

and then;

Simple mechanics shows us that no free body can orbit around another moving body in any type of closed geometrical path. Sun is a moving body. Yet every text book and all literature show earth as orbiting around the sun in elliptical path. An ellipse is a closed geometrical figure. This incorrect view introduced too many errors in cosmology.

Your point is misguided if not just wrong. That the sun is moving as Earth ( and everything else ) orbits it is a FACT.

The presence of the gravity well that is not motionless does not suggest a stable orbit of it can not be found.

It has. Is and we are here as proof of it... What are you talking about ?

[Haumean]

Astronomy and space industry are presented to the general public as a "waste of tax payers money", I'm speechless when I hear something like "why wasting all these billions just to do a little research..."

Poeple tend to ignore that space is the future.

[Jeff Root]

Space *might* be the future. There are an awful lot of "ifs".

Of course, if Space *isn't* the future, then there probably
isn't as much of a future as many people want.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[KaiYeves]

Astronomy and space industry are presented to the general public as a "waste of tax payers money", I'm speechless when I hear something like "why wasting all these billions just to do a little research..."

Poeple tend to ignore that space is the future.

Welcome to BAUT, 'cause you seem like my kind of guy!