A light year has the same number of calories as a regular year
Astronomy education in this country: OMG.
I used to go out to public schools and do science demonstrations. One day, I was in a fifth grade class talking about space travel, and I asked the class:
“How many times have we gone to the moon?”
Nothing.
“When did we go to the moon?”
Crickets.
“Why did we go to the moon?”
The vacuum of space was louder than this classroom.
“How many don’t even know we went to the moon?”
About half the class raised their hands.
Are you kidding me? Fifth graders not knowing we even WENT to the moon?
From this article:
Leno: “What keeps the Earth orbiting around the sun?”
Sarah from Cleveland: “The gravitational pull . . . of the moon.”
(Correct answer: The gravitational pull of the sun.)
Ahh! Help! That hurts my heart to read. Say it ain’t so, Joe! I wish I could laugh at that, but it’s just not that funny to me.
Sadly, I’m afraid this is the state of things when it comes to what regular, everyday folks know about our night sky. Scientific literacy is declining in this country, more and more people are thinking creationism is science, and that it should hold an equal place in our educational curriculum, and belief in the paranormal and pseudo science is up. These are relatively dark days.
Well, my dear readers, it doesn’t have to be that way. Nope. I can help you, because you are a reader of this blog, you will get a regular feeding for your brain that will not let you get caught like poor Sarah from Cleveland above. I won’t have my readers getting humiliated like that.
Technorati Tags: astronomy, astronomy education
So, let’s fight the demons of ignorance together. Make it a point to learn something about our universe every day, it doesn’t have to be much, just little tidbits that you’ve always wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Remember that I’m here for you folks, and I’ll help you out in any way I can. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll look it up. That’s what’s so great about being a critical thinker, you don’t have to actually know the answer so much as how to get it.
To start you off, here are some things that everyone should know about our universe. These are basic facts that every card-carrying human being should know. Don’t let Jay Leno get you. I’ll be adding more of these in future posts under the category “I am not a monkey“.
- The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth on its axis, not the distance from the Sun. We are actually farther away from the Sun in the summer than we are in the winter. Distance from the Sun has nothing to do with the seasons. Whenever someone asks you about what causes the seasons, you say, ‘The tilt of the earth’.
- Gravity causes all objects to fall to earth (or any massive object for that matter) at the same rate. A ping pong ball will hit the ground at the same time as a hammer if you let them go at the same time and you let go of them at the same height.
- The tides are caused twice a day, not once a month, and are not really affected by the full moon.
- We went to the moon, and landed on it, more than once. First landing, July 20, 1969.
- We have eight planets in our solar system.
- The Earth and the Moon were probably once joined together and separated early in the history of our solar system by a very large impact.
- The Universe is 13.5 billion years old and no smaller than 46.5 billion light years in radius.
- The distance light travels in one year is called a light year and is equal to 5,880,000,000,000 miles, or 9,460,000,000,000 km
- The fastest anything can go in the universe is light. It can go 186,000 miles in one second.
So let’s beat this together folks. There’s no reason we need to be monkeys walking through life without the basic knowledge in our heads that make us human. We are self aware beings, this means we are aware not only of ourselves and our mortality, but of the universe we live in.
So please, I beg you, if you don’t know something and would like to find out, please, please ask!
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POSTED IN: astronomy education, i am not a monkey
4 opinions for A light year has the same number of calories as a regular year
Rúni Bang Larsen
Jan 9, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Good read.
I did have a hint that some people knew to little about the universe. But OMG, it can’t be this bad. Something must be done.
People must look up more and ask “What is that?”
Brian Karczewski
Jan 10, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Sadly, it’s true. not many people know much about astronomy, some people don’t even know much about Earth.
I am very happy that my school has an astronomy class, most schools don’t anymore. We don’t just learn about astronomy, we go out and observe atleast once a week. Just about everyone in my class knows the basic constellations, how to operate a telescope, and how to make accurate observations of what we see.
Though we would have to disagree with you on one point, Pluto is a planet. You can’t vote on science. Maybe you can write a bit about defining a planet.
Shannon
Jan 11, 2007 at 6:16 pm
I can’t believe that! And I totally agree, these are dark, dark times we live in. What happened to that oh so human natural curiosity that once drove the explorers and scientists of the past centuries? What a sad, pathetic state of affairs. And thank god you’re around to answer those burning astronomy questions that keep me awake at night. :)Luckily, I knew most of the “common” knowledge points, so I feel smart now, but I know that my astronomy knowledge is not all it should be. I’ll be back to get more.
tony
Jan 12, 2007 at 1:56 am
@Brian: I agree with you on the point about voting on science, but the fact remains that what we call a planet, star, galaxy or anything else is determined by the IAU, so I was following those guidelines.
@Shannon: It is extremely important to, in my opinion, to maintain a very basic knowledge of the universe and keep it at our disposal. I’m really happy you knew most of this, it’s what every human should know.
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