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Re: [Phys-L] Sun going around the Earth?

One major problem with teaching it this way is that (many? most?) people are either anti-science or science illiterate, so when we show the scientific process they say, "See, you scientists can't agree on anything so why should we believe anything you say about (evolution... climate change... heliocentric theory... quantum theory... fill in the blanks)." Certain politicians are stridently adamant with their beliefs even though they know nothing, and being a politician they are persuasive to the point of brainwashing the populace into parroting anti-science beliefs. Therefore, I say, why not simply take the cue from them and say what is true with certainty. No more of the "real scientific process" of doubt and falsify-ability. Let's just communicate better. Climate change is real and is mostly caused by human activities. Evolution is absolutely real. The earth goes around the sun. I am scientist and I know for sure what is true and what these politiciana say is crap. Period. end of discussion.


On Mar 25, 2015, at 1:32 PM, John Clement wrote:

Of course from the point of view of students in HS they generally can not
come up with any good evidence for why we insist that the Earth goes around
the Sun. They have been told it so much that they parrot it back without
any evidence to back it up. Every observation they cite can be explained
either way.

"An Inquiry into Science Education, Where the Rubber Meets the Road" is a
little book which should be read by all science educators. In it the author
convinces most students during a summer institute that they have no evidence
for which is true. He gets them to understand the difference between
evidence and just accepting what they have been told. When he asks them at
the end to write out how they they know the Sun goes around the Earth, they
now tend to say "It could be either according to what I know."

The observations of the other planets can be explained in an Earth centered
system as long as you do not try to figure the mechanism behind the orbits.
An important piece in the puzzle is the Foucault pendulum which shows that
the Earth is rotating. Then of course there are things like large
whirlpools and weather patterns. MS and HS students do not generally
understand this. Actually I bet most college students do not know about it
either, even in science classes. Can the pendulum be explained along with
an Earth centered system?

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

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