Know How Long It Takes The Earth To Orbit The Sun? There's A Good Chance You Don't

[Polymath257]

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•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun.

"Report: Poor science education impairs U.S. economy

Stagnant scientific education imperils U.S. economic leadership, says a report by leading business and science figures.

Released Thursday at a congressional briefing attended by senators and congressmen of both parties, the report updates a 2005 science education report that led to moves to double federal research funding.

Nevertheless, the "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" review finds little improvement in U.S. elementary and secondary technical education since then.

"Our nation's outlook has worsened," concludes the report panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine. The report "paints a daunting outlook for America if it were to continue on the perilous path it has been following":

"Our nation's outlook has worsened," concludes the report panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine. The report "paints a daunting outlook for America if it were to continue on the perilous path it has been following":

•U.S. mathematics and science K-12 education ranks 48th worldwide.

•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the Sun.

•China has replaced the United States as the world's top high-technology exporter."
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A pretty damn sorry state of affairs if you ask me. I even have concerns that some here had to stop and think about it.
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Does anyone else here remember the 1983 'A Nation at Risk' report? This 'new' report doesn't say anything that hasn't been pointed out before, repeatedly. There is a LONG history in the US of devaluing education. If Bill Gates can succeed without a college degree, surely everyone can, right? The only reason the US did as well as it did in the 60's and 70's is because we got scared the Russians were going to get ahead and decided to emphasize education for a brief time.

So, now we have a populace that doesn't know how long it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun, who can't place the US on a globe, who doesn't know who Charlemagne was, and who can't solve a simple linear algebraic equation. Well, guess what? Most other places on the Earth can do those.

We are, and will continue to fall behind technologically, and ultimately economically until we decide that knowledge is important again. China is surpassing us, Europe is also. India is close behind and gaining quickly. In another 30 years, we will be a side note, with only nukes to make a claim for relevancy.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Yes, but it still goes around the Sun.

View attachment 24240

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So how does nighttime fall?

 

[lewisnotmiller]

It's funny. I came here assuming you'd be talking about some technicality, or level of precision.
Because people know approximately how long it takes, right?

Apparently not.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Does anyone else here remember the 1983 'A Nation at Risk' report? This 'new' report doesn't say anything that hasn't been pointed out before, repeatedly. There is a LONG history in the US of devaluing education. If Bill Gates can succeed without a college degree, surely everyone can, right? The only reason the US did as well as it did in the 60's and 70's is because we got scared the Russians were going to get ahead and decided to emphasize education for a brief time.

So, now we have a populace that doesn't know how long it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun, who can't place the US on a globe, who doesn't know who Charlemagne was, and who can't solve a simple linear algebraic equation. Well, guess what? Most other places on the Earth can do those.

We are, and will continue to fall behind technologically, and ultimately economically until we decide that knowledge is important again. China is surpassing us, Europe is also. India is close behind and gaining quickly. In another 30 years, we will be a side note, with only nukes to make a claim for relevancy.

You might not need to worry about us in Australia. We regularly copy stuff you're doing, because...ummm...I dunno.

I guess we're drinking the kool-aid.

 

[Twilight Hue]

It only takes a year.
But most of that year is in winter, when the Earth's orbit slows to a crawl.
Then in glorious warm summer weather, Earth speeds up, thereby shortening that season.

Just ask @Wirey, who is already clearing snowman blood off of his car.

During a leap year no doubt!

 

[Revoltingest]

During a leap year no doubt!

And those occur once every 10 years when we go metric.

 

[Stevicus]

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A pretty damn sorry state of affairs if you ask me. I even have concerns that some here had to stop and think about it.
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It does seem pretty sad. I even remember learning about this when I was a kid, even before I actually learned it in school. But they do teach it in school, even at a relatively early age. Some people drop out eventually or lose interest in some of the higher levels of education - and that, too, can be a problem.

But this is really basic stuff, which makes me wonder whether such a poll is even accurate. It's like saying that 49% of Americans can't tell the difference between a square and a triangle.

 

[Skwim]

No, the lack of telescopes got in the way of his having accurate data. He based his views on the best data available at the time.

And what would telescopes have revealed?

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[Revoltingest]

Why isn't RF's resident expert on orbits weighing in on this?
Where's @Orbit?

 

[Skwim]

So how does nighttime fall?

Duh! When the flat Earth spins it turns the earth side away from the sun, and then turns the earth side back again. It does this every 24 hours. Everybody----well, almost everybody---knows this.

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[GoodbyeDave]

People in the US have become dependent on government hand outs. Why should I study and work hard when I can just sit back and collect food stamps and housing assistance and more. Other kids see sports figures and music performers earning millions and figure they don't need an education to do that. People just do not want to do the work needed to succeed. High school education is free but they drop out because they are lazy.

Poor people in Europe get far more aid than in the USA — and free health care. They also see performers earning large sums. But they aren't as ignorant. The problem is that the USA has a philistine culture that doesn't value education. And of course rich politicians who care nothing for the state of the public schools (think Arizona).

 

[Polymath257]

And what would telescopes have revealed?

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Well, the phases of Venus, for one. The moons of Jupiter, for another. Visible planetary disks for yet another. All of those were crucial for the establishment of the heliocentric model.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

People in the US have become dependent on government hand outs. Why should I study and work hard when I can just sit back and collect food stamps and housing assistance and more. Other kids see sports figures and music performers earning millions and figure they don't need an education to do that. People just do not want to do the work needed to succeed. High school education is free but they drop out because they are lazy.

Most people who are on government aid are working their butts off with one or two jobs ( Trump Wants Families On Food Stamps To Get Jobs. The Majority Already Work ) but upward motility in the US sucks for people in poverty. The kids in these families are dropping out because they need to work so the family can make ends meet. The problem is hard work doesn't equal success in this country, but it's easier to say the poor are lazy than fix the larger problems with wealth distribution.

And it doesn't help that the more we sink funding into rich privatized schools, the lower quality our public schools become. And with our nation so anti any form of taxation, the public schools are barely keeping afloat and our teachers get treated far worse than in any other industrialized nation.

 

[LuisDantas]

It seems to me that a big part of the lack of proper education is the (often warranted) perception that it is not well correlated to success.

That will be somewhat accurate as long as there is so much fame and fortune to be made in careers of law, politics and performance, while the technical careers are comparably so undervalued.

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

It seems to me that a big part of the lack of proper education is the (often warranted) perception that it is not well correlated to success.

That will be somewhat accurate as long as there is so much fame and fortune to be made in careers of law, politics and performance, while the technical careers are comparably so undervalued.

It makes no sense at all that some football player can make millions just by playing football. But teachers who hold the future of our children in their hands make very low pay. Wrong priorities.

 

[Skwim]

Well, the phases of Venus, for one. The moons of Jupiter, for another. Visible planetary disks for yet another. All of those were crucial for the establishment of the heliocentric model.

That's nice, but the telescope wasn't invented until after the death of Copernicus, who had (re)established the heliocentric model.

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[Wu Wei]

365.25 days... ergo leap year every 4 years

 

[Polymath257]

That's nice, but the telescope wasn't invented until after the death of Copernicus, who had (re)established the heliocentric model.
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Actually, the history is more complicated than that. There was a LOT of debate about how to interpret Copernicus' results for quite some time after. It wasn't really until Kepler (resolving the issues concerning epicycles) and Galileo (with the telescope) and the mass of data went in the direction of the heliocentric model.

There are a couple of aspects here.

1. Copernicus' model was more complicated, in terms of epicycles, than Ptolemy's model.

2. The accuracy was still pretty poor until Kepler replaced circular motion by elliptical motion.

3. For a while, Copernicus' methods were seen as a trick for calculation. One key aspect of his calculations wasn't known until the 13th century. Ptolemy certainly would NOT have known it.

4. Ptolemy's system was based on Aristotelian physics (which was bad, but the best known at the time). Fitting Copernicus' ideas into Aristotelian physics was a strain, only fully resolved by Newton.

 

[Polymath257]

365.25 days... ergo leap year every 4 years

364.2475 days, ergo, a lack of leap year every 400 years.

 

[Wirey]

Considering that the earth is rotating around a small star that is itself orbiting the center of a galaxy, complete with an oscillating rotation (we pogo in and out from the center of the galaxy on an approximately 130 million year cycle like a giant circular sine wave), and that the galaxy is moving away from the point of the Big Bang at an as-yet undetermined speed, and that as time and space are inextricably linked, and remembering what Einstein said about moving clocks and observers, anyone who says they know how long it takes for the earth to go around the sun is a damned liar.