1 in 4 Americans Don't Know Earth Orbits the Sun. Yes, Really.

http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/1-in-4-americans-dont-know-earth-orbits-the-sun-yes-really-140214.htm

._. I think I need some time alone.

 

I bet they don't even know that it's all a lie and that the Earth orbits the Moon.

 

Actually the Earth is concave and encompasses all known objects in the galaxy, please check your information and sources before posting such ridiculous claims

 

the only thing earth revolves around is Amurica and God who created it 2000 years ago

 

This article, and the useless article it links to as a source, don't say anything about the nature of the poll. 2,200 people were polled, but they could all have been nine-year-olds, or Tea Partiers, or trolls. Since the NSF is a respected organization that does polls like this every two years, I doubt their demographic was that pooly chosen, but just keep in mind that 2,200 people don't represent all of America. Also keep in mind that people can be intelligent without knowing basic astrophysics.

 

Finally, someone serious and non-sarcastic. It gave me this weird refreshment reading your post.

 

Now that you mention it, this may be the same study I heard about a while ago where people were debating the way it was worded and whether that could confuse people. Still, it's a strange statistic. It reminds me of that "Jaywalking" segment where Jay Leno quizzes people off the street.

I did find some information on the survey in question, but not the specific questions that were on it.

However, I also found evidence that most people don't actually know what astrology is, thankfully proving that they must have confused it with astronomy (not really a big surprise).

 

Well, this is America...and to be honest I'm not surprised. (I just expected that ratio to be a bit less...drastic)
Astrology and astronomy, while two completely different fields, wouldn't surprise me either if they got confused just for their names.

I'd theorize that the reasons for this either stem from our education system (very few states have a graduation rate over 40%, hell, DC's is around 10% last I heard. *From the documentary Waiting for Superman*) or just very passionate creationists refusing to believe that the earth orbits the sun, rather than not knowing.

*totallynotantiamericanoranything*

 

I'm going to agree with Fab here, questioning a small community of 2k people doesn't mean an entire country will yield the same results. Plus with the emphasis on Americans(because we know americans are dumb and ignorant amirite), not as in general people in first-world countries makes this thing unintentionally offensive imho
The whole animosity the article has against teaching creationism in the last few paragraphs deserves a fine mention too. What if someone is simply more interested in learning about religion/astrology over astronomy? Welp, guess we can't have more room for 'superstition' in school because that's all been taken by my giant athiest astro-cock. Damn, This was really grating to read, a fine blend of bigotry, misinformation and redundant precentages makes for a very sloppily-written article.

and who seriously writes "What the what?"

 

I like how the link to the Bill Nye Debate video isn't actually a link to the debate video, but a link to a video talking about the debate video

 

Pretty much everything elecmaw said. The amount of euphoria coming from this article is off the charts.

Also I should mention that not all American states have an awful education system. Mine, for example, is one of the best in the country. If they surveyed a few people from each state and averaged it out, the results would be more accurate. This is mostly laziness and speculation, it seems.

 

Why would 1 in 4 Americans not knowing the Earth orbits the sun be a problem? Did this number increase over the last ten, twenty years?

Really, I'm bothered by how not neutral the voice in this article is, especially for one that touches on additional controversial subjects. One quarter of all Americans could be kids who have yet to or are still studying and learning. Or maybe they tested with a mix of different people, which also rigs the results.

Maybe it is an interesting find, but certainly a discovery like this is only significant if we knew more details about the test itself and exactly how this experiment was carried out.

 

In 2004, 66 percent of the American public said astrology was bunk. Every year since then, that majority has slipped. By 2012, only 55 percent of Americans considered astrology “not at all scientific.”

The astrology issue is getting worse, but there's no historical information on the orbit knowledge.

 

Then again, the Earth orbiting the Sun is astronomy, not astrology.

 

The whole article was incredibly irritating to read and so obviously biased, it hurt. I like how if complains about religious agendas poisoning our kids when there's pretty clearly an agenda here as well.

I wholeheartedly agree with Desu and ElecMaw and Fabulous and everybody else who thinks there's more to this than what's on the surface.