Comments on: Yes, The World Is Getting Dumber

By: d3@d/\/\3$$3nG3R

d3@d/\/\3$$3nG3R — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 12:54:40 +0000

Lord help us…

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:15:40 +0000

The correct translation of this question was what gravitates around earth. The answer is the moon. The earth’s gravity hold the moon to the earth. The subtittle was wrong. Again the question was what gravitates around the planet. Not the sun

By: Simon deMontfort

Simon deMontfort — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 08:16:46 +0000

Is it the French that isn’t being translated accurately? I mean, is this a question asking about General Relativity or something? No one could possibly not know that the moon rotates around the earth… Although, I did have a middle school teacher tell the class that the moon was a planet. This other kid & I got sent to the principal when we informed her that it’s a satellite.

By: Guy Incognito

Guy Incognito — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:58:03 +0000

some people said it was a bad question but i think the translation was bad because graviter means gravitate or orbit it doesn’t really mean rotate. the people who say that the sun rotates around the earth are wrong because even though the sun and earth exert the same gravitational force on each other the sun is 300,000 times more massive so it moves 300,000 times less than the earth does. so it wasn’t a bad question.

By: ItsMike

ItsMike — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:57:50 +0000

The moon neither revolves or rotates around the Earth, it orbits.

By: Graham Clift

Graham Clift — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 01:01:01 +0000

Actually the answer is definitely a and b. The earth and the sun both rotate around the center of gravity of the two masses. The same for the earth and moon. Sorry, but this is a dumb post because the only thing it proves is the question is dumb and that science is not taught.

By: Jean

Jean — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:10:46 +0000

I’m glad I’m french Canadian and not frenchy french. Go MTV and Holywood. Duh!

By: ThoughtCrime7

ThoughtCrime7 — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:52:33 +0000

Even the question was not phrased quite right. The moon “revolves” around the earth. It “rotates”, but it’s rotation is not what moves it around the earth. The fact that there was no uproarious laughter from the audience after this question is also sad.

By: Peace

Peace — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 16:35:49 +0000

That’s scary. That really is basic knowledge not being known. I could imagine if there were a time limit to the answer – in the seconds – then, there might be an error caused by stress. But he had all the time in the world. Just over half the audience thought the Sun rotated around the earth. That is completely insane!

By: Sharon

Sharon — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:23:07 +0000

After one gets over laughing, the seriousness of this situation hits home.

I could see if you asked a very young child, but then you might actually get the right answer. This is a grown man. Not only that, almost half the dimwits in the audience thought the sun revolved around the earth.

This dumbing down is worldwide. In the US, there’s a show about whether parents are as smart as their fifth-graders. Guess who turns out to be smarter most of the time.?

My sincere apologies to Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilee Copernicus and all pioneering scientists. After all the untold numbers of people burned at the stake or hung for believing that the earth revolved around the sun, these twits take us back to the Dark Ages. Next up: Is the Earth flat?