I’m not sure I’m really thrilled to find this out, but via Randi’s newsletter today comes this clip of the French version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire":
The question is
What’s gravitating around Earth?
a) The Moon
b) The Sun
c) Mars
d) Venus
It’s bad enough the guy didn’t know. But then they polled the audience… and I realized I need to translate my site into French.
Remember, too, that 1 out of 5 Americans either doesn’t know or got this question wrong in a 1999 Gallup poll. In 1991, Germans responded pretty much the same to the poll, though the British did worse.
Wow. It’s a long, long uphill battle ahead of us, folks, and it’s global.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Hey! I remember I emailed that one to you once. At least a couple months ago…
Scary. Very scary.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:35 am
I first saw this on the JREF site in Mr. Randi’s SWIFT column for this week and I was also disheartened by it.
It really is a sad commentary on the status of today’s society worldwide when more people believe in angels than know whether the Earth revolves around the Sun than vice versa. I don’t know if it’s the status of the science education here and abroad that is the cause or whether that most people don’t care.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:38 am
Well, I don’t really blame the guy. When people are in stress, they can say dumb things. I recall when you wrote about some science quiz you took part in when yopu were younger – the one when there was a question about the nearest star to the Earth.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:41 am
A little bit of my optimism for the human race died after watching that. People still joke about the Earth being flat and I certainly hope this could be laughed about in the near future.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Yes, but our children/students have the highest “self-esteem” in the world.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:46 am
He should have used the helpline: “A camera shot of your own head from the back”.
That would have helped me too….
January 5th, 2007 at 11:47 am
So what was the answer to the question
I think it is
A) La Lune
January 5th, 2007 at 11:51 am
So what exactly does “gravite” translate to? Because if it’s “gravitates”, I’m not sure if I’d known what that was. “Revolves” is one thing, but “gravitates” sounds like quite another.
I mean, technically, all four of those are gravitating towards each other, since they’re four large masses with their own gravity.
January 5th, 2007 at 11:57 am
The question is malformed; there is no “all of the above†option.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Oh, here’s something related that I just have to share: My boss came into the ladies room and I complained that my bangs grow so fast (I got them cut on 12/20). She said, “If you get your hair cut on the full moon, it grows faster.” Whaa? I chuckled and said the moon is over 200K miles away, I don’t think it’s making my measly, fine hair grow faster. (I think it’s because they cut it to look just right on that day, and it’s been two weeks…)
Someone at Cosmic Variance posted a link to some short videos that show some odd ideas the public has:
http://autonomyproductions.com/projects/SpaceConference.htm
I recall when I was at KSC, a Japanese woman asked the tourguide if anyone Japanese had landed on the moon. Look, I stunk in the sports section playing Trivial Pursuit for 5 1/2 hours on Xmas Day, but isn’t who has been to the moon, let alone what it’s orbiting, pretty common knowledge? :-/
January 5th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I don’t speak or read it anymore so I used the feature on Word that can translate the phrase (question).
Qu’est-ce qui gravite autour de la Terre
according to the ‘World Lingo’ site translates to:
What revolves around the Earth.
So strictly speaking(?) the only correct answer would have been ‘La Lune’!
January 5th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Remember, folks, the audience was under no pressure when they answered, and more than half got it wrong.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I don’t know if it is true or not, but I’d heard that the British audience will often choose the wrong answer on purpose to screw-with the contestant. I don’t know if the French are that mean spirited.
Of course, I don’t know which is worse, a mean audience or a stupid one.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Huh. And all this time I thought that the earth and moon revolved around a common center of mass, which just happened to be somewhere below the crust of the earth.
Whoda thunk it?
January 5th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Does anyone know how much money this question was worth? He got it wrong but still went home with some money – in the American version that would mean the questions writers thought this wasn’t an easy question.
I’ve also heard that most non-American audiences sometimes answer wrong on purpose. I really hope that’s the case here!
At least his female friend (fiancee?) knew he was wrong.
My French is very rusty – anyone know what the host said afterwards to console the guy? I think he said something about the audience being split.
January 5th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Here in Belgium, there is a very similiar program on television, with the same name and the same “interface”. If I understand it correctly, the audience may have a reason to answer wrong:
When the player gives a wrong answer, he/she looses and a new player is chosen from a pool of potential players. Some persons in the audience may be friends/family of these potential players. Hence, these people hope that the present player looses so that their friend has a chance to start plating. Hence, they answer wrong.
January 5th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
I find the idea of deliberately misleading the contestant almost as abhorant as the ignorance.
I know that people really are that self serving, but deliberate sabotage of another is still something that I find morally reprehensible. It speaks very poorly of a people that they would crush anothers hope just for a chance to compete for money…
January 5th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Jeff, its called capitalism where “brother fleeces brother”
In communism it is the other way around
January 5th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
I don’t know… A few people being mean, perhaps. But that many of them? I don’t think so.
Unless the audience was just really really pissed at the guy or wanted to mess with him and more than half the room went “Man he doesn’t deserve the money… Hey, let’s fool around with that guy!” After all, the game’s goal is to be knowledgeful.
But you know what? I find that unlikely. I think most were being honest.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Graviter autour de does mean to revolve around, so there’s no doubt about the question. Yeah, the host said something along the lines of: I didn’t want to influence you but it was a very split (audience) result. 1500 Euro is nearly 2000 USD.
This guy… seriously, they should’ve given Saddam the 2000 bucks and hanged this idiot instead!
Which is my sarcastic way of dealing with how I feel after seeing the video, not how I really feel of course
Mind you, I had to explain to a friend once how the sun is not one of the planets. It’s unbelievable really.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Slightly off-topic, there is another game show where the “audience” consists of a group of people who get to split the “pot” if the contestant answers the question incorrectly. I’m not exactly sure of the rules, but early in the game they’re likely help him in order to increase the dollar amount. Later in the game, they are likely to hinder him to collect the money for themselves.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
RE: Sticks
Ahh, this is only the bad astronomy website. Where’s the bad economics website?
I realize you were probably joking, but it perpetuates myths about what exactly is meant by “Capitalism”
From Webster.com
cap·i·tal·ism: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Nowhere is there anything about ripping people off or about stepping on someone else. Many companies prove that there are ways to make money without “fleecing” someone. Other far more morally bankrupt companies run roughshod over others.
Capitalism is not a moral system, it’s an economic one. Thus saying something is OK because of capitalism makes about as much sense as saying that Apollo drives the sun across the sky every day.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
shoeshine boy, the game is called 1 vs. 100 and the people in the “mob” have to answer the question correctly or they are eliminated. The people who have answered every question correctly get to split the pot if the 1 gets the question wrong. On the helps they have to be honest about what they answered but not why the answered it.
January 5th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Mind you, I had to explain to a friend once how the sun is not one of the planets. It’s unbelievable really.
I debated some guy on the internet a long time ago who was convinced that not only was the Sun a planet, but the moon was too. The guy was also a huge proponent of the Planet X theory, not being willing to admit that the residuals in the orbits of outer planets had disappeared once space-based probes had taken more accurate measurements. Unfortunately, this was all back before I knew about Bad Astronomy, so I couldn’t just link here.
January 5th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
My guess for the poll results is that some of those getting it wrong were just being funny. Another possibility is that some were simply misunderstanding the question: When you hear the word, “revolve” you tend to think of something spinning round and round on its own axis and as we all know the Moon presents the same face to Earth all the time: tidal forces lock its revolution into synch with its orbital motion. So someone looking up at the Moon may not believe it “revolves” around the Earth. It ORBITS the Earth, yes and I’d like to see a poll using that word before I give up on the human race.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Orion, my Larousse says: graviter: PHYS. To gravitate (vers, towards) , FAM. To revolve, to turn (autour de, around).
You’re being too kind.
If you watch the videos I posted above, there are people who really are quite clueless about some space-related facts. In French or English this is pretty darn easy. Maybe the guy was SUPER nervous, but geesh someone told me today that my hair grows faster if cut on the full moon! She was serious.
Clearly more education is in order – for adults! I’ve always been a fan of using more astronomical language and events during weather reports on TV. While you’re talking about the hot day, mention a sunspot or something. Maybe if these things became part of our daily conversation people would remember more…and hence win more money. My co-worker has picked up on some stuff – it does work.
January 5th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Come now, Jeff. It’s all part of the game. This isn’t life or death.
January 5th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I think one problem is that more people have to learn what “gravitate” means.
If the question was phrased “What is revolving around the Earth?”, then I surmise more people would know the answer. Or not…
January 5th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Grand Lunar, that was the question in French – what is it that revolves around the Earth? See my post above regarding the Larousse dictionary, Nils’s post, etc.
gravite autour de = revolves or turns around
Sorry, I’m “dictionary-anal retentive.”
January 5th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
I guess this is like witnessing a sibling getting disciplined. Instead of a graphic, anecdotal indictment of the US educational system, this clip slams the French.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Oh, and watch carefully at 1:27 as the host betrays a touch of frustration with the results of the audience poll. Cracks me up when I watch it now.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
From our point of view, everything is revolving around us!
January 6th, 2007 at 8:13 am
[...] Bad Astronomy Blog had this little post about how very few people in many countries seem to get the correct answer when asked the question: “What is currently gravitating around the Earth?” Please tell me you know. [...]
January 8th, 2007 at 11:40 am
I had a hard time judging this because I’m not sure how ambiguous the question is in French. “Rotates around” is much more clear than “gravitates”. If the question were “what has stronger gravitational pull on the Earth”, then he got the answer correct, and I can’t tell from the French if that’s not a viable interpretation, or at least an easy misinterpretation. It’s very difficult to understand the nuances of another language.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
So, I walk into a class to cover for a teacher in grade 11 science (Canada).
Astronomy.
Bring it on.
“We” were learning about the sun and such, and in the middle of class I realized that their teacher had taught them opposite for comets and asteroids. I managed to salvage their understanding a little bit….but come on. I can see something specific like the sequence of solar stages being perhaps stated incorrect, but something so basic….to someone who teaches this stuff? Comets are big rocks…asteroids are icy ‘rocks’? I am pretty sure that wither he was not paying attention or he missedit that his students got the wrong impression..but anyway.
Blew my mind. But at the end of class I had them talking comets and asteroids the correct way around.
Then came the meteor topic….and the students got it 100%. I was proud.
So, although the question was obviously easy and should not have been guessed wrong (la luna fame), it may not be the fault of himself directly – perhaps the fault was in the hand s of his elders?
And to that end I spent my winter holiday arguing the equinox egg issue with a man I know to be intelligent. Who had the BA book in his hands…IN HIS HANDS…and refused to believe. Although, he also called Dec 21 the winter equinox. So that says something….
Hmm..no real point here, just jammering away on topic.
Take care,
T
August 10th, 2009 at 9:36 am
I might be deviating here..but here goes
One day I asked my ex-wife “how long does the earth take to revolve around the sun”. She says “24 hours”. I said “Why dont you think about it for a while, and we talk again”. Later on, she’s adamant that its “24 hours”.
In another conversation, she says her primary school teacher told her there are people on mars around 1-foot high’.
No, I was the big idiot for marrying her. She was smart, she wanted a good deal of money when we divorced. People seem to use intelligence where it really matters