The World

[asterroc]

I'm trying to understand something. Please answer the below questions to the best of your ability.

[Poll #1397877]

What I'm trying to understand is why my students are unable to distinguish between the planet Earth and the entire universe. For example, I said "1. How is the world (the planet Earth) going to end?
2. Which of the three scenarios for the end of the universe do YOU think is most likely?" And they answered #1 with "Big Crunch, Big Rip, or Heat Death," and for #2 picked their favorite. The correct response for #1 is "When the Sun runs out of Hydrogen in its core, it will expand as a red giant and engulf the planet Earth."

This time I explicitly wrote "(the planet Earth)" in the question to try and avoid the mix-up from the colloquial usage of the word "world". I think I need to just never ever use the word "world" again in astronomy.

Comments

[calzephyr77.livejournal.com]

I really love it when you post stuff like this as it has been a very long time since I took any science classes and I never took physics in high school either. It's always so enlightening.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

And I like it when my non-science-y friends respond, as it gives me insight into the minds of my students. Remind me later if you want my responses to these questions, I want to see more of others' responses first.