![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
The World
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.
[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.
no subject
I totally thought "world" meant universe. I mean, if I had taken your class I probably wouldn't have because I probably would have noted your usage, but taking your poll without clicking the answers first, I just assumed universe for some reason.
Hmm...a possible reason: world is translated as Shi4jie4 (World Journal!) in Chinese, which means basically "everywhere that people can perceive." There's another word that more specifically denotes universe or cosmos -- yu3zhou4 -- but shi4jie4 definitely doesn't necessarily end at the borders of the earth.
Of course, having lived (and been educated) here for 21 years, the "I speekee no good Engrish" defense doesn't work :P .
no subject
And I don't think of your explanation as a cop-out as you imply. You're not actually misusing an English word here, you're selecting one of multiple definitions based upon your own background, and that's what everyone does when they're reading any language. What I'm trying to figure out is why my students universally (har har) choose the same interpretation as you do. At least half of the people who responded to this survey have a science background or are science enthusiasts, so I think that has colored their responses.