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

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

As q10 mentions above and Merriam Webster confirms, "everywhere that people can perceive" is an entirely valid interpretation of the word "world".

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.