Wikijunior talk:Solar System/Earth
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Source(s)
The Cambridge Atlas of Astronomy ISBN 0521363608 -- Inspiration for the diagram
Contents |
[edit] Moon Caption
Sorry, don't know how to edit it myself. But the picture of the moon with the caption "The Earth seen from the surface of the moon" is slighlty in acurate since the picture was taken from the apolo 8 which never touched the surface of the moon.
[edit] How long a day and year is on earth
Do we think the kids will know (and care) without definition the difference between solar and sidereal?
And then the precision is lost entirely on how long a year is (saying it is 365 days). An explanation of leap years might be cool.
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- In conjunction with the article on Venus, where a sidrial day vs. solar day has a significant impact on what can be called a day, this little tidbit of information does indeed have an impact, and the same can be said to a lesser degree about Mercury. This section could be beefed up a little bit, perhaps, in a follow up article that talks about the relationship between Sidrial time vs. Solar time (Sidrial time is used widely in astronomy to plot positions of objects in the sky, and most good observatories have a sidrial clock next to the telescope for positioning). Basically, add some content here to explain the significance and value, rather than try to delete it. --Rob Horning 06:33, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit] How old is the Earth?
We really want to keep as many controvercial subject out of this Wikibook, especially with intelligent design or talk about the age of the Earth as according to the King James Version of the Bible (or any other religious text for that matter at the moment). I am a person of faith, and feel that there is a place to discuss and debate these issues, but as an edit war placing a very strong point of view for what should be a children's book is certainly not the place. If you want to tackle this issue like the mass vs. weight issue has been done, feel free to cover all aspects of this debate, including not only Christian thought, but also Mayan, Egyptian, Vedic, and other ancient or religious ideas on the age of the Universe. It can be done tactfully and respectfully, but not as a minor section of what is to be a general look of a planet we live on from the viewpoint of merely one of several planets in a vast solar system. I'm sorry if this may seem harsh or unforgiving to revert text in this nature, but don't place a Christian point of view on this Wikibook, which is against Wikibooks policy as well. --Rob Horning 04:21, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
- -I must say this view point strikes me as intellectually dishonest. The question: "how old is earth?" is a very common and very valid question. By avoiding it I can't tell if you are trying to protect a particular creationist view point or trying to avoid an arguement with creationists.
- At any rate, the age of the earth should definately be addressed in the book, which according to current scientific understanding is 4.57 billion years. There is no "debate" to be had here, nor is the notion of earth being so old a "very strong point of view": give or take a few million years, it is a scientific fact.
- Any attempt to deny or weaken this fact, even by NOT stating it, undermines our understanding of the entire cosmos. I can see no valid reason for not including this section.--Z00 11:21, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
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- Hey, I don't mind answering questions that are many months apart in replies. I would recommend that you go through this history of this page to see what exactly was posted here, as it was a very POV statement about how scientists were fooling the general public that the earth was billions of years old and citing the Bible as evidence that the earth was much younger, as well as spouting off POV material about creationism science. That was the debate that I felt was inappropriate to this page, and why I removed it completely. This page is not to debate creationism but rather to give factual details about the Earth. Even adding a point about the age of the Earth to the content here is only going to add a single minor detail, for something that perhaps should be expanded into a whole other page entirely. This page is not appropriate to go into details about why we think the Earth is so ancient, as well as the rest of the Solar System. Supplimental topics have been added to the Wikijunior Solar System book going into more controvercial subjects, and perhaps this could be one of them. Certainly this is not justification to start an edit war. --Rob Horning 10:11, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The How much does the Earth's gravity pull on me? section
As is already present, although perhaps in too sophisticated a style, this section seems to be the place to introduce the notions of gravity and weight in lieu of this section (or the separate modules here and here). All pointers in the book to an explanation of gravity or weight could then arrive here. The answers to each planet X's "How much would X pull on me?" section are (understandably) couched in terms of Earth's gravity, i.e. what is said in this section. Comments anyone? David Kernow 07:41, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Cruithne
Following the link you might learn that it isn't a second moon and it doesn't orbit Earth but the Sun. So it is better to mention it in a different context. Knightowld 21:00, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
- I altered the text to be factually correct, yet still fit with the section. --Starchildmom 20:15, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Terrestial Planet
Its states that earth is the largest terrestial planet without defining what this is. 130.95.128.51 03:37, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
- Good point. Or any object within the orbit of Jupiter, which is often used as a definition of a terrestrial planet. Mainly a planet that has a comparatively thin atmosphere if you want to give it a non Solar System-centric definition. i.e. Earth, Venus, and Mars fit this defnition, as perhaps does Titan, but clearly Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune do not. Mercury and the Earth's Moon are borderline cases under this defintion, and the Asteroids simply don't qualify at all, nor do any of the other moons of the other planets in the Solar System.
- The point I was trying to make is that the Earth is huge, and this is another cool fact: If you combined all of the mass of all other objects in the inner Solar System, including all of the astroids, Mars, Venus, Mercury, the Earth's Moon, and compared it to the Earth after they were all mashed up together, it would still be smaller than the Earth. How about that? --Rob Horning 23:13, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] WikiCast: Audio Conversion?
Ok folks, Your chance to be a Science presenter.
Anyone considered converting this book's chapters into audio clips for net-radio?
I would be interested in your response..
I have a talk page at Wikipedia (not on Wikibooks) ShakespeareFan00 62.56.68.159 17:49, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
