The Sun Doesn’t ‘Rise’, The Earth Rotates

They come out of nowhere — off-the wall-ideas which suddenly pop into my head. Here’s a quick sample: My neighbor had about one full cubic yard of mulch left from his recent landscaping project which, as it turned out, was the exact amount I needed to finish my much smaller project. He refused any compensation. He went so far as to refuse to divulge the name of his favorite restaurant so I could give him a gift certificate. After about a week of nagging him, I decided I would just slip a gift certificate into an envelope and put it in his mail box. Should I add a note? That’s when the idea for a perfectly appropriate message struck —at 1:45 A.M.! Just 4 words — “Thank you so muLch!.”

But, the reason for this article is another example which, if acted upon, could have global implications.

Approximately 15 years ago, as an employee at an airport, I fumbled and dropped a large piece of luggage, and expressed my frustration with this clever witticism, “I wish Isaac Newton had never invented gravity.” I have no idea where “invented” came from. It just popped into my brain.  Well, today, guess what! If you ask Alexa, the lady in my tablet, “Who invented gravity?”, she replies “’Isaac Newton”. According to Newton, the planets orbit the Sun is related to why objects fall to Earth when we drop them. The Sun’s gravity pulls on the planets, just as Earth’s gravity pulls down anything that is not held up by some other force keeping you and I on the ground. That comes directly from Nasa so it must be true.

A friend of mine from my health club, who’s Polish, explained to me how Copernicus, who was Polish, avoided the wrath of the Catholic Church when he revealed that our planet revolved around the sun and not vice versa. He published his findings while on his death bed making retaliation a moot issue.

Galileo, was not so wise. For his support of Copernicus’ work, he spent his last 8 years under “house arrest” (no ankle bracelet) after being convicted of heresy.

For right now though, forget the history. How do we fix all the language in print referring to “sunrise” or “sunset”? It won’t be easy. I’m up against Wikipedia which insists (Today!) on defining both sunset and sunrise in astronomical language; all of which is totally false. Depending on which source you prefer, we have either 193 or 237 countries which need to correct these 2 astrological errors.

Eradicate all references to “sunrise” and “sunset”.

Annie, the sun will not come up tomorrow! The earth will rotate to the point where the sun is visible again.

Mr. Hemingway “The Sun Also Reappears as the Earth Rotates” sounds a littles clumsy, but it’s accrate.

 The sun is not “behind a cloud”, the cloud is in front of the sun. 

Elton, let me assure you; the sun will not go down on you. It will disappear as the earth rotates to the East. Good luck revising those lyrics.

Correcting 420 years of misinformation won’t be easy.  We have thousands of book, movie, and song titles to correct. But, if we can get the billions of Facebook users behind this effort, progress should be swift and dramatic. I’m optimistic. Look how fast disinformation spreads right now. Satellites interfered with the 2016 vote count???

Let’s turn that energy around and fix this so we can more intelligently observe and enjoy the sun receding from the horizon.