Physicists ridiculed the VTsIOM poll: it’s not a fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun

In this statement there is no indication of the frame of reference

And here again, sociologists are trying to surprise us. The results of a survey by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center have been announced. According to his latest study on the scientific misconceptions of citizens, 35 percent of Russians believe that the Sun revolves around the Earth. This “astronomer’s index” allows specialists to track trends in education from year to year and draw conclusions whether the average Russian’s horizons are narrowing or not. In other words, he gets dumber or smarter. However, psychologists called the formulation of the question incorrect. In their opinion, it is set in such a way that the respondent does not have time to orient himself in the situation. And physicists even argued with a scientifically proven fact.

Sociologists have traditionally asked respondents whether they agree with the following statement: “The sun revolves around the Earth.” The correct answer is no, according to the majority of respondents. But about a third of Russians hit their face in the dirt, showing that they have trouble with erudition, and there is a huge gap in the minimum knowledge of the world.

VCIOM with a victorious look also gave a historical background. It turns out that in 15 years the number of respondents who incorrectly answered this question has increased by seven percentage points. In 2007, only 28 percent of Russians agreed with this statement.

But what if we doubt the obvious, as did, for example, physics teacher Mizail Kazakov?

– If I took part in this survey, I would most likely be among those 35% who answered in the affirmative, he says. The point is that any movement is relative. Whether an object is moving or standing still, and how it moves, depends on the frame of reference chosen. In the statement “The sun revolves around the Earth” there are no indications of a reference system, there are only 2 objects, the Sun and the Earth. The VTsIOM question is illiterate and has no unequivocal answer.

Whence, then, this general “delusion”? At the end of the 17th century, Isaac Newton formulated the law of universal gravitation and the laws of mechanics, which worked with acceptable accuracy in a heliocentric frame of reference. Therefore, this singled out the heliocentric system, where the Earth revolves around the Sun, among all other systems. Modern science has long abandoned the idea that the object that is motionless is more important. No one is looking for the “Center of the Universe” anymore. A frame of reference is a mathematical abstraction used as a tool. For some tasks, a heliocentric system is needed, for other tasks, a geocentric system is suitable, and there are tasks for which neither one nor the other is suitable.

In this dispute about the Earth and the Sun, psychologists can also insert their word.

“Knowing the correct answer to a question, we can at the same time give a paradoxically wrong answer,” says child psychologist Vasilina Toporkova. “This happens because our brains are used to standard information. When we hear the words “Earth”, “Sun”, “rotates”, we no longer analyze the information, but perceive it as a ready-made formula “The Earth revolves around the Sun”. And when two nouns are swapped, we do not feel the difference, because we do not see the catch and do not turn on analytical thinking. This is the formula for us. Axiom. Therefore, we agree. And we do not give ourselves the count that the question was asked in order to confuse us.

By the way, a media person once fell for this bait. The wife of the football player Zhirkov, Inna, somehow completely failed the interview, not revealing any knowledge in the field of science and literature. She answered the unfortunate question incorrectly. This embarrassment was long remembered in the networks. But now, in the light of new knowledge on this position, this woman may well be rehabilitated.