How to explain to someone that the earth goes around the sun?

[Mozart]

I tried using every drawing or concept I could think of and pfft nothing. And to think I started trying to explain the concept behind relativity... So how can I succeed?

[Lethevich]

Give them a sharp slap on the back of the head and use the rotating stars in their field of vision as an example...

[carlos]

Don't explain anything. Do as Christians does. Give the thing as a fact and with the category of dogma, and that's all.

[Anne]

Get two round children's balls of different sizes.  Hold the larger one stationary in one hand and with the other hand move the smaller ball around the first one in an orbit.  Before you move the moon, explain that both are spinning.

If you really want to get into the project, there are stores that offer all these neat scientific kits.  There is one that is exactly what you want that shows all the other planets in orbit around the sun.   

[head-case]

I tried using every drawing or concept I could think of and pfft nothing. And to think I started trying to explain the concept behind relativity... So how can I succeed?

Are you saying the person doesn't understand the geometry, or that the person doesn't believe it?

[Holden]

Stand in one spot. Then get them to walk around you while spinning themselves in an anti clockwise direction - when they fall over from dizziness move onto the big bang theory!

[springrite]

Why bother to explain to them? Let them believe what they want to believe. I'd go one step further and ask for a gift subscription to Flat Earth Quarterly.

[MN Dave]

Why bother to explain to them? Let them believe what they want to believe. I'd go one step further and ask for a gift subscription to Flat Earth Quarterly.

When I close my eyes, the world disappears! Yet I can still hear it!

[BachQ]

First, explain how electrons move around protons .......

Then, explain using the "raisin pudding model" for the atom. 

Then, when they understand that, explain that a proton contains two up quarks and one down quark, while a neutron consists of one up quark and two down quarks; the quarks are held together in the nucleus by gluons. There are six different types of quark in all ('up', 'down', 'bottom', 'top', 'strange', and 'charm').  Explain that isolated quarks are never found naturally; they are almost always found in groups of two (mesons) or groups of three (baryons) called hadrons.  Explain that each quark is assigned a baryon number, B  =  1/3, and a vanishing lepton number L  =  0. They have fractional electric charge, Q, either Q  =  +2/3 or Q  =  −1/3. The former are called up-type quarks, the latter, down-type quarks. Each quark is assigned a weak isospin: Tz  =  +1/2 for an up-type quark and Tz  =  −1/2 for a down-type quark. Each doublet of weak isospin defines a generation of quarks. There are three generations, and hence six flavors of quarks — the up-type quark flavors are up, charm and top; the down-type quark flavors are down, strange, and bottom (each list is in the order of increasing mass).  Each quark flavor defines a quantum number which is conserved under the strong interactions, but not the weak interactions. The magnitude of flavor changing in the weak interaction is encoded into a structure called the CKM matrix. Explain that Quantum numbers corresponding to non-Abelian symmetries like rotations require more care in extraction, since they are not additive. In the quark model one builds mesons out of a quark and an antiquark, whereas baryons are built from three quarks. Since mesons are bosons (having integer spins) and baryons are fermions (having half-integer spins), the quark model implies that quarks are fermions. Further, the fact that the lightest baryons have spin-1/2 implies that each quark can have spin S  =  1/2. The spins of excited mesons and baryons are completely consistent with this assignment.

source

[carlos]

Why bother with such a complicated explications?
Take my advice; tell them that it is as it is, and stop any argument.

[Anne]

Why bother with such a complicated explications?
Take my advice; tell them that it is as it is, and stop any argument.

Carlos,

What is your reason for your advice?  I can tell you that my children would never accept that.  They would want to know, "Why?" or "What's happening?"  My son would be at the library looking up the info for himself. 

Two times he went off at a tangent when he was 10 - 12,13 years old.  One time was geography; we had bought him a globe for Christmas and he learned so much geography by himself.

Another time we had bought him a teenager's telescope, and he was off on another tangent and was eventually invited to join the astronomy group at the local jr. college.

[greg]

take them to a first grade science class?

[springrite]

Carlos,

What is your reason for your advice?  I can tell you that my children would never accept that.  They would want to know, "Why?" or "What's happening?"  My son would be at the library looking up the info for himself. 

If it was children asking the question, the library would be a good source or, better yet, the science museum. Lots  of wonderful film and videos can do a much better job than you and I can. Children need visuals.

[Steve]

Why not use a very simple understanding of gravity? The Sun is more massive than the Earth, and so its gravitational pull is greater, significantly so, than the Earth's.

[SonicMan46]

I tried using every drawing or concept I could think of and pfft nothing. And to think I started trying to explain the concept behind relativity... So how can I succeed?

E.L.I.A.S. - I'd usually not respond to a thread like this despite that fact that I could give a valid opinion -  but I'm just curious (and not sure that the issue has been addressed) - but, who are you trying to explain this concept to?  Are these young kids in a grade school or a bunch of 'fundamentalists' @ a church?  Might help - just a thought - 

[BachQ]

If it was children asking the question, the library would be a good source or, better yet, the science museum. Lots  of wonderful film and videos can do a much better job than you and I can. Children need visuals.

Good answer:  "Hey kid, just visit the library to answer your question" 

[Bogey]

If it was children asking the question, the library would be a good source or, better yet, the science museum. Lots  of wonderful film and videos can do a much better job than you and I can. Children need visuals.

My son had a similar question when we were at the museum.  He was watching a computer program simulate the death of different types of stars.  He then asked me what will happen to the earth when our sun goes out.  I told him that he should ask one of the museum volunteers with a space vest on.  So he did.  The guy was awesome and took his time with my son and explained everything so that even I understood.    When my son asked if our planet would get suddenly cold, the volunteer told him not to worry because before that would happen the sun would turn into a red giant and would suck the earth toward it and vaporize it.  Whether this theory is accepted by all or not did not matter (no pun intended), as the look on my son's face was priceless.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/death_of_earth_000224.html

[BachQ]

When my son asked if our planet would get suddenly cold, the volunteer told him not to worry because before that would happen the sun would turn into a red giant and would suck the earth toward it and vaporize Earth. 

"Don't worry, kid ........ the Earth will be vaporized ........ not a problem ........"

[Gustav]

why would you even try to explain this to someone who doesn't know that the earth revolves around the sun?

[Bogey]

"Don't worry, kid ........ the Earth will be vaporized ........ not a problem ........"

He even patted my son on the back as he said it.  You could tell that he had delivered the line before and relished saying it again.