Aren't you guys loving daylight savings! I sure am. On Sunday when we lost an hour it was kind of a bummer, but once we changed our clocks and it was light at 7pm, we were really diggin' it. The sunset tonight is at 7:15pm. Wahoo!
Oliver has a book called, What Makes Day and Night? It goes on to explain that the earth rotates around the sun, and then there's a little tidbit on the fact that the earth rotates on its own axis. But the final page (and final message) reads:
Just remember -
The earth goes around the sun.
When our part of the earth faces the sun, it is day.
When it faces away from the sun, it is night.
And it is dark.
Does anyone else see the flaw here? Yes, the earth goes around the sun, but that is not why we have night and day. That is why we have summer and winter. Instead of "the earth goes around the sun" it should say, "the earth rotates like a top" or "the earth spins on its axis" or something like that. That's why we have day and night. I took out a pencil and wrote that in the book.
When Jess saw the penciled-in correction he asked who had made the edit (it was an old book I had owned before we were married). I was very serious about the fact that the book was flawed and so I had changed it. It was essential! He laughed at my intensity on the matter. And I understand that it was a little over the top. But, of course, I'm leaving my corrections in the book. Because, basically, I have saved the why-we-have-day-and-night day.
photo October 2009
2 comments:
First. That photo is, gosh, what word to use... I'll use them all: priceless, adorable, precious, so so cute, makes me smile, choked me up a little (small little Oli!), is a keeper, perfect.
Second. I'm so glad you corrected the book. You and I both know that there are times in science (I'm thinking genes and inheritance here) when concepts must be simplified to explain them to childnren, teens, even entry level college courses (just because you both have brown eyes, doesn't mean you can use a punnet square to determin your children's eye color folks, sorry to burst your bubble). But in this case, oversimplification was definitely not needed. I corrected a book on "bugs" a few months ago. That probably wasn't necessary though... I may have been a bit too harsh.
Well, this is what I thought, as I scrolled down from your title, "the earth's rotation" I saw my cute little grandson and I thought, yes the earth does rotate around him!!!
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