Probing a more universal measure of knowledge, Gallup also asked the following basic science question, which has been used to indicate the level of public knowledge in two European countries in recent years: "As far as you know, does the earth revolve around the sun or does the sun revolve around the earth?" In the new poll, about four out of five Americans (79%) correctly respond that the earth revolves around the sun, while 18% say it is the other way around. These results are comparable to those found in Germany when a similar question was asked there in 1996; in response to that poll, 74% of Germans gave the correct answer, while 16% thought the sun revolved around the earth, and 10% said they didn't know. When the question was asked in Great Britain that same year, 67% answered correctly, 19% answered incorrectly, and 14% didn't know.
I've always wondered how much of that is due to poor reading comprehension and bad problem solving skills. In other words, simply that people know the answer but can't match up that knowledge with the question being asked.
What's going on here? Is it really the case that 18% of the populace has not been exposed to the idea of heliocentricity, or that they have but choose not to believe it? I am truly flabbergasted by this statistic.
The staff of PUP interviewed 23 Harvard graduates, alumni and faculty, asking each “Why do we have seasons?”...The PUP interviewers found that 21 of the 23 interviewed could not explain why we have seasons, a topic that is taught repeatedly in school
I don't find it strange or alarming. No more than the fact that a dog who has learned to bark on command doesn't automatically know how to kneel on command.
Memory is an odd thing though. I mainly remember why the earth has seasons now (though I always knew it) because I remember the study that I quote above.
