Sun orbits the earth, could it be true?

Question

How can I explain to a four year old that the earth goes round the sun, when he can see it rising and setting every day? just like the moon.

Answer 1

The TRUE answer, according to Einstein is that the the Sun goes around the Earth AND the Earth goes around the Sun. It depends on your vantage point.

However, get your 4 year old to spin around with a video camera recording in-hand, whilst you hold a football (=Sun) at camera level. Then play it back to your child. It now appears that the football is spinning around the camera, rather than the other way around.

You'll just have to hope the camera isn't dropped!

Answer 2

First off, it's not inherently obvious - which is why mankind thought the Sun orbited the Earth for all of history until about 400 years ago.

You could use the flashlight and globe, holding the flashlight at a fixed point and slowly rotating the globe; but that would require the child to imagine standing on the globe and envisioning what it would look like to "see" the flashlight come into view as the globe turned. Way too complex a process for a 4 year old. Best to probably just tell him, and when he's a little older take him to a planetarium.

And the experiments and math needed to "prove" the Earth orbits the Sun are really pretty complex. Most of the people making fun of you have zero understanding of how to actually prove that the Moon orbits the Earth, but the Earth orbits the Sun, other than parroting what science books have taught them since they were 4 years old.

Answer 3

yes same as the earth orbits the moon and the moon orbits the earth. the suns zig zag would be small but it would have one. 2 objects orbit about a common center of gravity. I think the seesaw equation is used for this calculation. where would the fulcrum be to balance the two objects on a seesaw. One heavy one light.

two objects with the same mass will orbit about a center of gravity equal distances apart. If one object mass is slightly greater than the other the center of gravity will shift slightly in the direction of the object with the greatest mass. If one object is extremely heaver than the other object then the shift in the center of gravity would be extreme. I think it looked like this to find the center of gravity, m1 x d1 = m2 x d2. just show him this equation.

I don't know why orbits are elliptical but both orbit around the common center of gravity.

The sun’s axes will be scribing a little o and it will zig zag as it travels through space. The little o is it’s orbit. The earth scribes a big O and will zig zag as it travels through space. The suns little o will be inside the earths big O so the earths orbit is around the sun.

don’t forget to tell about the moon orbiting the earth and causing the earths orbit to zig zag. Then combine all 3 bodies and their common center of gravity. After that we have more planets out there to talk about. Maybe you should get him a slide rule for his next birthday before getting into the other planets.

Answer 4

Tell him it just looks that way because we here on earth are spinning. If you spin around in circles, it looks like the entire world is moving around you, but you are the one who is actually spinning.

The sun isn't the only thing seems to move through the sky because the earth spins. Take the child outside at night, have him see where the moon and stars are. Then come out a few hours later and you'll see how they moved about 30 degrees across the sky. This is most noticeable if you look where the sun moves across the sky from east to west. They can't ALL orbit the earth at the same exact speed, so the earth itself must be spinning.

Answer 5

All you can do is explain it in terms of the above methods (pictures, graphics, etc.) He may not believe you for a long while, but when he finally understands, he'll be like "wow, you were right! I should listen to you more often" A win/win situation :-) When he finally does understand it's important to reinforce the catharsis with a reward so that he's encouraged to further understand the complex world around him.

I remember when I was a kid, I actually wondered about this. I set up a globe, and turned on a light bulb, and got close to it and pretended I was on the surface of the globe. As I moved it around and around, i followed it with my face (It must have been a ridiculous sight). In that way I came to see how the light could appear to rise.

Don't give up! :D

Answer 6

Take a bright flash light out in the yard one evening. Set it in the joint of a tree trunk and a limb so that it shines at you from a short distance. Turn it on.

Now take a large ball (like a basket ball) hooked to a string, with some good tape, about 6 feet long. Stand about 12 feet away from the flash light and begin to turn around in a circle so that the basket ball (simulating the Moon) begins to orbit around you (the Earth). The flash light is the Sun.

Now, you are rotating around and around just like the Earth is.

And the Moon is flying around you, just like the Moon is flying around the Earth.

Get your son to observe the lighting changes on the surface of the basket ball as "you" block the light from time to time while swinging around. The same thing happens as the Earth blocks the suns rays while the Earth is spinning around.

Now, keep your face looking forward naturally as you spin around. That means don't turn your neck. Keep your eyes looking straight ahead while spinning around.

Verbally call out - I see the light, see the light, see light, see light - went dark, still dark, still dark - I see the light, see the light, see light....etc. as you spin. This is what someone on Earth might experience as the Earth turned exposing various parts of its surface to the rays of the Sun.

There you have a demonstration you can show your son late one evening when the flash light bit will work well for you.

Answer 7

you have consistently have been given to be careful with the be conscious "evidence" in technological information. there have been centuries of precise observations of ways the planets pass around interior the sky. What Copernicus did became tutor that there became an basic clarification for those complicated motions if each and every thing, which comprise the earth, became orbiting the sunlight. So that's extra of a case of Occam's Razor than evidence. Occam's Razor is the thought that in case you have 2 different motives for the comparable phenomenon, you ought to choose the fewer complicated one.

Answer 8

Analogy brings to abstract, and the only explanation I can think of is by analogy.
Dealing with abstract is not a task for a four year old. Brain is not yet ready.
If the youngster was older, maybe seven, you could have tried.
May I suggest letting the youngster discover the world slowly, at his own rhythm? Let him believe what he sees by now. Is in my opinion a good practice.
Me, at four years old, wanted to see the stars by day. Knew somehow I couldn't. Then tried to know how radio worked. Knew somehow I couldn't. And that's because father or uncle might have tried to explain. At seven everything was in a sudden so clear. Now science knows that the neural networks that perform abstract thinking came to me, between five and six. Same for all.

Answer 9

You really can't explain it. He is too young.Even some adults find it hard to accept because the sun really does look like it is moving across the sky .Let him work it out at his own pace .That way he will have a better understanding than to try to give him an explanation using models of the earth /sun.

Answer 10

Read some Piaget.
4 years olds are not going to be able to understand this concept.
If you want to show him just for fun get a big ball and a little ball - let him be the centre of the universe and hold the big ball tell him that's like the sun. you be the little ball and circle him - tell him that's the earth. he'll think it's fun but he won't really understand anything other than that he is the centre the the universe - but then he already knew that! ;)