Okay, I gave up searching Zeppelin lyrics and actually read the article, 5 Famous Songs That Prove Musicians Don’t Understand Science. And I realized that the cartoon lyrics actually referred to the following:
#3. “This Kiss” by Faith Hill
The Stupid:
It’s that pivotal moment, it’s a feeling like this
It’s centrifugal motion, it’s perpetual bliss
The Science:
Did you ever ride the Gravitron when you went to the carnival? That was the ride where you stood against the walls of a circular room that spun around and around at a dizzying rate. Do you remember how your body held tight to the walls even as the room spun around you, pressed stronger and stronger as the room spun faster? Bam, centrifugal force.
What’s hilarious about these lyrics is that they’re not just wrong, but describing a force that is the opposite of what centrifugal force does: push an object outward from the center. Faith Hill is basically saying that she feels repelled from her lover.
#5. “Promise of a New Day” by Paula Abdul
The Stupid:
Eagle’s calling and it’s calling your name
Tides are turning, bringing winds of change
Paula sings of changing the world and loving one another, evoking progressive imagery such as the Earth moving under her feet, being singled out by the bird of freedom, the winds of change being churned out by the tides ...
The Science:
In fact, it’s the wind that causes the waves when it blows upon the surface of the water, not the other way around.
- You’re Welcome.
I always heard that lyric as “it’s centripital motion.”