How many stars are in the solar system?

Vanity | 4/22/2014 | Self

[NewHampshireDuo]

I got this email from a relative. Scary how uneducated some "educated" people are. These are middle class 30s people with good jobs, a mix of high school and college graduates.

I was at my friend’s house last night and there were a bunch of people over.

It was really nice out so we stayed outside most of the time. When the stars started to appear I used an app on my phone that lets you look up in the sky and it identifies what stars/planets/constellations you’re aiming the phone at.

One thing lead to another and a person made a comment about “all the stars in our solar system”. I said there was only one star and that there were hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. She was completely confused.

So I went around and asked people “how many stars in our solar system” – not a single person answered ONE.

And one tried to convince me that the sun revolves around the earth. She started to get angry when I kept disagreeing with her and she told me that just because that’s what science says doesn’t mean it’s true.

So this morning I went into work and asked everyone at work how many stars are in our solar system – I got a bunch of “you’ve got to be kidding me, I don’t know” or “Hmmm… 15?”

And someone even said “the sun isn’t a star”.

I’m just completely speechless!

[Talisker]

Pretty horrifying example, but very believable. Years ago I gave a small star party for the neighbors because of an unusual plantetary lineup at dusk where you could see five planets lined up from the horizon, including Mercury. One woman looked through the scope at Saturn and remarked that it was pretty, and asked what it was. I told her that that was Saturn, the planet with the rings. She looked me straight in the eye and said, “It really has actual rings? I thought that was a marketing thing.”

[left that other site]

I remember that, but haven’t thought about it in a light year. /s

[ArtDodger]

‘Clark originally had the event happening on Saturn’
Actually, Clarke's original story ‘The Sentinel’ took place on Earth's moon. Just a 5 page story but what a wallop at the end.

[MHGinTN]

I was referring to the celluloid version, 2001, which Clark was involved with in production.

[puppypusher]

Well dah!Should only be one. That one is known as the Sun..

[wbill]

To me, this is sort of like asking "What weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers?"

My flip, off-the-cuff reply was "millions". Then I re-read what you were asking. "One", of course.

But the guy who didn't know that the sun was a star.....shudder. He votes. And drives.

[MHGinTN]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the narrative. For the film, see 2001: A Space Odyssey (film). For the novel, see 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel).

2001: A Space Odyssey is a science-fiction narrative, produced in 1968 as both a novel, written by Arthur C. Clarke, and a film, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is a part of Clarke's Space Odyssey series. Both the novel and the film are partially based on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", written in 1948 as an entry in a BBC short story competition, and "Encounter in the Dawn", published in 1953 in the magazine Amazing Stories.

[KarlInOhio]

Off by 1000. People should be very careful when dealing with calories. There are two types commonly used. One is the physics calorie which is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water 1 degree C. The dietary Calorie is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water 1 degree C, or 1000 times larger. This is why European packages often list kilocalories to make it clear which is being used.

One BTU is the heat required to raise one pound of water by one degree F, or about one quarter of a dietary Calorie. (about half the water by about half the temperature change)

Also there are slight changes based on what you use as the base temperature because water does not require exactly the same heat to change by one degree at different temperatures.

[JRandomFreeper]

True answer.

/johnny

[zencycler]

Well, aside from the "nemesis" theory (hypothetical second star that appears every 32 million year), the answer is obviously one.

http://www.universetoday.com/15580/how-many-stars-are-in-the-solar-system/

[ArtDodger]

Clarke was, among other things, a good businessman.

[Doctor 2Brains]

I always ask when was the Civil War, WWI, WWII.

The answers will BLOW YOUR MIND...

BTW, I am a “junior astronomer,” and really know quite a bit about the subject, and when I saw your question, the number “billions” popped in my head. Don’t know why I was thinking galaxy instead of solar system.

[Cboldt]

My mother still tells the story of her precocious second grader informing the teacher that the sun is a star.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Cynthia McKinney ping?

[MHGinTN]

Indeed! And I agree with him that those ‘things’ on Mars look just like Banyon trees. But then my ToE (Theory of Everything) is not the same as that of modern science consensus. I have a different way of explaining dimension Time.

[Cboldt]

I don't know calories and BTU, but I know cubic inches and gallon (231), and millimeter to inch (25.4, exact), ft-lb/minute to horsepower (33,000), and probably a few others.

-- The folks at parties might know that one pound of fat equals about 3,500 Calories! --

I like to amaze my friends with the question about which has more energy, a pound of chocolate chip cookies, or a pound of dynamite?

[HeadOn]

Crap, I’m an engineer, and I can’t quote that conversion offhand... (252 calories = 1 BTU)

[cripplecreek]

12 parsecs

Isn't that a measure of distance rather than time?

[servo1969]

But do they know who’s on ‘Dancing with the stars?’
Or who K.K. boinking?

That’s what matters, right?

[servo1969]

‘is’ boinking?

Sorry.