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7 Answers
- ?Lv 41 decade agoFavorite Answer
It is kinda funny, in a way. But those terms were coined back when we thought the Earth was flat and the Sun revolved around the Earth. So back then we thought the Sun was moving, and orbited the Earth every 24 hours, making a Day. But after a while we knew better, and realized that the Earth revolves the Sun. And so the Earth is spinning and the Sun stays still.
- Stan DaloneLv 71 decade ago
Well yes, but that saying goes back to a time when we thought the Sun *did* go around the Earth. And in day-to-day life it doesn't make too much difference, since either model works just as well for what we do in our daily lives--we wouldn't do anything different day to day in a geocentric universe than in a heliocentric one. It makes a big difference though, if you're plotting the course of a spacecraft. In any case even though we say it that way (mostly out of convenience or habit), we still understand what's really going on. That's why I don't have a problem with it--unlike, say, people's habit of calling the tip of a pencil the "lead". They're not MADE of lead, but because people call it that, some folks actually think they are (I've had people caution me about getting lead poisoning from pencils, for instance).
- kozzm0Lv 71 decade ago
Actually both the sun and the Earth go around the center of mass between them. They're going around each other. Somebody far away could chart the sun's apparent orbit around this center of mass, though it would be complicated by all the other planets also affecting it.
From far away it looks like the Earth going around the sun mainly, because the sun is gigantic and the Earth is puny.
From Earth it looks like the sun going around Earth mainly, because the Earth is gigantic and the sun is puny. You can call the sun puny if it's far away, it can't hear you.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
The Sun IS moving around the center of mass of the Solar System and the multimillion solar mas black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. When the Earth is your fixed (inertial) frame of reference, the Sun DOES seem to be moving around the Earth. Before Copernicus, NO ONE realized that the Earth was going around the Sun. Because of the laws or relativity (Einstein), saying Sun goes around the Earth is just as correct as saying the Earth goes around the Sun.
Source(s): M.S. in geology I'm a planetary geologist/astrogeologist - How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- campbelp2002Lv 71 decade ago
Not especially. It makes no difference that we know Earth is moving and the Sun is not, the Sun is below the horizon and a few minutes later it is above the horizon, so it rose.
- Innocent VictimLv 71 decade ago
Everything in the universe is moving, my dear. The sun and its little retinue of planets orbit the galactic center at a very high speed, something like a million miles per hour, if my recollection is correct. And then, the whole galaxy is also in motion.
- 1 decade ago
I find it really funny. We just say it because thats what it appears to do. Even though it actually is not rising or setting.