My physics teacher says the world revolves around him?

Question

So it's back to school and I'm a girl from Paris in high school now and I'd like to know what my physics teacher is sayingg?

He's giving us 3 weeks to prove him wrong that the moon, the word, sun, stars, everythingg, revolves around him?

How can I prove him wrong?

He says only three kids have done it in about 24 years of teaching?!

Answer 1

Actually, it depends on what you take to be the reference point.  Your physics teacher is taking himself to be the reference point rather than the sun.  For example, if you stand in the center of a circle, and your teacher is running around the outside of the circle, he is assuming that he is the reference point, and from his point of view you are revolving around him.  It just depends on what you take to be the reference point.

Answer 2

Well i'm not really sure.... but the sun soesn't revolve around anything. The earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. I'm sure you already know that but I really don't know how you would prove that. That's crazy! Sorry I can't help much. Good luck.

I'm not sure what he's looking for... but The earth can't revolve around him cause he's on the earth. I suppose the sun and moon do revolve around him since he's on the earth. Again, sorry I can't help much.  

Answer 3

You cannot prove him wrong or right when he says the universes revolves around him. You also cannot be proved wrong or right if you say the universe revolves around you.

That's because all frames of reference in physics are the same. If you used a frame of reference in which the whole universe revolved about your teacher and one that revolved around you, the answers would be same.

That's because the laws of physics are the same for all frames of reference. That's the chief idea behind the theory of relativity.

Answer 4

If your teacher says that the world revolves around him, then he is correct. If he says that the world does not revolve around him, then also he is correct. The reason is that in Physics, there is nothing called absolute motion or absolute rest. Motion and rest depend on frame of reference. If your teacher fixes the frame of reference upon himself, then he is at rest and the world moves around him.

So, you can fix frame of reference on anything you like. But the question is how useful is that frame?  

Answer 5

No, you can't, Mademoiselle, because your teacher was right. The sun, the moon and everything else revolve around him as well as they revolve around me.

All depend on what frame of reference we choose. That is the relativity of motion.

Only, when we choose your teacher as the center of universe, all motions will become very complicated, so we have to go back to inertial frames.

Answer 6

Consider 2 trains one stationary and the other moving. Now relative to a person sitting inside the stationary train, the other train is moving. But for a person inside the other train, he finds the stationary train to be moving with respect to him. Similarly, just as the Earth revolves round the Sun, with respect to the Sun, the Sun revolves around us, with respect to us. This is the very reason why ancient scholars like Archimedes believed that the Earth was the center of everything, since they found the Earth to be standing while the Sun and the Moon revolved around them. So your teachers justification is not incorrect. However you can say that the Sun is the conventional origin, but I doubt that would help to solve the matter.

Answer 7

What you can do is this:  

Cite the Newton's Law of Universal gravitation.  Look it up also for your own reference.  But basically it says that anything a mass, will have an attractive force between another mass (anything else), this attractive force is called the gravitational force between two objects.   So even an apple will attract a pencil to it, or the pencil to the apple.  This force is what keeps the moon falling around the earth.  Thats right, the moon actually falls around the earth believe it or not. This is because the moon has tangental velocity relative to the earth, but as soon as the moon moves a little further the earth is massive enough to pull it down towards it.  The key thing here is that the earth has so much mass that the force between them is great enough to accelerate them together, regardless of the size of the moon.  This means that if things, like a rock, were to revolve around him, 1) The rock would need to be traveling at a precise speed "past him", and 2) He would have to be a lot fatter than he probably is (much more massive).  

Tell him that if everything revolves around him, so should a rock.  Tell him that you are going to throw a rock at him. Or more precisley "around him," just so that it passes him to the left or the right.  If he is massive enough the force between the rock and him should be great enough to accelerate the rock, (which is smaller in mass), toward him.  If the force is great enough, or the rock is small enough, then the rock should fall "around him" and go into orbit.

Key things:  

1)  The thing in orbit (rock) needs to "want" to travel in a straight line past the thing that it is orbiting around.  

2)  The physics teacher needs to be large enough in mass to generate a great enough gravitational force.

3)  The rock needs to be small enough in mass so that it is effected greater (accelerated more) by the gravitational force generated between the rock and the teacher.

If the conditions above are in place, the rock should go into orbit.  If not,

1) Your teacher is too skinny.

2) The rock is too big.

3) and or the rock is traveling too fast.

AND.... Your teach is full of c**p.

Your teacher has less mass then the earth, so he is accelerated towards the earth faster than the earth is accelerated towards him...

PS:  Don't actually throw a rock at your teacher