[meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet

From: David Freeman mjwy <dfreeman_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Aug 2 22:16:50 2005
Message-ID: <42F0290A.5080704_at_fascination.com>

Geeze all, I think I was taught in school (and through college lately
even) that we had nine planets and Pluto was one of them....
Where do you quote this "not for centuries" philosophy, not from the
general public.
Dave F.

Kashuba, Ontario, California wrote:

> Chris and others,
>
> Pluto has not been referred to as a planet for centuries .
>
> John Kashuba
> Ontario, California
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Peterson"
> <clp_at_alumni.caltech.edu>
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 7:00 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet
>
>
>> Not at all. There is a difference between the public misusing
>> something that already has a formal definition (meteor), and the
>> scientific establishment adopting a new definition for a word that
>> has been used in a certain way for centuries (planet)- a definition
>> at odds with how the word is now used.
>>
>> I say come up with a new word. Then the planets are, and always will
>> be, what they are now- the nine bodies from Mercury to Pluto. And
>> scientists won't have to spend the next 100 years qualifying what
>> they mean by planet every time they talk with the lay public.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>> *****************************************
>> Chris L Peterson
>> Cloudbait Observatory
>> http://www.cloudbait.com
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darren Garrison"
>> <cynapse_at_charter.net>
>> To: "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty" <grf2_at_verizon.net>
>> Cc: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 7:05 PM
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astronomers to Decide What Makes a Planet
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 02 Aug 2005 20:47:39 -0400, "Dawn & Gerald Flaherty"
>> <grf2_at_verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Yeah, by the same "give up on defining a planet because a planet is
>> what the general public says it
>> is" logic, we might as well start calling meteorites meteors, because
>> the general public tends to
>> call meteorites meteors. Or we should accept that apes are monkeys,
>> because the general public
>> calls them monkeys. Or that pterasaurs are flying dinosaurs, because
>> the general public calls them
>> flying dinosaurs.
>>
>> I say come up with a reasonable definition, and if that disagrees
>> with what the "general public"
>> thinks, then tell the general public to go sit on a bunsen burner.
>>
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>
>
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Received on Tue 02 Aug 2005 10:16:42 PM PDT