Static Zombie

Fucking French.

OMG - that's pathetic. My 6th grader knew it immediately.

I think I smell a new quiz show on the horizon...

"Are You Smarter Than The French?"

Does anyone know if "rotates" is really what they're saying, or if that's a bad translation? Cuz I'd have to say nothing "rotates around the earth"; the moon *revolves* around the earth.

Of course, even if the French is worded as poorly, that doesn't excuse the 56% of boneheads in the audience.

Though we usually refer to the Earth rotating around its axis and revolving around the sun, ROTATE and REVOLVE are actually synonyms and can be used interchangably in that context.

Thanks, Merriam-Webster!

I showed this to a French guy in my group last year when this first showed up on the series of tubes. He immediately said it was a kind of trick question (though completely fair) because the word they use in the question (graviter) is a somewhat uncommon one used in technical fields. When saying "the earth revolves around the sun," everyone learns in school a different verb.

It's sort of like asking, "Which of these gravitates around the Earth?" I can see someone saying, "gee, does that mean 'revolve?' Or maybe it means 'causes the Earth to go around it?'" They might start thinking it's a trick question and means the opposite of the obvious meaning.

Of course, even if the French is worded as poorly, that doesn't excuse the 56% of boneheads in the audience.

Er, dug, I think that was 58% of boneheads. 42% voted for the moon, 56% voted for the sun, and 2% voted for Mars.