Comparing the Sun and Moon for Dummies

Sun, moon, eclipse

It may seem that we like to make fun of liberal arts graduates here, especially the ones who attempt to describe technical subjects. Well, if they hadn't done such a lousy job solely in search of a few bucks, they would not have incurred the wrath of our research team (who, by the way, aren't doing this in search of money). When they say things as scientifically ignorant as Gwendolen Akard did for eHow.com (now Sciencing.com) in her piece "The Similarities and Differences Between the Sun and Moon," we just can't help ourselves...

We'll be honest: we can't think of but a few similarities: both are celestial bodies, both are in orbit around something, both appear to be round... but there's a boatload of differences. Akard's take is pretty much the same, it's a combination of her delivery and her apparent grasp of the facts that bothered our staffer, Take, for example...

The sun and moon... affect the daily lives of people in significant ways... We aren't all that certain about the moon's effects on our daily lives -- perhaps Gwendolen could have enlightened us? ...viewed from the Earth's surface, both appear as similarly sized disks... That's just in there because it's so poorly written. The sun is a star, while the moon is a large mass of rock and dirt. Dirt? No, Gwen, dirt – or soil – requires chemical weathering to form, which generally requires water. Maybe you meant "dust"... The sun, like most stars, is a mass of gases. We're pretty sure all stars are masses of gases... The moon affects ocean tides because its gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearer to the moon. This attraction causes the “bulges” in the oceans. Because the Earth rotates faster than the moon does, these bulges move around, creating the world’s tides.

Whooo, now that last one's just plain stupid. What Akard actually wanted to say (and some idiot J-school grad content editor didn't call her on) is that Earth's period of rotation is considerably shorter than the Moon's orbital period...
Gwendolen got about half her factoids wrong or, at least, confusing. That, we must assume, is because she didn't even have the benefit of a "gut" astronomy class on her way to those degrees in French, philosophy, and law. Oh, well, at least Akard's not a patent attorney... but she is our Dumbass of the Day (again)!

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