Stupid astronomers

On the way to school:

Dominic:  Is the earth moving fast?

Daddy: Yes...(mental calculation...25,000 miles at the equator in 24 hours)...very fast. We are moving faster than most planes fly.

Dominic: Why don't we fall off?

Daddy: Because we stick to the earth.  If you look at the earth from space, people in Australia are standing upside down.

Dominic: (makes a fist and points East) and people here stand like this (horizontal).

Daddy: And people in the North stand upright.

Dominic: People in the North just turn around and around on their feet when the earth spins?

Daddy: I guess.  That's how it works. And if you jump, the earth under you will move and you land on a different part of the earth

Dominic: If we jump here, when we land we can be already in school.

Daddy: Or you may smash into a moving building.

Dominic: Or smash into the tram.

Daddy: Don't forget, the earth moves around the sun.

Dominic: So when we jump, when we land, the earth is no longer under us so we fall in outer space.

Daddy: Right. The earth has already moved around the sun.

Dominic: Wow.

 

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