Lahore – The spectrum of education revolves around the quality of teachers and the textbooks and the situation becomes hopeless when the children are taught obsolete and even factually incorrect information. Pakistan Today has learnt about a number of such factual inaccuracies in various science textbooks of different grades.
NEBULA VS GALAXY: For instance, in the science textbook for eighth standard, the chapter “Galaxies and Stars” has numerous mistakes. On page no 161, the book says, “Modern telescopes have highlighted that nebula consists of several billion stars, the family of stars is called galaxy.” Contrary to this statement, actually the fact is that nebula is a small entity, a petite part of a galaxy, and there can be many nebulas in a galaxy.
NUMEROUS PLANETS?: Similarly, on page no 162 the same book reads, “In milky way galaxy there are about 100 billion stars and numerous planets which also include earth.” Fact of the matter is that despite all technological advancement, man has identified only eight planets in the entire universe as yet, and these planets are of our own solar system.
WHAT IS A CONSTELLATION?: The book says at page no 163, “Cluster of stars is called a constellation,” then book goes on to mention Ursa Major and Great Bear as two different constellations, whereas these are the two names of the same constellation, and a star cluster is different from a constellation. Cluster is just a mention of the high density of stars and galaxies in sky whereas constellation is “an area of the sky accepted by astronomers as a unit of the celestial sphere.” There are many clusters but astronomers have divided the entire sky into only 88 constellations.
WHY DO STARS LOOK STATIC?: The book also says that in a constellation, stars are not static but moving all the time, then it puts a question to the reader: Why this movement is not observed from the earth? Then the book itself provides the answer to this query by saying that this movement is not ‘discernable’ because these stars are too far away from the earth. By describing that stars are too far away is an obsolete and incomplete answer. Actually, stars are several hundred thousand light years away and it takes that much time for one ray of light to reach us. What we see is the position of star that was so many light years back. To gauge its next position, another time period of identical length is required. That is why, at a given moment, a given star appears static.
IS PLUTO A PLANET?: The science book of seventh class, Urdu version, published in the year 2010, declares under the heading “Solar System” in Chapter 16: “Nine planets are revolving around the sun.” The fact is that the International Astronomy Union announced in August 2006 that Pluto did not meet the parameters to be declared as a planet and hence it was de-listed as a planet.
It also laid down that for all purposes Pluto shall not be considered a planet of this solar system from then onwards. We live in a world known for swift communications, but perhaps not swift enough for this information to reach Punjab Textbook Board in four years.
MOON COUNT: The same book says that Jupiter has 16 moons, Saturn 18, Uranus 15, Neptune 8 and Pluto 1. However, the authentic publications on astronomy narrate that Jupiter has 63 moons, Saturn 61, Uranus 27, and Neptune 13.
MARS’ ATMOSPHERE: It is further mentioned on page no 189 of this book that the planet Mars contains water and oxygen in its atmosphere. This is incorrect. The atmosphere of Mars is made up of 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, and 1.6% argon.
NEW MOON OR CRESCENT?: The book also mentions that the appearance of moon when seen from earth varies between the “new moon” and “full moon”. This nomenclature is technically incorrect. Correct reference is “crescent” instead of “new noon,” as in astronomical terminology, the phrase “new moon” is a lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between the Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth. At this time, the dark (un-illuminated) portion of the Moon faces almost directly towards the Earth, making the Moon invisible to the naked eye. In the science textbook of fourth class, the weather cycle is not elaborated.
Seasons are not an arbitrary phenomenon. Specific dates mark the commencement of each season. These are only few examples of negligence on the part of textbook board. It does not mean that only science books are unreadable. Actually books of almost all the subjects are littered with errors of this sort, some of which are extremely serious.
