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stray@pawb.social âš3â© âšweeksâ© agoPluto used to be considered a planet, but Iâm not going to tell people it is one today. Pisces as a class was abandoned due to the realization that we were mistaken about how similar/related they are to each other. Whales used to be included in pisces.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world âš3â© âšweeksâ© ago
FishFace@piefed.social âš3â© âšweeksâ© ago
Pluto lost its planethood with great fanfare, to the extent that most people at least vaguely know that happened. As such, thereâs not much confusion when someone refers to Pluto as a dwarf planet or the eight planets or whatever.
The planets are also something which people essentially only encounter as science. You donât go to the supermarket and buy a planet, you canât go and spot some in your local river or whatever. The nearest would be being able to point out Mars or Venus in the night sky.
This is unlike fish, reptiles, fruits and berries, etc. And itâs different from my personal least favourite example of this kind of pedantry: poison. Unlike venom, which is basically just a scientific term, poison and poisonous is an everyday term.
Science needs precise terms in order to do science properly. But that doesnât mean that scientists - or more often those interested in science - need to enforce those precise terms on everybody else.
MrShankles@reddthat.com âš3â© âšweeksâ© ago
Sounds like something a fish would say
FishFace@piefed.social âš3â© âšweeksâ© ago
Glub glub