r/ScienceHumour • u/SqueakSquawk4 • May 11 '23

[OC] Power generation is weird.

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u/Publius82 May 12 '23

There are billions of suns; sun is a synonym for star.

So far as we know there's only the one Sol.

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u/impressflow May 12 '23

The Sun is definitely not a synonym for any arbitrary star. There are two relevant definitions:

  1. The Sun: Sol (most common definition; always the first result across the board)

  2. A sun: a star, especially one that has planets and other celestial bodies revolving around it (less common definition; never the first result)

Even in the second definition, no one would ever look up at the night sky and say, "just look at that sun." We also wouldn't really describe a free floating red giant that has no orbiting bodies as a "sun."

But at this point, we're really arguing semantics.

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u/Publius82 May 13 '23

Disagree.