4 ms·
Why is the sun called Sol? And not Sun? I thought Sol was a sci-fi thing?
by CelticBard 2y ago
Why is the sun called Sol? And not Sun? I thought Sol was a sci-fi thing?
- redeux 2y agoWikipedia lists Sol as one of the names for our star. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
- jannes 2y agoI guess it's just a less common word for sun. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_(Roman_mythology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_(Roman_mythology) > Sol, borrowed from Latin, is used in contemporary English by astronomers and many science fiction authors as the proper name of the Sun to distinguish it from other stars which may be suns for their own planetary systems. [citation needed]
- dmd 2y agoIt's the name of our sun. Sun is what it is (or star). Sol is its name.
- astrolx 2y agoI don't know any solar physicist who calls our sun "sol" (and I know many), neither have I come across scientific papers doing so. A sol is a martian day though!
- nox101 2y agoI've never heard any solar physicist refer to "Sun". I have heard "the Sun" and "Our Sun". "The Boss said please take the day off" "Our Boss is nice" "Jill is the boss" "The Sun is bigger than any planet in our solar system" "Our Sun is 8 light minutes away" "Sol is the name of our sun" I've not once heard a solar physicist use "sun" as a name "Sun is bright" - bad grammar
- pieix 2y agoFair point, I'll change (only after outing myself as somebody who pays more attention to writers than physicists)!
- jgrowl 2y agoI don't think you should feel any pressure to change it. The Solar System belongs to the writers just as much as it does to the physicists and unless your target audience is specifically physicists, then the average visitor of your site will be more likely a consumer of sci-fi than a practitioner of physics. The argument is rather pedantic to me since the word Sun comes from the old English, Germanic, and European, whereas Sol comes from the Latin, Helios from the Greek, svár Sanskrit, etc. They are all valid names for our local star.
- glxxyz 2y agoSol is the Roman sun god and the latin for 'sun' so is sometimes used.
- qw 2y agoIt's also the official name in several non-English countries, including variants like the French "soleil" https://idiot.vitebsk.net/i43/sun_english.htm https://idiot.vitebsk.net/i43/sun_english.htm