Question

Often in science it is helpful to talk about a representative example of the objects or phenomena being studied. However, you must always keep in mind that the average case is not always representative. For example, our Sun is often described as an "average" star in the Milky Way. In what sense is this statement true? In what sense is this statement seriously misleading? Do you think it is useful to characterize the stars in the Milky Way by simply citing our "average" Sun?

Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement "our sun is an 'average' sun" is true when it is used to describe or characterize some unique physical properties of stars generally in the universe. 'Average' in this sense is used to define a typical sun such as, "stars should glow like our sun an average star."

The statement is used wrongly when used to in quantifying other stars in the universe, based on calculated values from our sun. In this case, we cannot truly say if our sun is a true representative average of other stars in the universe.

Yes! it is useful to characterize the milky way by simply citing the average sun. Properties like their ability to glow and radiate heat can be defined by citing an average star like our sun, so long as we don't translate it into citing quantitative properties of the sun as an average of our Milky Way Galaxy like the mass, temperature, etc.