I reveal the answers to the astrology quiz. Score yourself and draw your own conclusions, then read mine.
Thanks to everyone who took my astrology quiz. If you haven't taken it yet yourself, check it out at this link and then come back to read the answers.
The sign corresponding to each numbered entry is listed below:
- Sagittarius
- Cancer
- Aquarius
- Gemini
- Aries
- Libra
- Pisces
- Capricorn
- Scorpio
- Taurus
- Virgo
- Leo
I did my own test with 37 people to get a rough idea of what the results would be. I was not surprised by the findings. Of the 37 people who answered the test, 33 did not pick the number that corresponded to their birth sign. Of the remaining four people, two of them listed gave me exact matches with their birth sign and the numbered entry they chose. The other two also made a match, but one gave me two signs for herself (she was born on a day next to another sign) and one gave me two entry choices, because they both could apply to her. So I counted them as matches, giving astrology the benefit of the doubt on those two. My final score in this analysis is Astronomy: 33, Astrology 4. I think there is a clear winner here over fact versus fiction.
One of the ironic results of my test is that two of the individuals who made a match were former colleagues of mine at Astronomy magazine. Both were less than thrilled to find they had "validated" astrology. I guess they can take comfort in the fact that random chance would dictate that a few out of a sample of 37 would hit their right sign. Maybe what they really did was just validate the mathematical odds that someone would have to guess "correctly."
Astronomers do not give credence to astrology. In times past, astronomers and astrologers were looked at as the same "profession" -- people who had insight into the mysterious workings of the heavens. But today the idea that the motions of the planets have a direct influence on our lives is not taken seriously by the scientific community.
The zodiacal sign you fall under in astrology is based on the day you were born. On the day that you were born, whatever constellation the sun was in at the time is considered your "sign". The problem with this is that the dates of the astrological signs were fixed a long time ago. The sun is no longer in those constellations on the appropriate days. For example, I was born on May 10 and am supposed to be a Taurus, but if you check the sky in any planetarium software you will see that the sun was not in Taurus on my birth day, but in Aries. So I should really be an Aries. Try it on a planetarium program yourself and see where the sun really was on the day you were born.
Just to be fair, for a number of people whose actual birthdays I knew, and not just their "sign", I checked to see if the gift giving entry they chose matched their "true" astrological sign. It still didn't.
To make it even more interesting, not only were you probably not born under the sign you've always been told, some of you were born under a sign that doesn't even exist. For anyone who was born between November 29 and December 18 in the last century, the sun was in the constellation Ophiuchus at the time. Ophiuchus is not even a sign of the zodiac.
The gift-giving guide can still be useful if you can find a category that someone fits under, but don't base it on astrology. Base it on the person's individual personality, which is not ruled by the planets. As Shakespeare said, "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves."
