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The confusion is still there amongst the public and the school kids. In fact it has brought to my attention the general lack of understanding in the upper school level (grade 7+) of gravity. The whole idea of something having enough gravity to haul itself into a sphereoid (hydrostatic equilibrium) is quite foreign to these students - but that is another matter.
It seems that a lot of children identify quite strongly with Pluto and they are feeling very put out because it has been seen to now be excluded from the Solar System. I can tell them 'till I'm blue in the face that it is still part of the Solar System, it's still called Pluto, it's still the same size it was 2 months ago etc. etc. Not good enough apparently.
One child thought Pluto had escaped the Solar System, another asked "What can we do to save Pluto?" (I replied with "Why does it need to be saved?"), yet another child insisted there were 12 planets in the Solar System and alot of children ask "What happened to the three new planets they found?".
Two things are going on here. The first is the atrocious apathetic manner in which the various media have handled this story. When there was the prospect of 12 planets they were all on to it but when it dropped to 8.... it was buried close to the story about Gilbert the Goldfish saves family from armed intruder (I'll never annoy fish again!). The second thing is the wording of the IAU resolutions. Basically it is poorly worded and has resulted in bad science.
Science is supposed to clarify not cause confusion.
Peter.
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