New Study: Zodiac Signs are off

[comradesean]

How would it make sense that the sign you were born under has somehow magically changed? I mean, ignoring the unbelievability of it to begin with anyway. It really only changes for anyone born in the future since the point that they were changed.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Shit my new one actually describes me better D:

I still want to be a Scorpion but...OH GOD MY LIFE!

 

[Sheepo]

I'm genuinely baffled about how you guys are reacting to this (looking at you, Patrick Kelley's facebook status).

"Ha, this really goes to show how bullshit horoscopes are! Guess what? I never believed in those things, how ****ing cool am I?!"

I don't think I've ever met anyone who actaully believes horoscopes mean something.

 

[VirusType2]

How would it make sense that the sign you were born under has somehow magically changed? I mean, ignoring the unbelievability of it to begin with anyway. It really only changes for anyone born in the future since the point that they were changed.

Oh, because you get your sign from your birth-date (month/day), not your birth-year. Year has no bearing on your sign.

EDIT: It's not like they give you a sign when you are born, like a first name. If you were born in February you might be one of 2 signs. That's how it works.

 

[ríomhaire]

The start date for each zodiac sign is the same as the end date of the last one. So if your birthday is that date, which the **** one are you?

You zodiac sign is based on where the Sun is in the sky at midday (I think) on that day. Possibly on those days it's half-way between two of the signs and they couldn't tell which it was closer to.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I'm genuinely baffled about how you guys are reacting to this (looking at you, Patrick Kelley's facebook status).

"Ha, this really goes to show how bullshit horoscopes are! Guess what? I never believed in those things, how ****ing cool am I?!"

I don't think I've ever met anyone who actaully believes horoscopes mean something.

you must keep good company, then

 

[Emporius]

Whoever wrote this is retarded.

What if you were born on Feb 16? March 11? May 13? etc

Time you were born.

Depends if the Sun is rising or setting at the time.

 

[Remus]

I don't think I've ever met anyone who actaully believes horoscopes mean something.

Good for you. I however am not that lucky.

 

[B_MAN]

this changes everything!!

 

[Polaris]

Here's my new study: Zodiac signs are bullshit.

 

[Bad^Hat]

How would it make sense that the sign you were born under has somehow magically changed? I mean, ignoring the unbelievability of it to begin with anyway. It really only changes for anyone born in the future since the point that they were changed.

How... what? Astrology is a tool for predictive fortune telling, right? How the **** would it make sense that astrologists just decided to "change" what sign everyone was after a certain date? I was under the impression your sign describes what you were born under... did the stars just decide to shift overnight?

I don't think I've ever met anyone who actaully believes horoscopes mean something.

As a couple of people have already pointed out, they exist.

Welp I'm Virgo now so let's give this a shot.

Linguist, poet, mathematician, taste for literature, well read, scholarly, artistic, good memory, reasoning faculty, effeminate body, frank, lucid comprehension, learned in religious lore, reserved, wanting adulation.

Hahaha okay done.

 

[dfc05]

How would it make sense that the sign you were born under has somehow magically changed? I mean, ignoring the unbelievability of it to begin with anyway. It really only changes for anyone born in the future since the point that they were changed.

Technically it was a gradual change. From what I'm understanding, somebody (who?? I don't know what "organization" decides horoscope signs) decided to "officially" announce a sudden sign change, about a month off what things used to be.

Thousands of years ago someone made up the old system based on how the Earth/sun/moon were aligned in relation to the constellations over 1 year. Over time that has slowly changed. Like if you were born on March 1 and two days ago you thought you were a Pisces, it's not like the Earth suddenly heaved itself over and BAM! you're an Aquarius. Based on where the Earth was pointing (not based on idiocy), you've probably been an Aquarius your whole life, even the day you were born. But people only now bothered to update the horoscope signs.

See this diagram. The Earth does one little precession circle around its axis every 26,000 years. You can kind of think of it like you have a stick and you're pointing out into space along the direction of the axis. Maybe it's March 1st and you're pointing at the constellation Pisces. Since it takes 26,000 years for the Earth to precess around that circle, you don't notice much for a while. The next year, it's March 1st and you're still pointing at Pisces. 50 years later, it's March 1st and you're still pointing at Pisces. But over the course of 2500 years, you gradually notice that it's March 1st and you're pointing at a slightly different place in the sky. Eventually it's March 1st and you're now pointing at Aquarius. This has been known for a long ass time. Horoscopes just haven't been updated because (1) horoscope people are slow? or (2) they never understood astronomy? or (3) they didn't want to admit that everything they say is crap by acknowledging that the "sign" they used for you doesn't have any physical meaning.

In short: Horoscope people are stupid and it's a shame that the words "astrology" and "astronomy" sometimes get confused.

[edit]
Just realized you might not have been asking about the physical explanation, but whether/why people are retroactively changing their signs.
In which case the answer would be -- IT IS TOTALLY ARBITRARY. If you want to stay on the old horoscope schedule, stay on it. If you want to be scientifically correct regarding what constellation was behind the sun when you were born, switch to the new schedule. If you don't care at all because you think it's stupid, then it doesn't matter.

It's like when the Pope suddenly decided one day that Purgatory doesn't exist anymore. People who care can believe whatever they want. The rest of us can just sit back and laugh at them.

Frankly I think it's ridiculous that people care at all what their "sign" is, but they don't at all take note of the fact that they just learned that the Earth is precessing around its axis. Or maybe they skipped the whole learning part and just jumped to "Oh dang my sign changed, wtf man?!?!?! My SIGN!!!! Holy crap all this time I've been talking to the wrong spirit animal!" Which sucks because precession is actually interesting, whereas "signs" are stupid.

 

[morgs]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhX_nXTF0Ec

 

[Bad^Hat]

Whoever uploaded that doesn't know what "debunk" means but HAHA Sheldon you so wacky.

 

[Acepilotf14]

big bang theory isn't funny at all

 

[Higlac]

big bang theory isn't funny at all

^^Doesn't get the jokes.

 

[Acepilotf14]

You obviously have no taste.

 

[morgs]

Taste aside if you find something funny why the hell not watch it, laughing is good.

 

[Letters]

So I'm a Taurus instead of a Gemini.

Hell yeah I'll be a ****ing BULL over some stupid pair of twins!

 

[Stylo]

I was Cancer. Now I'm Gemini. Some people are really pissed off about their star-sign changing. I just think it's funny.

Gutted for all those people with their star-sign tattooed on them, though. PAHAHA.

 

[AKIRA]

Apparently it's only for people who were born after 2009 so meh. I don't believe in any of this stuff I just posted it because millions of people do and thought it might be sort of interesting lol

 

[PvtRyan]

I'm genuinely baffled about how you guys are reacting to this (looking at you, Patrick Kelley's facebook status).

"Ha, this really goes to show how bullshit horoscopes are! Guess what? I never believed in those things, how ****ing cool am I?!"

I don't think I've ever met anyone who actaully believes horoscopes mean something.

I don't believe in them either. But I'm a Leo, we're skeptical by nature.

 

[dfc05]

Apparently it's only for people who were born after 2009 so meh. I don't believe in any of this stuff I just posted it because millions of people do and thought it might be sort of interesting lol

That just makes the change more arbitrary and ridiculous than it was before. "If you were born after 2009, it matters whether you match up with the actual constellation. If you were born before 2009, it doesn't matter." wtf.

They could at least be consistent and give themselves the tiniest semblance of logic. Either everyone changes, or nobody changes. Doing both makes no sense.

 

[Stylo]

That just makes the change more arbitrary and ridiculous than it was before. "If you were born after 2009, it matters whether you match up with the actual constellation. If you were born before 2009, it doesn't matter." wtf.

They could at least be consistent and give themselves the tiniest semblance of logic. Either everyone changes, or nobody changes. Doing both makes no sense.

Well actually, nothing's really changed at all. It's just been discovered that we got the horoscope charts wrong in the first place.

It's like finding out that your dad isn't your biological one. He hasn't changed from being your actual father to not, he was never your biological dad to begin with.

 

[dfc05]

Except they knew about it back in 130 BC (according to Wikipedia). And back in the '70s, some people were trying to get Ophiuchus included in the zodiac (also according to Wikipedia). Why someone decided 2140 years later that they should (1) officially acknowledge it and (2) only for people born after '09, doesn't seem to be logically correlated with anything. It's baffling.

 

[Stylo]

Except they knew about it back in 130 BC (according to Wikipedia). And back in the '70s, some people were trying to get Ophiuchus included in the zodiac (also according to Wikipedia). Why someone decided 2140 years later that they should (1) officially acknowledge it and (2) only for people born after '09, doesn't seem to be logically correlated with anything. It's baffling.

I'd not heard it being only for people born after '09.

Although tbh, the following video pretty much sums up what I know and care to know about horoscopes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glGhmqOYqNA

 

[dfc05]

Holy crap lol. I accidentally had my volume turned all the way up when I pressed play. My neighbor's going to think I'm nuts.