The only way to get to these kinds of people is to be better at it than they are.
Maybe he, or she, will say that electricity is carried by traveling electrical charges and in many, many cases the wires are where the charges are.
Ah, but the charges (if, conceptually speaking, we mean the charges to be the electrons, which is the proper meaing) don’t travel, or at least not very fast.
Stranger
But they do travel. 
Well, yes, but that’s not really what contributes to the conduction of current. Wait a minute…[post=6687165]we’ve discussed this before[/post], haven’t we?
I’ve even had EE professors who were, shall we say, less than acquainted with the physical mechanisms of solid state energy transmission. Heck, even Feynman gets it wrong at one point in his eponymous Lectures. The whole “flowing water” analogy, while useful as an initial metaphor for electric current, is conceptually incorrect at the subatomic level. In the end, it isn’t the fact that the electrons flow, but that they jump up and down, like punkers at an X gig, that makes energy go from Point A to Point B.
Stranger
I prefer the “drunken revelers at a football game, doing the wave” metaphor.
Ask him if a bicycle stays upright on two wheels because of gyroscopic forces.
Or, the Monty Hall problem. While many know-it-alls are familiar with the simple “you should switch” answer, I think most haven’t thought through the subtlety that, if the question is not framed so that it constrains Monty to always having to offer a switch, then always switching is not the right answer. But that’s another thread.
Heh. Another good one.
Stranger and Q.E.D., thank you. That single-handedly justified all the time I’ve wasted lurking (and occasionally posting) on the SDMB.
As for the OP, bear in mind that there ain’t no dark side of the moon either. Ergo, the moon rotates with respect to the Sun.
Grrrr…that’s just a bit of weasling by Uncle Cec’. The formulation of the problem assumes that the contestant always gets a chance to switch; otherwise, the problem makes no sense.
Actually, if you really want to harass the guy, get a copy of Jearl Walker’s The Flying Circus of Physics With Answers and bombard him with questions on various phenomena. Heck, get it anyway…it’s a great read, even for someone who isn’t interested in the technical bits.
Stranger
Keeping your face toward something as you go around it is rotating.
Think about square dancing.
Swing your partner. She keeps her face toward you, and roatates.
Do si do. Now she doesn’t rotate, and likewise doesn’t keep her face toward you.
Tris
At the risk of opening a huge can of worms, agree with Stranger. Of course the question of whether to switch only arises if a switch is offered. The key is that Monty always opens the wrong door. That means the unopened door is twice as likely to be correct as the one originally selected.
What’s all this about rotating cans of worms and Mont Hall on a bicycle?
You forgot the drunken revelers traveling on wires.
Monty Hall can ride a bicycle on a wire while rotating a can of worms on his tongue while being heckled by drunken football revelers? What a stud!
Stranger
Monty Hall can ride a bicycle on a wire while rotating a can of worms on his tongue while being heckled by drunken football revelers? What a stud!
Stranger
He should audition for Cirque du Soleil.
Maybe he should also declare himself a natural citizen so he doesn’t have to pay income tax, then start his own country.
I believe the answer to this is no. The moon is currently rotating on its axis every 28 days as well as revolving about the center of the earth-moon system every 28 days. If the earth were removed, it would no longer be doing the latter but instead would have its own orbit about the sun. Thus, the only way that conservation of angular momentum could be achieved (its current rotation PLUS revolution momenta) would be for the moon to rotate somewhat faster.
This makes sense. Just like if Monty Hall was ice skating on his bicycle…