My home goes on forever
Noah has a house that is a little bigger than the house next door. But he has seen others down the street that are bigger
“Is your house as big as mine?” Noah asked his Uncle David who was visiting for the summer.
“My house is not” said Uncle David, “But my home is.”
Noah was confused. “What’s the difference?” He asked his Uncle.
“Well” said David “Your house is just the roof right above your head.” But you can say “I’m home now” when you walk through the gate, can’t you?”
“I suppose. So my home is the house and the yard then!” Said Noah
“In a way” said Uncle David. “But remember when we were on the aeroplane yesterday? What did your mum say when we landed?”
“Oh, she said “home now”” Noah remembered. “Ok. So the city is our home?”
“It is. But you’ve learned about the planets. Which would you say is “home”?”
“Earth of course”
“Yes. And if we took a spaceship to the stars and looked back, which would be home?”
“The Sun? But we can’t live on the Sun.”
“You can’t live under your house either. But it’s all a part of home. The Earth is home, The solar system and all the planets are home. All the stars you can see in the Milky Way Galaxy are home. And the Universe is the home for it all. It’s all your home. And my home. And it goes on forever.
“Wait, forever? It can’t go forever!”
“It can! And forever in all directions. There’s no end to the questions you can ask about it or the answers you can find. Maybe things get ever smaller too? Inside the planet are rocks. And inside the rocks are minerals. And inside the minerals are atoms and inside the atoms are protons. And inside the protons are quarks. And…well maybe it just keeps on going!”
Noah laughed. “This is silly isn’t it? Why? What’s the use of it going on forever?”
“Well for one thing it means we will never run out.”
“Run out of what?”
“Anything.”
“We have to run out. We learned in school that the oil is going to run out. And maybe the ice is running out. And the land is running out and…it’s all going to run out.”
“Sounds like lots of things are running out, then.”
“Yes. Miss Greta said it’s all really bad you know? It’s running out and as it all runs out the air and the water are getting all dirty because people are using it all up too much.”
“Well let’s slow down a little and think about all that. What is the coal for?”
“Burning. It makes lots of pollution.”
“And why do we burn it?”
“Um. We haven’t learned that.”
“Ok. Can you guess?”
“To keep us warm.”
“That’s right. But it doesn’t only do that. What happens is that the coal burns and it heats water which turns to steam and the steam spins this amazing thing called a turbine and generator and this spinning makes electricity. All the electricity in your house comes from a power station and almost all of that is because coal is burned somewhere.”
“So the coal is running out! And that means we will run out of electricity?”
“Not so fast! To make the electricity we need to spin the turbine. And there’s lots of ways to do that. But it all comes down to energy. If you want to do it by turning water to steam then you just need to heat the water. You don’t have to use coal. You can burn something else.”
“But what if we run out of all the things to burn?”
“You know back 200 years ago they thought there was only one way to burn things. It was called “chemical burning”. You can burn wood that way. And oil. And coal. Even gas. You can set it all on fire and get heat and you could power a power station that way. But I guess you’re right - any one of them could run out if we used them up fast enough.”
“And then we’d have no electricity. All the lights would go off. And the screens! I couldn’t charge my phone.”
“I guess not. But then a little over 100 years ago people found you could get lots and lots of heat in another way. Out of rocks.”
“What? Rocks? You can burn a rock?”
“Not exactly. But clever people made a discovery because they stumbled across a problem. Some rocks were able to give out radiation. (Bequerel). And after guessing what might be the cause and after doing careful checks and experiments they found that if you process the rock in just the right way you can extract a special element: Uranium - and it will heat up all on its own. And it can be used to replace coal. It makes heat in a whole different way. And it can heat the water to steam and make electricity.”
“But the Uranium might run out.”
“Yes, it might. But maybe we can find something else? We always have remember. And our home goes on forever, after all."
Continues...
Noah has a house that is a little bigger than the house next door. But he has seen others down the street that are bigger
“Is your house as big as mine?” Noah asked his Uncle David who was visiting for the summer.
“My house is not” said Uncle David, “But my home is.”
Noah was confused. “What’s the difference?” He asked his Uncle.
“Well” said David “Your house is just the roof right above your head.” But you can say “I’m home now” when you walk through the gate, can’t you?”
“I suppose. So my home is the house and the yard then!” Said Noah
“In a way” said Uncle David. “But remember when we were on the aeroplane yesterday? What did your mum say when we landed?”
“Oh, she said “home now”” Noah remembered. “Ok. So the city is our home?”
“It is. But you’ve learned about the planets. Which would you say is “home”?”
“Earth of course”
“Yes. And if we took a spaceship to the stars and looked back, which would be home?”
“The Sun? But we can’t live on the Sun.”
“You can’t live under your house either. But it’s all a part of home. The Earth is home, The solar system and all the planets are home. All the stars you can see in the Milky Way Galaxy are home. And the Universe is the home for it all. It’s all your home. And my home. And it goes on forever.
“Wait, forever? It can’t go forever!”
“It can! And forever in all directions. There’s no end to the questions you can ask about it or the answers you can find. Maybe things get ever smaller too? Inside the planet are rocks. And inside the rocks are minerals. And inside the minerals are atoms and inside the atoms are protons. And inside the protons are quarks. And…well maybe it just keeps on going!”
Noah laughed. “This is silly isn’t it? Why? What’s the use of it going on forever?”
“Well for one thing it means we will never run out.”
“Run out of what?”
“Anything.”
“We have to run out. We learned in school that the oil is going to run out. And maybe the ice is running out. And the land is running out and…it’s all going to run out.”
“Sounds like lots of things are running out, then.”
“Yes. Miss Greta said it’s all really bad you know? It’s running out and as it all runs out the air and the water are getting all dirty because people are using it all up too much.”
“Well let’s slow down a little and think about all that. What is the coal for?”
“Burning. It makes lots of pollution.”
“And why do we burn it?”
“Um. We haven’t learned that.”
“Ok. Can you guess?”
“To keep us warm.”
“That’s right. But it doesn’t only do that. What happens is that the coal burns and it heats water which turns to steam and the steam spins this amazing thing called a turbine and generator and this spinning makes electricity. All the electricity in your house comes from a power station and almost all of that is because coal is burned somewhere.”
“So the coal is running out! And that means we will run out of electricity?”
“Not so fast! To make the electricity we need to spin the turbine. And there’s lots of ways to do that. But it all comes down to energy. If you want to do it by turning water to steam then you just need to heat the water. You don’t have to use coal. You can burn something else.”
“But what if we run out of all the things to burn?”
“You know back 200 years ago they thought there was only one way to burn things. It was called “chemical burning”. You can burn wood that way. And oil. And coal. Even gas. You can set it all on fire and get heat and you could power a power station that way. But I guess you’re right - any one of them could run out if we used them up fast enough.”
“And then we’d have no electricity. All the lights would go off. And the screens! I couldn’t charge my phone.”
“I guess not. But then a little over 100 years ago people found you could get lots and lots of heat in another way. Out of rocks.”
“What? Rocks? You can burn a rock?”
“Not exactly. But clever people made a discovery because they stumbled across a problem. Some rocks were able to give out radiation. (Bequerel). And after guessing what might be the cause and after doing careful checks and experiments they found that if you process the rock in just the right way you can extract a special element: Uranium - and it will heat up all on its own. And it can be used to replace coal. It makes heat in a whole different way. And it can heat the water to steam and make electricity.”
“But the Uranium might run out.”
“Yes, it might. But maybe we can find something else? We always have remember. And our home goes on forever, after all."
Continues...