I love Joy School (a co-op preschool). I began teaching a unit on the joy of the earth today. We talked about things that are nature versus man made today. During my lesson, Caleb asked, "So mom, why does the earth turn?" What a great question and very appropriate for our discussion but he just turned four. Isn't he a bit young to be asking questions I have no idea how to answer? Well, I looked it up on the internet because I was curious. Here's the answer I got:
It retains the spin (angular momentum) of all the particles which coalesced to form it. These particles came from the protosolar nebula, which was orbiting in a particular direction around the Sun. All planets orbit in this direction, and most planets rotate in it. Those that don't (Venus and Uranus) were probably struck by large asteroids that switched their spins.
Like matter and energy, angular momentum is conserved. It can neither be created nor destroyed.
Go figure, I still don't understand. Maybe I need to take some physics classes or something before I teach Joy School again because even with the explanation I have no idea how to explain it to him.
Welcome, Sterling
11 years ago
1 comments:
Love it. I love when kids ask questions that make you think. For ones I can't answer I simply say, That's how Heavenly Father made it to be or work. Some things are unexplainable.
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