
Beguiling
Ideas about Science
The beguiling ideas about science quoted here were collected
from essays, exams, and class room discussions; most were from fifth- and sixth-graders.
They illustrate Mark Twain's contention that the "most interesting information
comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop."
 | One horsepower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a
horse 500 feet in one second.
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 | You can listen to thunder after lightening and tell how
close you came to getting hit. If you don't hear it you got hit, so never mind.
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 | When they broke open molecules, they found they were only
stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with
explosions.
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 | When people run around and around in circles we say they
are crazy. When planets do it we say they are orbiting.
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 | Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows
how to change back into a sun in the daytime.
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 | Many dead animals of the past changed to fossils, others
preferred to be oil.
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 | Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know
we know they're there.
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 | Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the sun.
But I have never been able to make out the numbers.
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 | We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation.
Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.
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 | I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know
how to do it, and that is the important thing.
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 | Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog's
tongue will kill the strongest man.
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 | Thunder is a rich source of loudness.
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 | Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their
names sound.
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 | It is so hot in some parts of the world that the people
there have to live other places.
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 | Our new teacher told us all about fossils. Before she came
to our class, I didn't know what a fossil looked like.
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 | Pavlov studied the salvation of dogs.
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 | A molecule is so small that it can't be seen by the naked
observer.
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 | In biology today, we digested a frog.
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 | To prevent head colds, use an agonizer to spray into your
nose until it drops down into your throat.
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