After an exciting evening of Soccer practice, a late dinner and the Merseyside Derby, I was helping Simon wind down in bed. Lying there with the lights off, we were talking about one of Simon’s favorite subjects: the planets.
“Earth,” I was telling him, “has a lot of things that make it a good place for people to live.*”
“Like milk?” asked Simon.
“Yes, but I was thinking of some more fundamental things.”
“Milk is very healthy for you and it helps you grow.”
“All true,” I said stifling my laugh, “but in order to have healthy milk we need some other things, like water, air, sunlight….”
“Oh yeah,” said Simon, “and Earth also has some really great spheres.”
“Hmmm, okay. What spheres are you talking about?” I thought maybe he meant the Moon, possibly even the Earth itself.
“Oh you know,” he said, getting that I can’t believe I have to explain it to Daddy tone in his voice. “The Troposphere, the Stratosphere, the Mesosphere, the Thermosphere and the Exosphere.”
Yep. Simon not only knows the five layers of Earth’s atmosphere (in order), he finds ways to work them into conversation. This kid so needs to get into the Math, Science & Technology magnet program for next year.
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* And, yes, for all you philosophy of science nerds out there, we’ll get to the Anthropic Principle in a few years.
Hi, Matt, Jessica’s Pearson friend, Barbara here.
Wondering if, when Simon has his head around the Anthropic principle, could he explain it to me, please?