Friday, October 19, 2007

stump me

A few months ago a friend told us that he and his kids play a game in the car called 'stump the dad'. The idea is to ask Dad questions that he won't be able to answer. He told us that he hadn't been stumped yet! His kids are 10 and 7. Well, I am a dunce. I am stumped daily. 'Why are piggy banks called piggy banks and not froggy banks or elephant banks?' is actually the only one I remember being asked today.
Then the same child, DS10, tells me that lightning is 1/2 inch wide. Is this true? I have never even wondered how wide lightning is. Where do you find this out? Do random facts just float around and only 10 year olds have the correct antennae to pick it up?

1 comment:

Reed Stone said...

Well, being a former 10 year old boy myself, I can tell you that random facts do pile up. When taking physics if you were to mess with the equations an object with negative mass will move in the opposite direction it was pushed. Also did you know that you can have Pressure that is lower than that of a vacuum? did you know that negative pressure is critical to Transpirational pull(name for how trees get H20 from roots to leaves)? Now if you are asked what that is you have ans answer. perhaps you can play stump the kid.