Things I Discovered Because My Daughter Asks Lots of Questions

Four year olds are notorious for asking lots of questions and Noodle has more questions than most four year olds... or at least it feels that way to me. I like to encourage her zest for learning and in the rare event when I don't have all the answers or where I think something can be better demonstrated with pictures than words, we turn to the internet. In the process, I have discovered some interesting things too.

DO YOU GET SPECIAL WHEELCHAIRS FOR CHILDREN?

Noodle wanted to know more about children with disabilities and how they get around. We discovered that there are some super cool wheelchairs out there- so funky that Noodle wanted one too. I explained to her how privileged she is to have the use of her limbs and how much more precious this is than any wheelchair. You have to admit that some of these are pretty awesome though.

Picture courtesy of http://www.karmanhealthcare.com/blog/

Picture from www.friendshipcircle.org

Picture from pinterest.com

 

Picture from http://www.faceboat.org.au/stories/index/cool-wheelchairs-pimp-my-ride

WHY DO WE NEED MOSQUITOES?

We all know how annoying they are but surely there is some reason that we have them right? I was fairly sure they fitted somewhere into the food chain but was not quite sure why our ecosystem needs them. It turns out that they help filter algae from water. They are food for birds, bats and spiders and their larvae are great food for fish and other aquatic life.

HOW DO BEEKEEPERS GET THE HONEY WITHOUT BEING STUNG?

I partially knew the answer to this but Youtube is so much more descriptive, from the special protective suits to using smoke to prevent the bees from becoming agitated and stinging. Then, to actually get the honey out of the hive, the hive is spun in a centrifuge honey extractor which gets the honey out but leaves the hive intact.

FIRE RAINBOWS

Well she actually just wanted to learn more about rainbows but then we stumbled on this. How spectacular are these.

As per www.amusingplanet.com: 

" “Fire Rainbows” are neither fire, nor rainbows, but are so called because of their brilliant pastel colors and flame like appearance. Technically they are known as circumhorizontal arc - an ice halo formed by hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals in high level cirrus clouds. The halo is so large that the arc appears parallel to the horizon, hence the name.

Brightly colored circumhorizontal arc occur mostly during the summer and between particular latitudes. When the sun is very high in the sky, sunlight entering flat, hexagon shaped ice crystals gets split into individual colors just like in a prism. The conditions required to form a “fire rainbow” is very precise – the sun has to be at an elevation of 58° or greater, there must be high altitude cirrus clouds with plate-shaped ice crystals, and sunlight has to enter the ice crystals at a specific angle. This is why circumhorizontal arc is such a rare phenomenon"

WHAT DOES GOOGLE LOOK LIKE?

We explained that Google is not a person but she Googled this anyway. This came up with cool pictures of Google's headquarters- their pipe cooling system and funky offices.

IF THE EARTH IS ROUND AND SPINS, WHY DON'T WE FALL OFF?

Youtube explains gravity to a four year old way better than mommy ever could!