Math and Science

My 10-year-old son Gabriel was learning about the Celsius temperature scale today.

me: “Now Gabe, you know usually when we talk about how cold something is or how hot something is we talk in degrees, like 56 degrees with rain right now is kind of cold, but in a couple of months it will be 90 degrees and we think that will be really hot, right?”

Gabe: “Right mom.”

me: “OK Gabe, at what temperature does water freeze?”

Gabe: “Uh… 32 degrees.”

me: “Right! Now at what temperature does water boil?”

Gabe: “500”

me: “Not quite.”

Gabe: “350?”

me: “Nope. That’s what temperature the oven preheats at. But good guess. Water boils at 212 degrees.”

Gabe: “Oh, well that’s not too bad.”

Me: (forging ahead) “Gabe those numbers are from the Fahrenheit scale. A man named Mr. Fahrenheit made up that scale.

Gabe: “He made a movie too right?”

Me: Uh… no, that was something different. Anyway, 32 and 212 are kind of hard numbers to remember, so guess what? Another man named Mr. Celsius made up his own scale to make it easier to remember.

Gabe: “Great!”

Me: “OK Gabe, now let’s try to think like Mr. Celsius. If you want to remember what number water freezes at, what would be an easy number to pick.”

Gabe: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Now think about it for a second. What would be the easiest for freezing water.”

Gabe: “Putting it in the freezer.”

sigh…and so it goes

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