Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Why the Concept of Entropy Should be Important to 9-Year-Olds.

This morning I gave Mylene this big explanation of the concept of entropy, and what a wonderful feeling it is when your room is clean but that the forces of entropy cause it to always fall back into being messy. And I pointed out how amazing we are as living beings that we can actually fight back against this cosmic force that will eventually even cause the universe itself to fall apart. Unlike the inanimate objects of the universe we can rail against it, even if it's just in a small way, by keeping ourselves as healthy as we can, and by restoring our dirty rooms back to their previous state, and wasn't that amazing! "Does that make sense?" I asked. "Not really," she answered. "You're boring me."

So I thought about that for a second. And I said, "Okay, how about this: CLEAN YOUR ROOM!"

It turns out my kid prefers the direct approach to the wonders of the cosmos. Sigh.

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