Why Is The Sky Blue?

One of my best friends and I were talking about kids and how they ask really annoying questions like, "Why is the sky blue?" And then when you answer with what you think to be the easiest and least disputable answer, "Because God made it so," what do you get in response?

"Why?"
"Cause God made everything."
"Why?"
"Cause he likes making things."
"Why?"
"He's good with his hands."
"Why?"
"Cause he went to a good trade school."
Why?

Then the inevitable happens. You say what every adult is NOT supposed to say to an inquisitive mind.

"Because... I... say so!! No more whys."

My friend gave me a better solution to avoiding this whole question asking tennis match. If you don't want kids bugging you with their asinine questions, then why not just answer the question?

"Why is the sky blue?"

"Well little Wilber, I'm glad you asked that. The blue color of the sky is due to Rayleigh scattering. As light moves through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air, cause as you may or may not already know those colors aren't absorbed by the gas molecues in air. However, much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light is then radiated in different directions. It gets scattered all around the sky, hence, the blue. "

And then for added effect, after you've given this speech, smile at the kid smugly, daring him with your eyes, to ask you "Why?" Go on ahead kid. TRY me.

The average child will know when he's lost the "Why" game and gracefully bow out. Only the brazen ones will challenge you. For them, its time to play hardball. Physics practice problems. I'm talking vectors, the speed of wave equation, make them memorize the speed of light, the works! See how long they can stand doing work when their peers are outside livin' the high life.

If at that point you still can't kill the kid's spirit, you may have bite the bullet and actually "teach" them things, real things. Scary thought, I know, especially since I for one do not really know much about anything of relevance. And the things I do know I don't know in much detail.

You could do the right thing and help foster an interactive fun environment of learning... Or, you can sit them in front of the TV and hope they forget their question. Maybe its the engineer in me, but I for one vote for the former.

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This blog post is dedicated to AH. Thanks for being my voice of... what's the opposite of reason?