Relativity and the Sun

Jonny is eight years old. He is several levels ahead of his time with our method, and well beyond that in regards to his interests and general knowledge. Taking detours with him to explore new topics that go beyond the book is a lot of fun! Recently, the story in our book was about a space restaurant in the future. We started talking more about space and, surprisingly, Jonny already knew that time slows down as one travels closer to the speed of light.

He also knew how nuclear fission works, but was interested to learn that the sun’s energy comes from the process in reverse, nuclear fusion. The part that really got his attention was that although the Sun’s light travels to Earth in just over eight minutes, the light takes about one million years to get from the inner core of fusion where it was created to the edge of the Sun where it can be released for its journey to Earth.

Needless to say, this particular eight year old needs a bit of extra stimulation to keep the curriculum interesting.