I picked up the boys from their mother's workplace one afternoon this week to take them to our house after school. I picked them up in my truck. Since it is a single cab with no rear seat, the law states that they can ride in booster seats up front. This is the only time these boys get to ride up front since all other vehicles in the family have a back seat and thus they are required to ride one row back. They get a great view out the windshield in my truck, so they love riding in it. We have some wonderful conversations during our rides!
This particular day was very very warm.
“Wow!” I said as we buckled ourselves in, “it is really toasty!”.
I pulled the truck onto the freeway.
“Look at that! It’s 105 degrees!”
“Where do you see that”, asked Troy.
I pointed to the tiny number embedded in the rearview mirror.
Teo asked to see also and soon we were all watching the little digits in the corner of the mirror. As we drove westward, the display changed to 104.
"Look at that!”, I said, "It is getting cooler as we drive! I bet it is down to 100 degrees by the time we get home!
Troy asked me why that would be. I explained that we were driving westward and as we get closer to the ocean, the temperature gets cooler. We live about 10 miles from the coast, so it should be much cooler by the time we get there. We made a game of it, watching as the temperature dropped to 104 to 103 to 102. Troy said he bet it would get to 99 degrees. The boys had fun watching the temperature change on the mirror readout.
Teo wondered what the temperature would be like at the ocean. I told him we wouldn’t find out because we would be turning soon, but if we kept going straight we would end up in the ocean – after we drove through a house. Teo’s mind contemplated that.
“What would happen to the truck if it went in the ocean?”, he asked.
“Well, it wouldn’t run anymore."
“Why?”
Troy joined the conversation: “because the wires would get wet.”
“That’s right”, I confirmed, “and water would get in the engine. Since the motor is designed to take in air and not water, water would ruin the motor and it wouldn’t run”
“See all of the electronics on the dash” I pointed out, “It would all be ruined because it has wiring in it that wouldn’t work after it became wet.”
As we exited the freeway and headed north, I explained that it probably wouldn’t get any cooler because we were going parallel to the coast now.
But we continued to watch the readout, and in the next 3 miles to our house it did indeed drop to 99, 98, 97, and 96. When we pulled into our driveway it dropped one more time to 95. The boys were very excited to learn about temperatures and to actually watch it change visually.
In the span of 15 minutes, the boys received a quick lesson on temperatures,how direction and coastlines affect them, and the effects of water on electronics. A great use of time!
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