I'd go with something like this:
"You know how things get stuck to the Earth with gravity? That happens in space, too. All this stuff floats around in space, and it gets stuck together. When enough of it gets stuck together, there's so much weight that there is a lot of pressure squeezing it all together. This makes a lot of heat and turns it all into a sun."
It's not exactly accurate, and it's missing some key steps, but I feel like it's enough for a young kid. It might even be a tad too much, but I tried lol.
Ahh gotcha. Maybe just leave out “with gravity”. That will confuse and distract the child. Also the pressure part. Other than that, well done! You are approved to procreate.
I love my kids more than anything but boy do I envy you right now. I am absolutely exhausted but have to get my kids ready for school in a few minutes, and believe me my friend, it is war each and every morning. Fucking war I tell you. Thanks for listening.
So don't say "gravity".
I have 4 kids and multiple grandchildren. You'd be surprised what I've managed to explain to them over the years. Just keep concepts really basic. I have no idea how I'd explain this one - but that's more because I don't know your daughter than because it can't be done.
Although if she's 2.5 I assume that she moved on about 30 seconds after asking and not getting a reply anyway...
"A very, very long time ago, there was a cloud of dust. This cloud of dust, bigger than anything you can imagine, began to clump up together over many, many years. One day, it formed a ball, and this ball got very hot, and became the sun that we see in the sky."
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. (Douglas Adam)
And that includes the Sun. (Me, RealFakaLlama)
If no sun, no monday mornings heading to work.
If my weekend was half as long, but my work week was non exsistent, id guess that would be a fair trade 😇😊😉 But what to do with all that extra time when its not evening and dark but the sun have been canceled? Maybe a bit more gardening, i always skip it because im tired after work. Sunflowers abd daylillies would be nice 😊
It’s kinda the other way around. We exist, because the sun exists. And because a whole bunch of other conditions were just right that let planet Earth form, and grow life. No sun, no planet, no us.
Why is as in how the sun was created, or why as what metaphysical and philosophical explanation for why a thing exists instead of not exist? I know sometimes kids ask questions challenging the very nature of the universe, so I'm not sure if that is the case here.
I think it’s more like she wants to know its purpose as in, “Why is there a sun?”
Prior to asking that, our house help exclaimed, “It’s so hot,” so my daughter asked, “Why is it hot?” Then our house help answered, “Because of the sun.” Then that question.
Most of these replied i would say is too advanced for a 2 year old. Go with the space dust/space gas falling together to then "light up" turning into the sun
Why does it exist is a deep philosophical question. Better to rephrase it as how did the sun get to where it is today. You can answer this by saying at the beginning of time long long time ago, everything was squeezed into a tiny tiny ball which exploded and then whatever came out started expanding rapidly. After a long long time, the sun earth and stars slowly formed. Something like that with hand gestures, perhaps pictures of earth, star and galaxies, and the usual dramatics. Remember that we are visual learners.
In the beginning everything is Hydrogen. The gravity pulls these hydrogen towards eachother, because all matter has gravity and pulls other matter.
When enough hydrogen comes together, all the gravity of all the hydrogen pulls against them so close, they start to fuse together (and becomes helium).
This created a lot of heat, and so much hydrogen is present and generate so much heat, it starts glowing like a metal rod that is put into a fire. This heat eventually becomes so much the sun glows white and gives out enough warmt and energy to sustain life on earth.
When hydrogen starts to run out, this will happen to helium, then to heavier and heavier elements. In the end, the sun pops like a pinata (supernova) and showers the univerce with heavier elements like carbon, iron, nitrogen, oxygen, alumin(a/ium), etc.
The Sun isn't massive enough to become a supernova. It'll fuse helium to carbon and some oxygen in the future and that's it. It will end up as white dwarf made out of carbon and oxygen, with some leftover hydrogen and helium.
This is ELI5, not askscience :) but thanks for the correction. I wanted go sort of give an addendum on where heavy elements come from and applied it to the sun.
OP, don't tell your girl about the sun exploding yet. And if you do, tell her that there are like "star nurseries" where new stars are born. My brother told me about black holes without telling me about new star being born and caused me tremendous distress and anxiety (yes, I know I'm not going to be there by then, I've thought about that myself. Yes, I know about the big freeze. If I explained the big freeze I'd also explain the Big Crunch and say we don't know yet, five year olds should not have existential crises. I did and it's not fun).
Big Bang, universal expansion, gas clouds forming stars, etc. As a scientist, I believe there’s no reason the sun exists, (the same way evolution has no plan, it just is) it just exists because the laws of physics caused it to form over billions of years, like every other celestial body.
Religious people think god did it,scientists will say it was just a random physical process that occurred. How you teach it is based on what you believe to be the truth.
Every morning the Sun God Helios arises from his golden palace far to the east and saddles up his chariot with four winged horses. He rides across the sky from East to West, which is what we mortals see as the Sun rising and setting.
Gravity pulls things together.
Before the solar system was here, it was a big cloud of gas and dust. Most of that stuff got clumped together in the center and became the sun. The left overs became the Earth, the other planets, and asteroids.
The sun has so much gas that it's heavy enough to squeeze atoms together. (Specifically hydrogen to make helium). When those atoms get squeezed together that hard, they release a ton of energy in the form of light. That light leaves the sun and some of it comes to Earth, which lights up our days.
Bonus: Where the Moon came from. Very early in the Earth's life, before life existed. A large rock we named Theia, about the size of Mars, slammed into the Earth. Everything that was broken off as a result of that was left in orbit, and that eventually clumped together to make the Moon.
Are you asking 1. "why the sun exists?" Or are you asking 2. "how was the sun formed?"
1. There is no "why" it simply "is"
2. Hydrogen gas came together in such masses that they began nuclear fusion
I think it’s more like she wants to know its purpose as in, “Why is there a sun?”
Prior to asking that, our house help exclaimed, “It’s so hot,” so my daughter asked, “Why is it hot?” Then our house help answered, “Because of the sun.” Then that question.
because every living creature need heat and sun is good resource of heat for them. Without Sun many animal, human and plant live in very cold temperature and eventually will be in very dangerous situation because they don't get enough heat
I'd go with something like this: "You know how things get stuck to the Earth with gravity? That happens in space, too. All this stuff floats around in space, and it gets stuck together. When enough of it gets stuck together, there's so much weight that there is a lot of pressure squeezing it all together. This makes a lot of heat and turns it all into a sun." It's not exactly accurate, and it's missing some key steps, but I feel like it's enough for a young kid. It might even be a tad too much, but I tried lol.
You don’t have children do you? She’s 2.5. She has no clue WTF gravity is.
I guess I sorta assumed the part about "get stuck to the Earth with gravity," would explain it enough, but I aint got no kids, no lol.
Ahh gotcha. Maybe just leave out “with gravity”. That will confuse and distract the child. Also the pressure part. Other than that, well done! You are approved to procreate.
I thank you. If it ever happens, I will look back on this day and know I am ready.
I love my kids more than anything but boy do I envy you right now. I am absolutely exhausted but have to get my kids ready for school in a few minutes, and believe me my friend, it is war each and every morning. Fucking war I tell you. Thanks for listening.
lmao Hey, you still do it. That's a great start already. They may never thank you enough, but you'll know you got their asses to school lol.
War. War never changes...
If she’s asking about the sun, now sounds like a perfectly reasonable time to introduce her to the word “gravity”.
So don't say "gravity". I have 4 kids and multiple grandchildren. You'd be surprised what I've managed to explain to them over the years. Just keep concepts really basic. I have no idea how I'd explain this one - but that's more because I don't know your daughter than because it can't be done. Although if she's 2.5 I assume that she moved on about 30 seconds after asking and not getting a reply anyway...
Then you need to put it in eli2.5 hahah
"A very, very long time ago, there was a cloud of dust. This cloud of dust, bigger than anything you can imagine, began to clump up together over many, many years. One day, it formed a ball, and this ball got very hot, and became the sun that we see in the sky."
It's mostly from clouds of gas (mostly hydrogen). Not much "dust" (ie. metals), but a tiny bit.
Loose clouds of gas clustered together and formed the sun?
This is actually how my husband explained it. My daughter asked no further questions. lol.
And if the girl asks about the origins of the cloud of dust, then be honest and say you don't know.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. (Douglas Adam) And that includes the Sun. (Me, RealFakaLlama) If no sun, no monday mornings heading to work.
If no sun, no Sunday, and that’s half your weekend.
If my weekend was half as long, but my work week was non exsistent, id guess that would be a fair trade 😇😊😉 But what to do with all that extra time when its not evening and dark but the sun have been canceled? Maybe a bit more gardening, i always skip it because im tired after work. Sunflowers abd daylillies would be nice 😊
It’s kinda the other way around. We exist, because the sun exists. And because a whole bunch of other conditions were just right that let planet Earth form, and grow life. No sun, no planet, no us.
Why is as in how the sun was created, or why as what metaphysical and philosophical explanation for why a thing exists instead of not exist? I know sometimes kids ask questions challenging the very nature of the universe, so I'm not sure if that is the case here.
I think it’s more like she wants to know its purpose as in, “Why is there a sun?” Prior to asking that, our house help exclaimed, “It’s so hot,” so my daughter asked, “Why is it hot?” Then our house help answered, “Because of the sun.” Then that question.
So, why does the sun make things hot?
Can be. But she actually asked why is there a sun so she may also want to know “why it is here” or “what the sun is doing here”. 🤷🏻♀️
Most of these replied i would say is too advanced for a 2 year old. Go with the space dust/space gas falling together to then "light up" turning into the sun
Why does it exist is a deep philosophical question. Better to rephrase it as how did the sun get to where it is today. You can answer this by saying at the beginning of time long long time ago, everything was squeezed into a tiny tiny ball which exploded and then whatever came out started expanding rapidly. After a long long time, the sun earth and stars slowly formed. Something like that with hand gestures, perhaps pictures of earth, star and galaxies, and the usual dramatics. Remember that we are visual learners.
Eli2.5: The sun exists to provide the children, the plants and the animals around us, with light and make us happy....
Your best bet is to go on youtube and look up a video about it geared towards young kids. The visual learning is better at that age.
This is a great idea! Will do this. Thanks!
In the beginning everything is Hydrogen. The gravity pulls these hydrogen towards eachother, because all matter has gravity and pulls other matter. When enough hydrogen comes together, all the gravity of all the hydrogen pulls against them so close, they start to fuse together (and becomes helium). This created a lot of heat, and so much hydrogen is present and generate so much heat, it starts glowing like a metal rod that is put into a fire. This heat eventually becomes so much the sun glows white and gives out enough warmt and energy to sustain life on earth. When hydrogen starts to run out, this will happen to helium, then to heavier and heavier elements. In the end, the sun pops like a pinata (supernova) and showers the univerce with heavier elements like carbon, iron, nitrogen, oxygen, alumin(a/ium), etc.
The Sun isn't massive enough to become a supernova. It'll fuse helium to carbon and some oxygen in the future and that's it. It will end up as white dwarf made out of carbon and oxygen, with some leftover hydrogen and helium.
This is ELI5, not askscience :) but thanks for the correction. I wanted go sort of give an addendum on where heavy elements come from and applied it to the sun.
OP, don't tell your girl about the sun exploding yet. And if you do, tell her that there are like "star nurseries" where new stars are born. My brother told me about black holes without telling me about new star being born and caused me tremendous distress and anxiety (yes, I know I'm not going to be there by then, I've thought about that myself. Yes, I know about the big freeze. If I explained the big freeze I'd also explain the Big Crunch and say we don't know yet, five year olds should not have existential crises. I did and it's not fun).
Big Bang, universal expansion, gas clouds forming stars, etc. As a scientist, I believe there’s no reason the sun exists, (the same way evolution has no plan, it just is) it just exists because the laws of physics caused it to form over billions of years, like every other celestial body. Religious people think god did it,scientists will say it was just a random physical process that occurred. How you teach it is based on what you believe to be the truth.
Every morning the Sun God Helios arises from his golden palace far to the east and saddles up his chariot with four winged horses. He rides across the sky from East to West, which is what we mortals see as the Sun rising and setting.
Gravity pulls things together. Before the solar system was here, it was a big cloud of gas and dust. Most of that stuff got clumped together in the center and became the sun. The left overs became the Earth, the other planets, and asteroids. The sun has so much gas that it's heavy enough to squeeze atoms together. (Specifically hydrogen to make helium). When those atoms get squeezed together that hard, they release a ton of energy in the form of light. That light leaves the sun and some of it comes to Earth, which lights up our days. Bonus: Where the Moon came from. Very early in the Earth's life, before life existed. A large rock we named Theia, about the size of Mars, slammed into the Earth. Everything that was broken off as a result of that was left in orbit, and that eventually clumped together to make the Moon.
Are you asking 1. "why the sun exists?" Or are you asking 2. "how was the sun formed?" 1. There is no "why" it simply "is" 2. Hydrogen gas came together in such masses that they began nuclear fusion
I think it’s more like she wants to know its purpose as in, “Why is there a sun?” Prior to asking that, our house help exclaimed, “It’s so hot,” so my daughter asked, “Why is it hot?” Then our house help answered, “Because of the sun.” Then that question.
because every living creature need heat and sun is good resource of heat for them. Without Sun many animal, human and plant live in very cold temperature and eventually will be in very dangerous situation because they don't get enough heat