I spent about forty minutes today with a fourth grader, whom I was told wanted to talk to someone about some questions he had about philosophy. Or maybe I misunderstood what we were going to be visiting about. But anyway, here’s what he asked as best as I remember–not exactly philosophy except, as my daughter pointed out, in the ancient Greek sense:
- Do black holes last forever?
- What’s the law of cosines?
- What is calculus and what’s it good for?
- What does it mean when a molecule is in “its lowest energy state”?
- What are dreams and do they mean anything?
I was pretty pleased with some of my answers, especially considering they were all off the top of my head. (I think the kids these days call this sort of thing an AMA session, for “Ask me anything”). I do definitely agree with Einstein that you have to understand something pretty well to explain it to an intelligent 12-year-old (though I assume this boy must have been about ten).