So much for science

by Roger Sinasohn (Subscribe to Roger Sinasohn's posts) Dec 31st 2006 4:00PM

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Coming home from a party, we drove along the freeway through an industrial area where there is a rather tall smokestack reaching for the sky all by itself. There are no other tall buildings or structures in the area, so it is very prominent. It's been there forever and when I was a kid, I was always horrified by the amount of pollution it regularly spewed out. When I grew up, I learned that it wasn't pollution at all, but harmless steam.

Jared saw it and commented on the "smoke". In my best enlightened parent mode, I explained that it was hot steam -- like in the shower -- coming up the chimney and when it hit the cold air at the top, it condensed into water vapor like a cloud. In fact, it pretty much was the same thing as a cloud. I was proud of myself for this explanation, using an everyday, observed phenomenon to teach some science and avoid unnecessary superstition.

And then Jared summed it all up: "It looks like a Genie!"

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