A-Bombs

The other night, when I was putting Isaac to bed, he said, "Some people in my class think germs are the smallest, but I know that germs are made up of atoms so atoms are the smallest."

"What is smaller than an atom?" I said.  And, we thought and thought about that.  Then, we talked about the parts of an atom.  Then, I said, "What if you tried to take an atom apart?  What if you tried to split it in two to make something smaller?"

He thought for a minute or two, then he said, "It would explode."

I was amazed at his answer and I said, "How did you know that?"

He said, "I don't know, I'm just guessing.  Why?  Is that right?"

I was surprised because I don't think I would have thought of an atom causing an explosion all on my own.

So, we talked about atomic bombs.  And, then we got on the computer and researched atomic bombs.  I learned so many cool things.  I know atomic bombs are horrible.  But, they are also intriguing.  Did you know we have exploded 2,000 a-bombs for testing?  I would have thought it was more like 50.

We watched tons of youtube videos of a-bombs being detonated.  They are so fascinating to watch.  The most amazing one was the Tsar Bomba -- the largest atomic bomb ever tested.  It was made by Russia and detonated in Siberia.  It was 3x more powerful than any a-bomb the U.S. has ever built.  They said it had more TNT power than all of the bombs used during every battle of WWII.  The cloud of smoke rose 40-miles in the air when it exploded and the shock wave was still measurable on its third trip around the world.  That is what it said on youtube anyways.  Of course, that is horrible.  But, it is so crazy to imagine.

Last night, when I was laying with Katie, I had a memory from our summer that I wanted to record.  She is so excited to ride the big rides.  But, she is not tall enough for many of them yet.  One that she is tall enough for is the Tidal Wave -- a giant ship that swings back and forth.  We had so much fun riding that together.  I couldn't get enough of the look on her face when it would really get going and the way she would scream, "My stomach is getting so tiny!!!"

That was her way of saying "I have butterflies."