A Conversation Flying Through My Head
Do you ever find yourself imagining that you are trying to explain some modern invention to someone from like 500 years ago? This morning, the conversation in my head went something like this:
What on earth is that?
What?
That! Up in the sky!
Oh. That's an airplane.
An... air... plane?
Yes. It's a big machine that transports people long distances.
There are people in there?
Yes.
How many people?
Some airplanes only carry a few people. That one probably carries four or five hundred.
*shudder* Why ever would a person want to get on an big machine in the sky?
Well, sometimes we want to go places that are far away more quickly than it would take us to travel there by land or sea. For instance, if I wanted to go to my parents house, it would take me 8 hours to drive there, but only an hour or two to fly there, not counting the time sitting around in the airport.
What is an airport?
That's the place where the airplanes land and take off. It is where people go to get on an airplane.
How many airplanes are there?
Thousands. There is probably an airplane taking off somewhere in the world every minute all day every day.
How does it get up there, and once it does, how does it stay up? Why isn't it falling?
Well, when an airplane takes off, it goes really fast, and the wings are shaped so that the air pressure lifts the plane up. It feels kind of weird when it actually lifts up off the ground...
Wait, you've been on one of those?
Well yes, a few times.
And you're still alive to tell the tale?
Of course! The first ones built over a hundred years ago were dangerous, but airplanes today are perfectly safe... unless of course they get hijacked and flown into a building or something happens to the pilot...
Right...
What on earth is that?
What?
That! Up in the sky!
Oh. That's an airplane.
An... air... plane?
Yes. It's a big machine that transports people long distances.
There are people in there?
Yes.
How many people?
Some airplanes only carry a few people. That one probably carries four or five hundred.
*shudder* Why ever would a person want to get on an big machine in the sky?
Well, sometimes we want to go places that are far away more quickly than it would take us to travel there by land or sea. For instance, if I wanted to go to my parents house, it would take me 8 hours to drive there, but only an hour or two to fly there, not counting the time sitting around in the airport.
What is an airport?
That's the place where the airplanes land and take off. It is where people go to get on an airplane.
How many airplanes are there?
Thousands. There is probably an airplane taking off somewhere in the world every minute all day every day.
How does it get up there, and once it does, how does it stay up? Why isn't it falling?
Well, when an airplane takes off, it goes really fast, and the wings are shaped so that the air pressure lifts the plane up. It feels kind of weird when it actually lifts up off the ground...
Wait, you've been on one of those?
Well yes, a few times.
And you're still alive to tell the tale?
Of course! The first ones built over a hundred years ago were dangerous, but airplanes today are perfectly safe... unless of course they get hijacked and flown into a building or something happens to the pilot...
Right...
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