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Description
"The Fire Dance" - How tickling photons make the atoms and molecules jiggle and wiggle.Dancing molecules and atoms. Tickling photons. Fire is fascinating! Have you ever wondered why wood can burn? What does heat actually mean?Well, as a scientist I always try to ask deeper questions, such as: What do the atoms actually do when a fire is ignited? Why is fire not only hot but also bright? How come, wood takes ages to grow, but can be burned within minutes?... This short story is trying to answer these questions in an illustrative and simple way, easy to understand by anyone. It provides a view on the combustion process through the children eyes of a physicist.Short summary:Oxygen, hydrogen and carbon atoms are essential building blocks of the natural world around us. Reaching out for other atoms, to hold each other's hands, they can form molecules. Depending on who teams up with whom, they form gases, liquids or even solids. Plants grow by taking in water, light, and carbon dioxide. Photons are super fast and full of energy. They tickle the atoms and make them jiggle and wiggle. They help to get the fire dance started by messing everything up. Eventually, there is a huge chaos - the fire dance of the atoms and molecules - that decomposes the wood back into its original components.Kids are taught in a playful way what our environment is made of and how these processes work. The goal of this short story is to entertain not to explain every detail absolutely scientifically correct. Perhaps, the readers are inspired to ask further questions. Dr. Toni Helm is a physicist and works as a scientist at a large German research center.Together with his wife and two kids he lives and works in Dresden in Saxony.Often, science can be manifold and complex. As a hobby author of children's books, alongside his daily work in the laboratory, Dr. Helm tries to contribute to the education of our youngest. In his books he explains some aspects of our beautiful but complex world in a simplified and funny way. Children in particular are unbiased and curious. These are human traits that every scientist needs to possess in order to discover new things and also to understand them. At the same time it is important to question known things and also to ask the right questions."As a father I have read and read aloud many children's books. It is exciting and at the same time very inspiring to look at our world through the eyes of a child. Today's children are tomorrow's discoverers and inventors.Enjoy reading and reading aloud.Yours faithfully,Toni Helm"
