2007-05-16

Conservation of Knowledge

Our oldest son must make a documentary film for a school project. The title of his film? "How Cars Work." No surprise there. Shooting hasn't started yet, but he wrote a draft of the script, which he gave to me to proofread.

son:“I don't need you to fix any spelling or grammar. I just need to know if it's right on a technical level.”
me (head):“That's code for -- 'Dad, you're a functional illiterate, but you're the only person in the family who knows more about cars than I do.'”


The script was well written and nicely organized. He covered the major components in a logical succession, starting with the engine and ending with the brakes. That's when I got to this part:

"The brakes are responsible for converting the kinetic energy of the car into heat energy, so they need to be well ventilated."


Wow! He actually listened when I taught him about conservation of energy. Cool.

My chest swelled with geek-pride.