An adult and eight-year-old Ethan talk through what power means, starting with muscle strength and moving to electricity, lightning, and gas. They compare hand tools to power tools and figure out that power is energy that lets you do work.
Hello Ethan, how are you? I forgot to put my headphones in, so I'm putting my headphones in. So are you having a good day so far?
Yeah, my dentist told a really funny joke.
He told you a really funny joke? Do you remember it?
Yeah.
Do you want to tell it or not?
Oh, so what do you call a gator that's wearing a vest?
What do you call a what that's wearing a vest?
A gator.
A gator that's wearing a vest? I don't know, what do you call it?
An investigator.
Oh, that's very funny, that's a good one. So you like jokes, it sounds like.
Yeah.
All right. Well, I don't have any good jokes for you, but I'll keep my eye out for good jokes. I was wondering about what it means to be powerful. What does it mean to you to be powerful?
It means you're strong.
Okay, you're strong. Is being strong the only way to be powerful?
Uh, you can exercise to be powerful.
Okay, but, um, would you say that being physically powerful or physically strong is the only kind of power, or are there other kinds of power?
Like electricity power?
What kind of power?
Electricity.
Electricity power. I see. So if you have electricity, you would say electricity is a form of power?
Yeah.
Okay. Um, are there any other kinds of power?
Lightning, I think, is a form of power.
Lightning?
I think.
Okay. Lightning can certainly do a lot of damage. Lightning can blow things up. It can destroy things.
Catch things on fire.
What's this one? Catch things on fire.
Catchy.
Catchy. Okay, so being strong yourself is a form of power. Electricity is a form of power. Is electricity like being strong or is it different than being strong? How is it? Why do we call electricity power?
Okay, I recall, I guess, to power all devices.
Okay, so we power our devices, and so if we power our devices, And when we say we power our devices, is that the same as having lots of strong muscles?
It's— no, it's not.
So I'm still trying to figure out, on the one hand, power is if you have strong muscles, right? If you can lift things, that's one kind of power.
Yeah.
And on the other hand, electricity is a form of power. Do you think that they're just two completely different things or is there something in common between the power that electricity does and the power muscles have?
There's not— well, electricity can bend. Ah!
Are you okay? Um, so what about, have you ever, uh, There are some kind of tools that you can do it without electricity. So I'm thinking of, there are screwdrivers and hammers and lots of tools, right? You can, you have lots of tools that don't use power, but then other kinds of tools like drills do use power. Do you have both power tools? Do you have some power tools and some hand tools?
Yeah.
Are there any tools that can sometimes be used by hand but sometimes are a power tool?
Okay.
I mean, I think I've seen hand drills. Have you ever seen a hand drill where you just use your muscles to drill?
Yeah.
And then you probably also have seen electric drills where you just press the button and You've seen electric drills, right? So do you think that if our drills, if we use, we can either use muscles or electricity to power a drill, does that seem accurate?
Yes, that does seem accurate.
So what's in common? What's the same? Because electricity is so different than our muscles. What's the same about using muscles or electricity to do things?
They both power things.
Okay.
Like, your body is powered in a different way by moving.
Yep, yep. Um, do you know if there are any other sources of power other than muscle power and electrical power?
No, I don't.
Do you know how a car is—
Gas, gas, yes.
I was just gonna bring up gas, so tell me what you know about gas power.
It moves things.
Like what? What's an example?
Car.
Okay, so do you know how gas moves a car?
By, um, burning up.
By blowing up? So you know a little bit about how an engine works?
I mean, I think so. I think by blowing up, but I think, but I'm mostly thinking by burning up.
Burning up, burning up, okay. It's really, I think it's really interesting how gas produces power. So yeah, gas moves cars. So electricity can power drills, our hands can power drills, gas can move cars. Are there any other sources of power you can think of?
Um, not right now. No, no.
Do you think it's good to be more powerful? Do you think it's good to have power?
I guess it's good. I guess.
You guess? Can you think of a situation where it's better to be less powerful than more powerful?
Um, you wouldn't need to be powerful at coloring. I might color too much, so.
You're— you don't need to be powerful at what?
Combing.
Combing?
I like how it too much. Coloring. Like coloring a piece of paper.
Coloring a piece of paper, I see. And is that because if you're too powerful you break the crayons?
Yes.
Okay, okay. Well, um, are you interested in how things work?
Well, yes, I am.
I think you might want to ask your dad how a car works, how gas burning makes a car work, because I think it's really, really interesting. So does that sound like an interesting thing to explore?
It does.
Okay, in which case, one of these days I hope to have a good joke for you, but right now I cannot compete with your dad on the joke front. So thanks for the investigator joke. Okay. I'll let you have a good day. Okay. Bye Ethan.
Bye.
