7 year old son has a science question about the sun?

Question

His assignment is to verbally explain to the class how the sun was formed. I know roughly how this happened but can anyone help me put it in terms that a 7 year old will understand and remember?

He does not attend a Christian school. He is looking for the purely scientific explanation. My belief...for anyone who is interested is that the universe is too beautiful and mathmatically perfect to be a happy accident.

Answer 1

Here's a great web site that has all kinds of facts about the sun!

Since it is a Scholastic website, it puts the explanation in very simple terms.

Also here's a link to a video created to accompany a song by They Might Be Giants (Istanbul is their biggest hit) call "The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas"

It's great it goes through the scientific facts in a catchy tune!

Answer 2

The sun started out as a big cloud of gas and dust. This dust slowly came together through gravitational forces. In early stages the sun would resemble something like Jupiter which is itself a giant swirling ball of gas (Jupiter however does not have enough internal pressure to ignite nuclear fusion) as more and more gas added to the now planet sized ball eventually a point is reached where the internal pressure of the huge planet becomes high enough to cause nuclear fusion reactions. This is when a planet becomes a star. The hydrogen gas in the star fuses to create helium and gives off light in the process.

In terms of a visual for young kids:
Think of the hydrogen molecules as gummy bears, gummy bears are kinda sticky and when they get around each other they like to stick together. If you got a whole handful of gummy bears and then represented gravity by squishing them together in your hand they'd really stick together even better (though still seperate). At some point you'll squish them so tight that you won't be able to peel them apart as single gummy bears anymore, this would represent the fusion.

Hope this helps the kid. I think science is important to young kids early on not just for education but as an appreciation of the wonder that goes on right on front of their eyes every day.

Answer 3

Wow, thats some really complicated stuff. Does your son go to a very christian school? If so just tell him to say 'on the third day, god created the sun' Thats the only reason I could think of why a child would be asked such a question.

If it is truly scientific, then say that it was created during the big bang, when everything started. Thats simple enough for 7 year olds. The big bang was the start of everything (in most scientists' eyes) There was an explosion of energy and matter from one point and it blew up to create everything around us.

Answer 4

Morningfoxnorth is right, except he didn't mention the elements found in the sun: hydrogen and helium. When hydrpgen atoms bond together they release a great amount of energy, and helium is the byproduct.

Answer 5

I can't really explain it myself in words that a seven year old might understand, but I do know that national Geographic has a website which will explain how the sun came (in a non chritianic but scientific way) to be in our solar system. (or even ask.com)

Answer 6

How about this:

A really big cloud of gas started swirling around, and it got sucked into a tight ball by its own gravity. When the ball of gas got big enough, and tight enough -- a few million miles -- it lite on {nuclear} fire. And that was billions of years ago, and the sun is still burning today.

Answer 7

The universe started a long time ago with a very big explosion of stars. And the sun is one of those stars.

Answer 8

The sun was made from an explosion that happened a long time ago when the universe was formed. Its made of pure energy. (gases from the explosion etc...)

Answer 9

well it was formed by god....scientificly...two random atoms appeared out of nowhere exploded creating hydrogen and helium and matter and antimatter....matter and antimatter pretty much fought and hydrogen and helium magicaly made every other element

Answer 10

Well... There are lots of different theories to your question....if some people are religious....they might have a different perspective. If you look it up and help your son read it and make him put it in his own words cause then he would understand it more! I hope this helps....tell your son I said goodluck :~)!