19: The Sun
ASTRONOMY/PHYSICS
Ah, the Sun! We see nothing without it… but we don’t really see it at all. And what it is is much weirder than you might think: what’s going on in there is so strange that physicists had to invent new ideas to explain it. We’ll peer inside the Sun to talk how it was born, how it will die, and how, in the meantime, using its light might save us all.
The five lessons
Lesson 1
What’s the Sun?
This is the ninety-first lesson of our Big Course — the inaugural lesson of Year 4, and the first day of the SECOND HALF OF THE BIG COURSE.
And, hey hey, we're stepping things up!
Along the way to the answer, you'll get a reminder on whether "up" and "the sky" are real, get "embiggened" up to Gigaworld to see how big the Sun (and the planets, and the other stars) really are, and see what happens when you punch the Sun. By the end, you'll have drawn the first-ever accurate picture of what the Sun fundamentally is.
Lesson 2
What color is the Sun?
This is the ninety-second lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to the answer, you'll understand how four seemingly-unrelated facts about the world (the sky is blue, the Sun is yellow, mountains are blue, and the sunset is red) are ACTUALLY THE SAME THING.
That's just chapter 1. You'll also take a close look at the rainbow and see some things in it you may have missed before. Finally, you'll learn why the Sun actually shines... and learn something rather disquieting about how it looks.
Lesson 3
How could we power the whole world with only sunshine?
This is the ninety-third lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to the answer, you'll learn why you might not want to buy a solar-powered car, how much of the world you would need to cover in solar panels to give us the electricity we need, and what the single biggest problem is with solar energy.
Lesson 4
How could you make MORE sunshine?
This is the ninety-fourth lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to the answer, you'll learn why "atoms" are overrated, how you should understand "plasma", where the Sun's heat comes from, and where FIRE'S heat comes from.
(We won't spoil it, but this lesson culminates with one of the Big Ideas in all physics.)
Lesson 5
How far away is the Sun?
This is the ninety-fifth lesson of our Big Course. Along the way to the answer, you'll learn what an "astronomic unit" is, the (stupid, not-very-useful-for-your-understanding) layers of the Sun are... and then you'll learn some GOOD stuff. Like what sunspots really are, and what the texture of the Sun is, and what the heck those LOOPS are, and that weird HAZE around the Sun, and HOW SOMETHING KEEPS SHOOTING BULLETS GOING NEARLY THE SPEED OF LIGHT AT US (and what keeps saving us).