Whirlpools and Emerging Scientists

FLUID DYNAMICS noun plural but singular or plural in construction a branch of fluid mechanics that deals with fluid motion (as flow and wave motion) (from Merriam Webster)

My children are once again making a whirlpool in the swimming pool.  Round and round the edge of the pool they swim or run or both, until the water follows them creating a current that travels round and round the pool.

WHIRLPOOL noun \ˈhwər(-ə)l-ˌpül, ˈwər(-ə)l-\ water moving rapidly in a circle so as to produce a depression in the center into which floating objects may be drawn: EDDY, VORTEX (from Merriam Webster)

Then, they lay back, lift their feet off the bottom and let the current carry them around.

“I can’t stop.” they giggle. 

Then,

“What happens if we try and go the other way?”

“That’s hard.”

Later,

“Let’s make it faster.”

And,

“How do we make it stop?”

Children are natural scientists.  The difficulty is holding onto that interest and sense of wonder to be an adult scientist.