Yvonne, I need to clarify two things. First, that the six-year-old in question had no learning disabilities whatsoever. (His father teaches teenagers with learning disabilities, but there is nothing wrong with the son.) Second, that the assignment for the pre-schoolers was not to find the correct answer to the question, but to discuss it with his or her parents and to come back next day and tell the other children about the discussion that each of them had had with their parents. I suppose the idea was to make children wonder about things and make the curious about the world around them. Of course, if the children came back next day and nobody knew the answer to the question, and the teachers at the pre-school couldn't answer it, either - which is a distinct possibility! - then I don't think it was a very good assignment to give to young children. Clearly, there is a correct answer to this question, and I don't think that teachers should encourage children to think that any answer you can come up with to a question is as good as any other.
Ann
P.S. Thanks to everyone else who commented! Thanks for the story about the cave, Terry! Me the claustrophobiac would have had a complete nervous breakdown down there. I still want to point out that the blackness you experienced down there was not caused by the fact that the cave surrounding you was perfectly black in itself. As soon as the guide turned on the light again, I'm sure you could see the walls of the cave. If the cave had been perfectly black and absolutely unreflective (which is what perfect blackness is!), you could not have seen the walls even if the guide had shone his flashlight at them. But thank you for telling me about the cave... reading about the total blackness there gave me the shudders.
And Dave, thank you for explaining the scattering effect as the wave of photons bounce off the wall! And a very big thank you to Paul, too. You're right, Paul, every time the light hits something some of the light will be absorbed. After a sufficient number of bounces, all of it will be absorbed, of course!
Oh, P.P.S., Lara, I loved that explanation about the metal base of the light bulb!
