my trial

James Watt and the kettle

A Scotland little boy was sitting in the kitchen of his grandma. Looking at the waving flame in the furnace., he meditated the cause of the occurrences. Indeed, he always felt baffled and wondered the true cause..

“Grandma, what is inside the kettle?” he asked.

“Water. My honey, nothing else.”

“But I am sure in it there is something else which pushes the lid and makes the kettle rattle.”

Grandma began laughing, “that is because of steam. You can see steam pop out from the orifice and makes noise at the bottom of the kettle.”

“But you just said that there is only water, nothing else. So where does the steam come from?”

“Ah, Honey, it is from hot water. Hot water produces steam.” Grandma began feel it is hard to explain.

The boy lift the lid, prying into the inside of the kettle, only observing bubbles popping up from water, nothing else. Steam is only visible when it leaves the kettle.

“How weird!” he said, “To lift this heavy iron lid, the steam must have a lot of power. Grandma, how much water have you loaded in the kettle?”

“About a quart, Jimmy.”

“Oh. If so much power is produced from so little water, the power produced from a great amount of water will be tremendous. Why don’t we make the steam lift much heavier objects than this lid? Why don’t we make the steam turn wheels?”

No reply from Grandma. She thought Jimmy’s questions not much useful but hard to answer. She kept doing her work silently, while Jimmy still sit there studying the kettle.