The Sun for Kids - How old is the Sun? Is the Sun just like other stars? What is the Sun made of?

Sun

Sun in sky

You can see that the sunlight that reaches the Earth travels at different wavelengths. On a sunny day, put a full glass of water (a real glass glass) in the sunshine on your windowsill. Look where the sunshine goes through the water, and you should see rainbows on the floor or walls.

Those rainbows happen when the water bends the waves of sunlight going through it. The light coming from the sun looks white because it is a mixture of all wavelengths of light. When the light goes through the water, the shorter wavelengths get bent more than the longer wavelengths do, so you end up with the short wavelengths hitting the wall at a different place from the longer wavelengths: that's what makes a rainbow.

Do you think this would work with moonlight? Why or why not? How about light from a light bulb? What about firelight?

Main page about the Sun

To find out more about the sun, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

The Earth
The Moon
Planets
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Science for Kids home page
History for Kids home page


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