Question: Science is a cool subject. If you could teach it what subject of science would you teach?

Jess Wade answered on 18 Jun 2015:

I’d definitely teach physics. Physics is a wonderful science that uses maths as a language to describe the world around us. In physics we learn amazing things, like why aeroplanes can fly, how to design a sports car and why footballs bend when clever footballers kick them at different angles. Physics gives us solar panels, TVs, mobile phones, bicycles, trains- you name it! It also has a lot of applications in medicine- when we have an X-Ray or and MRI scan, they are all using really clever pieces of physics.

I teach physics and maths lots already, and often find myself explaining some chemistry. i love chemistry too- it is a very nice subject because all the different elements contain the same things- a mixture of different tiny parts. All materials for example contain electrons. The only thing that changes about them is how many electrons they have- and that changes so much! For example, hydrogen has just one electron. If we knock hydrogens together with enough energy, we can fuse them and get helium (two electrons). That’s the kind of process that happens when stars are born! The molecules keep hitting and releasing energy until it’s so hot new elements start to form. Pretty neat huh? But you wouldn’t know about stars if you didn’t do physics.. Oh my, too much great science.