In my own words · Chicago, IL

Why I love cars

The four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Cars" page — read by families in Chicago, IL. — The four-wheeled Artemis Jr. prototype rover, topped with a solar array, driving across a grass field beside the Operations and Checkout Building. NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis · Public domain

Thousands of parts and they all have to agree.
It turns fuel or charge into going somewhere.
When it makes a noise, the noise means something.

You can love cars in Chicago.

What it really is

A car converts stored energy into motion through a long chain of parts.

Three things to try today

Find where the energy goes in.
Find where the motion comes out.
Name three parts in between.

For the grown-up reading this

Nobody has to talk a child into liking cars. They have to not talk them out of it. The Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN metro area has about 9,434,123 residents, ranking 3rd in the country.

Input, output, and the chain between. That framing works on any machine.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Chicago, IL →