wonderment. Noun.
won·der·ment | \ ˈwən-dər-mənt \
Definition of wonderment
1 : a cause of or occasion for wonder
2 : ASTONISHMENT, SURPRISE
3 : curiosity about something
How does a fridge work? How from heating something up can you create a block of cold air? It baffles me. However, this very question led me down a peculiar train of thought.
I have memories of being a child, being ferried in the car realising I didn’t know the answer to something I was pondering. In the vast majority of cases, dad would be able to answer them, usually involving something to do with technical aspects of this or that. However, in the times where dad didn’t know the answer, for instance, the time I asked with no irony if he could run me through the principles of the Bernoulli effect he’d say you’ll have to look at the encyclopedia when you get home. Infuriating when the question comes up on the first day of a two week holiday.
So instead of knowing the answer, I’d stare out the window and run through different possibilities and imagine the various outcomes. Occasionally difficult when at a standing start in the principles of flight, but rolling the window down it was possible to feel the pressure differential with a tilted hand in the airflow.
So driving today the usual happened. I wondered how did a fridge actually work? “Hey Google. How does a fridge work?” In that moment, I realised that even my unquenching thirst for obscure knowledge has become part of the dopamine gratification cycle. A question pops up, and you can solve it in seconds. So instead of Google reading me the top search result over my car stereo, I turned it off and wondered instead.
I now wonder, (see what I did?) whether having all the information in the world in our pocket will stifle some element of our natural inquisitive nature. I know for certain that it plays a large part in no longer having to remember things. Who remembers phone numbers nowadays? But is there any point in wondering how something works, when the information is so readily available? My theory here is that over time we will become less inquisitive, and therefore be less creative in solving problems that don’t exist.
I should say here that I’m not a Luddite. I think the benefits far outweigh my parochial essay on kids not wondering, but I do think it’s very sad.
Being bored, wondering, musing. These things lead to a child’s creativity. I hope our connectedness isn’t the start of creative diminishment.
In case you were wondering though, a fridge has a compressor which constricts the refrigerant vapor, raising its pressure, and pushes it into the coils at the back of your fridge. When the hot gas in the coils meets the cooler air temperature of the kitchen, it becomes a liquid. Now in liquid form at high pressure, the refrigerant cools down as it flows into the coils inside the freezer and the fridge. The refrigerant absorbs the heat inside the fridge, cooling down the air. And finally, the refrigerant evaporates to a gas, flows back to the compressor, where the cycle starts all over.
I didn’t wonder for too long.
