Tess and Harry on the Dock
“Why are the sun and the moon the same size?”
“They aren’t the same size, Tess, the sun is much bigger. It’s bigger than any planet or moon in our solar system.”
“Then why do they look the same size?”
“The sun is farther away, so it looks smaller. Just like when you mother comes out of the house in a few minutes to call you in for bedtime, she will look much smaller than if she were standing here on the dock.”
“I know faraway things look small, Harry. I’m not stupid.”
“Then you understand about the sun and the moon.”
“Yes, but you didn’t understand my question. I meant why do they look the same size. Exactly the same size.”
“Is this about the eclipse?”
“When the moon went completely in front of the sun, the sizes matched up perfectly. Even though one is a moon and one is a sun and one is much bigger and one is much closer. Is every eclipse on every planet like that?”
“I’ve never seen an eclipse on any other planet.”
“But you understand science.”
“No, Tess, not every eclipse is like that. For the sizes to match as perfectly as they do for us you would need just the right sized sun and just the right sized moon and just the right distance between them.”
“It seems like with all the sizes suns and moons can be and all the distances apart they can be there’s not much chance of it lining up perfectly like that.”
“It’s called a coincidence, Tess. A coincidence is when there is a surprising connection between two things or events that doesn’t have any particular cause.”
“I know what a coincidence is, Harry. I’m ten years old.”
“You know the definition of the word coincidence, but you might not understand the true nature of coincidences.”
“Are you going to tell me there is some hidden power that makes me show up at school in the same dress as Hannah or makes you and Marie both bring home the same thing for dinner without talking to each other about it first?”
“That’s exactly what I’m not going to tell you.
Coincidences only seem amazing because of our perception of them.
The moon and the sun only look the same size to us because of where we’re standing.
In fact, no one possibility for distance from a sun or size of a moon or the color of Hannah’s dress—”
“It was exactly the same dress.”
“The fact remains, no one possibility is any greater than another. On hundreds of days, you and Hannah have worn different outfits to school and you never noticed. You only remember the one day she dressed the same. It’s your perception that makes an event as random as any other seem to have meaning. ”
“Even if I hadn’t perceived it, it still would have been the same dress.”
“Let’s put it another way. Suppose you have a deck of cards. You shuffle it and pick a card at random, say the three of diamonds.”
“Queen of hearts.”
“Fine, the queen of hearts. You replace the card, reshuffle the deck, and again pick a card at random. And again, you pick the queen of hearts. What are the odds of that happening?”
“I don’t know. That sounds like Harry Maxwell math.”
“It’s very simple math. The two events have no effect on one another. All I’m asking is what are the chances that you will draw the queen of hearts.”
“One in fifty-two.”
“Correct. Now suppose the second time we draw the three of diamonds. What are the odds of that?”
“One in fifty-two.”
“Exactly. The two events have the exact same likelihood of occurring, but one we don’t think twice about and the other we call an amazing coincidence.”
“So, there are a billion planets where the sun and the moon don’t line up perfectly and we just happen to live on the one where they do?”
“That’s all there is to it.”
“But isn’t that kind of a boring answer?”
“Not all science is fascinating.”
“Wouldn’t it be more interesting if there was a reason? If there was some force in the universe that decided it would be cool to make the sun and the moon look the same size and then fix their orbits so every once in while the moon was perfectly in front of the sun?”
“It would be interesting, Tess. Just like it would be interesting if you could squirt lime Jell-O out of your ear. But you can’t. It’s just a coincidence.”
“You just don’t want to believe in things you can’t see.”
“Tess—from subatomic particles to the origins of the universe, almost everything I believe in is something I can’t see.”
“You know what I mean. You don’t want to believe in a force that has no scientific explanation.”
“You mean God?”
“Whatever you want to call it.”
“I do believe in God. You know that, Tess. We’ve talked about that. But I can believe in God and still believe that some things are coincidences.”
“Yeah, well your God is no fun, and mine made solar eclipses perfect.”
“My God says it’s time for you to go to bed.”
“That’s not God. That’s Marie.”