Wonderwhy And Knowall--Onion and Tears

Wonderwhy is a 6 years old girl. She has a invisible friend fairy her name is Knowall. Whenever Wonderwhy thinks why about any thing. Then her friend Knowall appears and solve all Wonderwhy’s questions.

Today what is bothering her, what she is wondering about lets see.

“Mommy my eyes are burning a lot, tears are coming out, are you cutting onions” Wonderwhy asked?

“Yes Wonderwhy I am making you favorite dish, poha (made up of onion,spices and rice flakes)” Mommy replied.

“okay that fine, I will go and wash my eyes, for my favorite dish its fine” Wonderwhy replied.

Wonderwhy started thinking “Why this onion causes tears when they are cut?”

Now kids tell me who appeared, when Wonderwhy had this question?

You are absolutely right, her fairy friend Knowall appeared to solve her question.

“joooop…jooooom…..joooop…jooop……fairy Knowall is here”.

“Hey fairy Knowall, I am so happy to see you. I know you will be here as I have a question” Wonderwhy said happily to fairy Knowall.

“fairy friend do you like tears in the eyes?”Wonderwhy asked
“No Wonderwhy, I don’t like tears. But sometimes when our feelings are hurt we get tears and its fine also, sometimes we feel good after crying. But you should always remember by crying your problems are not solved, you have to work on to solve the problems, okay” fairy Knowall replied.

“fairy friend even I don’t like tears, but this onion makes me cry” Wonderwhy said.

“Now think what my next question going to be…think think….yes you are very close” Wonderwhy said.

Fairy Knowall asked “is it related to onion and crying?”

“You are almost there fairy friend….okay now I will tell you my question” Wonderwhy said.

She continued “My question is why cutting onion makes us cry?.”

“okay my little friend, I will tell you……When you cut an onion, it releases a gas called, Propanethiol S-oxide. When mixed with certain enzymes in the onion, it creates a sulfur gas. These gases then get to your eyes and create a mild acid which irritates the eyes.
To prevent these gases to go into your eyes, your brain will tell you to close the eyes, but its not a good idea as you will cut your hand. So the next thing that eyes can do is to produce the tears, to get rid of this small amount of acid. That is why you get tears when you cut the onion. Got it Wonderwhy ?” fairy Knowall said.

“Yes fairy friend I got it. Now I gotta go, as my favorite snack is ready, I am already feeling hungry. Bye bye fairy friend see you next time” Wonderwhy waved her fairy friend and rushed to eat her poha.