Today I learned that the 12 or 13-year-old boy I tutor is studying convection currents in the mantle (the simplified version). I'm learning the same exact thing he is, but my textbook is much more technical and there are less (straightforward) illustrations. Turns out, to understand the cycle of convection currents in the mantle all you need to understand is how soup is cooked.
As you cook the soup, the bottom part of the soup becomes warmer than the top half of the soup, naturally (it's closer to the heat source). This bottom part becomes less dense because its particles are moving faster and thus, spreading. Now, the top part includes the surface of the soup, and up there, it's cooler than the bottom part because it isn't as close to the heat source.
And what happens when something is colder? Particles move more slowly and they "congregate," therefore, the soup at the top becomes denser. So, because the top part is heavier than the bottom part the top part will sink and the bottom part will rise, beginning the cycle of convection. Apparently, the same thing happens below the crust in the mantle. Only, it's not soup, it's molten rock.
The tutor becomes the tutee. ( it is tutee, not tutoree, I checked).
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