Kathy Urban, Age 12, of Newark, N. J., for her question:

Is it really dangerous to look at a solar eclipse?

It is safe to admire Mr. Tiger in his cage, but we would never shake his paw through the bars. Should he escape, perish the thought, We would run for shelter. For the big eat is dangerous at all times, and it is never safe to pet ham. The sun, also, is dangerous, and it is never, never safe to look directly at its dazzling face.

This sad story happened to Joseph Plateau more than 100 years ago. Plateau was a noteworthy physicist of Belgium. He studied optics and invented an instrument which is still used to observe rotating objects. But, this expert, who should have known better, dared to look directly at the sun. We are told that he stared at the dazzling disk for 20 seconds and became totally blind.

It is never safe to stare at the bare face of the sun or even at a small part of the dazzling disk. In a solar eclipse, part of the sun is blotted out by the moon. But never, never be tempted to peek. Many eyes have been permanently damaged during an eclipse, because their owners thought it safe to peek at just a sliver of the sun. Some people have been blinded and, like Plateau, lived the rest of their lives in total darkness.

The eye is like a camera that lets in light carrying an image of the scenery. The light enters a round hole called the pupil and falls on a sensitive screen called the retina. Dazzling light damages the delicate retina, so we have safeguards to protect it. When the light is bright, the pupil contracts to shut some of it out. In brilliant sunlight, the face muscles may squint to shield the precious retina, without which sight is impossible.

The eyes are dazzled by brilliant sunshine, and this is merely reflected light which has traveled some 93 million miles. The flash of nuclear energy from a hydrogen bomb can blind a whole city. The sun is a constantly burning nuclear furnace, and. Compared with it, our biggest bomb is just a spark. The dazzling sun is more than a million times bigger than our entire planet. Every inch of its surface radiates nuclear energy, and in only eight minutes its light strikes the ground on which We stand.

One of the most dazzling things on earth is molten steel, Seething from a furnace. People nearby wear shields to protect their eyes from the glare and sparks. Scientists compared this light with the light of the sun. They found that the sun sheds at least 5000 times more light than the seething metal. No sensible person would risk his eyes by staring at even a small sliver of such a blinding star.