Kids Questions & Answers

Her name was Louisa May Alcott. She was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on November 29, 1832, the daughter of Amos Bronson Alcott, a struggling educationalist who could obviously have profited by a little education himself in a few financial matters. Louisa became an army nurse during the American Civil War and in 1863 her book Hospital Sketches, a record of …

When will the Earth die? As you have already seen, the very existence of the Earth, and all the other planets in the solar system, depends upon the Sun. You have seen how the Sun provides enormous amounts of energy by the change of the gas hydrogen into the gas helium. But as with any other ‘engine’ the fuel, that …

Animals first appeared on earth about 430 million years ago, but did not begin to resemble the ones we know today until 360 million years later. Sharks however were already abundant about 340 million years ago. It seems that the first land animals were insects such as scorpions and millipedes. But they were greatly different from today’s insects. Next to …

China has suffered some terrible earthquakes, and it isn’t surprising that China’s scientists want to find ways of forecasting them. In 1975, they were successful. They cleared the city of Haicheng two hours before a devastating quake and saved the city’s population. Earthquake forecasting is, however, still inexact; the Chinese have failed to predict several earthquakes since 1975, but they …

How does the Earth keep warm? This is a question that you have answered for yourself every time that you have been sunbathing. Almost all of the Earth’s heat, and this means its energy, must come from the Sun. In addition to this the interior of the Earth has retained much of the heat which was generated as the formation …

How is the height of different places on earth measured from the sea level? The height of different places on earth is measured with the help of the ‘altimeter’. The instrument used for measuring the height at a place is basically a barometer. At sea level, the height of the barometric liquid (mercury) is 76 cm. When we go to …

Is the earth perfectly round? No, it isn’t. The earth is in fact like a rubber ball which has been gently squashed at the top and bottom, so that it is widest at the equator. It also has four bulges which form rough corners. These are in Ireland, and near the countries of Peru, South Africa and New Guinea. Scientists …

Originally, it was thought that the centre of the earth has magnetized iron deposits, which caused it to act like a huge permanent bar magnet. However, the theory failed to explain how the magnetic field had sustained itself for long, because even if there was magnetized iron in the core earlier, the core of the earth is so hot that …

It is nearest to the sun on about the second or third day in January. The distance varies because it spins round the sun in an elliptical orbit or path. The time when the earth is closest to the sun is called the perihelion. The time when it is farthest away the aphelion comes six months later on the first …

Until quite recently it was thought that there were no abundant life forms on this planet until about 600 million years ago. When we remember that the Earth itself is at least 4500 million years old, it does seem to have taken a very long time before any animals or plants appeared. Then, geologically speaking, they must have developed very …