Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2023 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

THIS LITTLE PIGGY CHEERED UP ITS FRIEND Pigs aren’t always nice to each other. Just like people, they sometimes fight. Also like people, another pig who sees a fight happening can do something to help. On a farm in Italy, scientists watched pigs closely. They saw that sometimes a pig would start shoving or biting another pig. But if a third pig came over to the attacker, the attacker was less violent. And if the third pig came over to the pig that was being attacked, that pig seemed calmer after the fight. Kitty Is Listening (Maybe) Do cats ignore us? Or do they listen when their owners talk? Recently, scientists did an experiment to find out. They went to the homes of people with cats. They played recordings of…

John Tyndall was an irritating child. So they sent him off to learn how to be a scientist. He became a great one! And one day . . . While experimenting with light beams, he noticed that though milk is white, slightly milky water looks blue. (Try it yourself!) And when he shined a light through a box of thin smoke, the smoke looked blue—no matter what kind of smoke it was. Finally, he could answer that pesky question! Later, scientists realized that the tiny particles were just the gas molecules of the air itself. In fact, thinking about what made the sky blue helped them figure out that air is made of molecules! Historical note: John Tyndall did explain why the sky is blue, but history is silent…

Bright bands of glowing green, pink, and violet light ripple and dance across the sky. The hazy curtains shimmer and twist for minutes or hours, beautiful and mysterious. In the north they are known as the aurora borealis, or northern lights. In the south, they are the aurora australis. But what are they? Near the North and South Poles, winter nights can be long and dark. But sometimes, the sky puts on an amazing light show. What causes the lights? The sun! Our sun constantly streams out tiny electrons and other atomic bits. This is called the solar wind. Sometimes, the sun burps out a bunch all at once, a coronal mass ejection, or CME. Aurorae happen when these particles hit gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. This makes the gas…

hhgj So what is a cloud, exactly? Clouds Are Floating Water Clouds are made of water. But they are not vapor, individual molecules of water flying around as a gas. Clouds are made of itsy-bitsy water droplets. Each droplet is made of many water molecules stuck together around a tiny speck of dust or salt. How small are cloud droplets? If you filled a shoebox with cloud, you would have more than 100 billion cloud drops. Clouds Recycle Where do clouds come from? As the sun warms the earth, water evaporates from lakes, rivers, oceans, and the leaves of plants—and from you, when you get sweaty. When water evaporates, it makes vapor, individual molecules floating around. Air carries the water vapor around. As warm air rises, it takes water vapor…

Have you ever seen small sparks fly when you pull apart fleece or touch a doorknob after scuffing across a rug? The only difference between those small sparks and lightning bolts is size. Both are caused by static electricity that builds up and suddenly discharges. What Is Lightning? Lightning begins inside thunderstorms. Updrafts of air lift raindrops from the bottom of the cloud into freezing air at the top. Falling cold air moves ice particles down into warmer air. On the surface of the falling ice, negatively charged electrons build up. Electrons are tiny bits of atoms. In time, the storm cloud becomes negatively charged on the bottom and positively charged on top. If enough negative charge builds up, a huge number of electrons jump through the air, looking for…

My Pet Cloud You might not be able to make it rain, but you CAN make your very own cloud! What you’ll need Wide glass jar with a lid Very hot water Ice cubes ADULT HELPER with a match VERY IMPORTANT! Only adults handle matches!!!! What to do Now watch swirls of cloud form! What’s going on? Inside the jar is a miniature version of Earth’s atmosphere. Water evaporates from the warm air below and rises to the cold air above. The smoke gives the cooling water vapor something to stick to, forming cloud. No Matches? You can also do this trick with an aerosol spray, such as room freshener, deodorant, hair spray, or anything that sprays a fine mist (that isn’t water). At step 3, instead of a match,…

Normal Clouds Weird Clouds…

What are rainbows? Why do they appear? Rainbows are made by sunlight and water drops. Light travels as waves of energy. Blue light travels in short waves. Red light has longer waves. Sunlight is a crazy mix of many colors of light—including some we can’t see. Our brains read “many colors of light all at once” as “white light”. So all the colors of the rainbow are already in sunlight, all the time. Why are rainbows curved? You might see the light from each drop for only a second, but a new drop quickly takes its place. So the rainbow seems to hang in place. A rainbow curves because it is part of a circle, with your eye at the center. If you were looking at a rainbow from very…

In our January issue we asked you to confound us with some cunning code. And we say, oolcay, anksthay! Dear Zia, What is your favorite flavor of frosting? I like Peanut Butter. You should try it sometime! Sarah G., South Carolina Dear Sarah,You are so nice to send ideas for new tasty things to try! I ran right into the kitchen and frosted some peanut butter all over a jelly roll we just made and it looks extra delicious! As soon as we can get the spatula unstuck I will send you some. Thanks for the tasty tip! Zia Dear Bot, Manatees are mammals. If we had food for manatees can we have them at our party? Mario K., Maryland Dear Mario, I’m sure manatees would love to be…

May/June 2023 Volume 22 Number 5 cricketmedia.com $6.95…