Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

FLOATING PYRAMIDS? Nobody knows exactly how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids. Many think they must have used a system of ramps, cranes, and pulleys. But would that have worked to build the oldest pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser? It stands about 204 feet (62 m) high, and its stones weighed 661 pounds (300 kg) each. One research group thinks ancient Egyptian builders used something else—water. The research group studies ancient technologies. They believe the Step Pyramid’s builders may have dug trenches and tunnels around the pyramid and let them fill with water from nearby streams. Then the Egyptians built a sort of water-powered elevator inside the pyramid and floated the stones up the middle of the structure. Not everyone is convinced, though. Although that area of Egypt did…

In Japan, it is polite to SLURP your noodles loudly. That’s a compliment to the chef! In Thailand, do not slurp! Slurping is considered rude. You can use chopsticks for noodles in soup, but for noodles on a plate, use a fork or spoon. Shh—eat quietly! When stylish Italians want to keep their spaghetti on their forks, they twirl each forkful of noodles on the plate or a spoon. The twirling keeps the sauce neat too. It’s also OK to slurp in China. For less messy soup eating, use your chopsticks to lift some noodles into your spoon. In America, it is not polite to slurp. Also, do not fling macaroni at your brother, or put spaghetti on the dog. And wherever you go, it is always polite to say,…

What You’ll Need • 1/2 cup flour (all-purpose or bread flour; bread flour makes chewier noodles)• 3 or 4 tablespoons water• 1/4 teaspoon salt• Mixing bowl, rolling pin, pizza cutter or scissors• Adult helper for cutting and boiling 1 Mix Mix flour, water, and salt in a bowl. Start with 2 tablespoons of water. If the dough is too dry, add a bit more water. If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour. Once it’s well mixed, it should not stick to your hands too much. 2 Knead Sprinkle a little flour on your counter and knead the dough. Punch, fold, and stretch it until it’s smooth and springy. When it’s ready, it should feel a bit like well-chewed gum and spring back a bit when you poke it with a finger. This…

January 2025 Volume 24 Number 1 cricketmedia.com $6.95…

1 Pasta starts with a plant called durum wheat. Durum means “hard.” This wheat has hard seeds that are good for making noodles. A lot of this wheat is grown in the American Midwest and Canada. 2 When the wheat is ripe, farmers harvest it with big combines. The combines cut the stalks and separate the seeds. 3 Big trucks take the wheat seeds to the flour mill to be ground into flour. At the mill, the seeds are cleaned and the hard shells removed. Then big rollers crush the inside part of the grain into a coarse flour called semolina. This feels more like sand than the powdery flour you get at the store. 4 Flour tanker trucks bring semolina flour to the pasta factory. A big hose sucks the flour out of the…

Send your letters to Ask at ask@cricketmedia.com. Dear Ask,How do birds get their names? Happy Wednesday! Lynley M., age 7 Dear Lynley, It depends what kind of name you mean. Scientists think dolphins, parrots, and elephants are among the few kinds of wild animals that use personal names or calls to identify one another. Like people, they probably learn those names as babies. If you mean scientific names, usually the person who first finds a new type of bird gets to name it but must follow rules set by international authorities. Common names, such as blue jay, woodpecker, or chickadee, often describe a bird’s looks, behavior, or song. Happy Thursday! Elvis, aka Cacatua galerita or sulphur-crested cockatoo Hi,How do spiders spin their webs? Thanks,Noah, age 6 Dear Noah, Very carefully!…

Pasta is often made from wheat flour, the ground-up seeds of wheat plants. Gluten is a mix of tangly proteins inside the seeds. It helps new plants grow. Gluten is also found in other grains, like barley and corn. Gluten is what makes pasta and bread dough stretchy and springy. When a chef kneads (mashes and stretches) dough, the tangly bits of gluten link up into a stretchy net. The net traps water and makes the dough chewy. The more gluten the flour has, the more stretchy it will get. The best pasta flour has lots of gluten. Why Can’t Some People Eat Gluten? Gluten is a natural part of wheat and is not usually harmful. But some people (about 1 in 130) suffer from a sickness called celiac disease.…

Spaghetti Split Can you snap a spaghetti noodle in two? Can anyone? The next time there’s spaghetti for dinner, borrow a few raw noodles and challenge your pals to a pasta-snapping contest. To win, all they have to do is hold a dry spaghetti strand by the ends and snap it into just two pieces. Sounds easy, right? What you’ll need Some dry spaghettiFingersA broom (for cleanup) What to do The challenge is to hold a strand of dry spaghetti by its ends (not near the middle) and snap it in two. Go on, give it a try. Watch closely as the spaghetti breaks and the pieces fly away. How many are there? You can also do the snapping inside a bag for easier counting. Amazingly, no matter how may…