How is glitter made and why do cats have tails? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Alice, 10, asks: how is glitter made?

   1. By collecting sparkles from fireflies and bottling them as glitter

   2. By cutting thin sheets of plastic and reflecting material into tiny pieces

   3. It’s made by fairies

   4. By cutting up tinfoil

2. Jack, 7, asks: what colour is a giraffe’s tongue?

   1. Yellow and brown, like a giraffe

   2. The front is purple, blue and black; the base and the back are pink

   3. Pink, like yours

   4. Luminous yellow

3. Evangeline, 9, asks: does the sky ever stop, and if it does, where does it stop?

   1. The sky goes on for ever

   2. The sky doesn’t stop, but the air molecules separate out and it becomes space

   3. Yes, the sky stops at the sun

   4. Yes, the sky stops about 500 metres above sea level

4. Finley, 8, asks: when did people first go to space?

   1. The first person was a Russian cosmonaut, in 1961

   2. People have gone to space since humans have existed

   3. The first person in space was Neil Armstrong, in 1969

   4. The first people in space were taken in spaceships by aliens, in the 1950s

5. Gwen, 10, asks: why do cats have tails?

   1. Tails give cats their amazing sense of balance

   2. Cats use their tails to show other cats what mood they’re in

   3. Cats use nerve endings in their tails to sense what’s going on around them

   4. All the above!

Solutions

1:B - Glitter is made by cutting thin sheets of plastic layered with metal that reflects light into tiny pieces. Try to buy or make eco-friendly glitter because the plastic ones are full of chemicals that are bad for humans and animals., 2:B - The front of a giraffe’s tongue is dark – a mix of purple, blue and black. Its base and back are pink., 3:B - You could consider the sky as Earth’s atmosphere, and it doesn’t stop exactly, but air molecules become more separated the higher you go. Scientists use an imaginary boundary, the Kármán line, as the end of Earth’s atmosphere, usually defined as 100km above Earth. If we think of the sky as space, though, as far as we know it goes on for ever, and the stars in the sky are even farther out than Earth’s atmosphere!, 4:A - The first person in space was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961. He did one orbit of Earth in 1 hour 29 minutes., 5:D - Cats use their tails to balance, jump and climb; to communicate; and to sense what’s going on behind them using the nerve endings in their tails.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a podcast answering children’s questions. Do check out her books, Everything Under the Sun and the new Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book.

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