Why do rabbits have fluffy tails and how heavy is the Earth? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Esther, 7, asks: why do rabbits have fluffy tails?

   1. Their tails help to distract predators

   2. They use their tails to signal to other rabbits that there is danger

   3. Their tails help them to balance

   4. All of the above

2. Alexis, 8, asks: why does the tide come in and out in some countries and not others?

   1. Actually, the tide does come in and out wherever you are in the world!

   2. Countries with less wind don’t experience tides in the same way as countries with more windy weather

   3. Countries below the equator don’t have any tides at all

   4. Coastlines with shallow seas don’t have tides

3. Indie, 7, asks: how many different types of flowers are there in the whole world?

   1. 3,700

   2. 37,000

   3. 370,000

   4. 3.7 million

4. Chloe, 11, asks: how heavy is the Earth?

   1. It’s impossible to know how heavy it is, as no one can weigh it!

   2. 5,974 kilograms

   3. 5,974,000,000,000,000, 000,000 tonnes – or 5.97 billion trillion tonnes

   4. 597,400,000 tonnes

5. Bláithín, 7, asks: how many people have been prime minister of the UK?

   1. 37

   2. 58

   3. 12

   4. 91

Solutions

1:D - Rabbits can raise or lower their tails to signal danger, and use them for balance. Researchers also found that rabbits’ white tails helps them escape danger – they zigzag as they run away, so predators catching glimpses of the white tail are confused., 2:A - All countries bordering oceans have tides, but some appear smaller than others depending on the shape of the coastline and how much the sea is enclosed by land., 3:C - In 2016, researchers at London’s Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew estimated that there are close to 400,000 different species of plants – excluding algae, mosses, liverworts and hornworts, which reproduce by spores and do not produce flowers or seeds. This includes 370,000 flowering plants., 4:C - The weight of the Earth varies, as it depends on the gravitational force acting on it. Instead, scientists have calculated Earth’s mass, which is about 5,974,000,000,000,000, 000,000 tonnes or 5.97 billion trillion tonnes., 5:B - There have been 58 UK prime ministers in total – 55 men and just three women.

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 weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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