Do birds ever fly into space? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Poppy, 6, asks: do birds ever fly into space?

   1. Some birds do, but they cannot survive and quickly fly back down

   2. They can’t because there is no air

   3. Some birds have hitched a lift on rockets

   4. There is one recorded sighting of an albatross in space

2. Arianna, 5, asks: how do weather forecasters predict the weather?

   1. By using satellites and supercomputers

   2. By looking out of the window

   3. By asking people on the International Space Station to tell them where storms are heading

   4. By watching the way the wind blows flags and weather vanes, and watching the night sky

3. Artemis, 6, asks: how do spiders stick to walls?

   1. They have little sticky pads on their feet

   2. By using the tiny hairs on their feet

   3. They can only climb up walls that are quite sticky

   4. Their spit is sticky, so they lick their feet

4. Aishi, 12, asks: is walrus meat edible? If it is, what does it taste like?

   1. Yes, it tastes fishy

   2. Yes, it tastes like beef

   3. It is edible to polar bears, but it is poisonous to humans

   4. Yes, it tastes like bacon

5. Jacob, 7, asks: how big is the biggest fly?

   1. 3cm long

   2. 7cm long

   3. 15cm long

   4. 35cm long

Solutions

1:B - Birds can’t fly in space because there is no air, but some do fly very high. A Rüppell’s griffon vulture that lived in central Africa was recorded flying at 11,278 metres after it crashed into an aeroplane in 1974., 2:A - Weather forecasters observe what’s happening right now using kit such as radar, satellites and weather balloons. Supercomputers then use the data to predict future weather, and meteorologists constantly update it and change the forecasts. We can make good guesses by looking at the wind and the sky, though!, 3:B - Spiders have tiny triangular hairs on their feet. When they touch a wall they make a temporary force – called a van der Waals force – that sticks them to it. They can change the angle the hairs stick at to help them walk along., 4:A - Yes, walrus meat is edible. It is often made into a dish called igunak, which is fermented. It’s said to taste rich and fishy., 5:B - Gauromydas heros, the world’s biggest fly, can have a body as long as 7cm, with a wingspan of around 10cm. They live in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.

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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