Why are flamingos pink, and what is the smallest planet? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Florence, 9, asks: why are flamingos (like the one pictured above) pink?

   1. It’s their favourite colour

   2. They get a lot of sun and that turns their feathers pink

   3. They get their pink colour from their food

   4. The water they live in contains pink plants which dye their feathers pink

2. Isaac, 8, asks: what is the longest word in the English dictionary?

   1. anti­dis­estab­lish­ment­arianism

   2. pneumono­ultra­microscopic­silico­volcanoconiosis

   3. supercali­fragil­istic­expialidocious

   4. preabrog­ati­super­benificatiterrandi­premonstri­fication

3. Nora, 7, asks: what is the smallest planet in our solar system?

   1. Saturn

   2. Neptune

   3. Venus

   4. Mercury

4. The peregrine falcon is the fastest animal in the world, when diving. Inigo, 5 and a half, asks: how fast is it?

   1. 186mph

   2. 100mph

   3. 500mph

   4. 75mph

5. Elodie, 7, asks: how do sponges soak up water?

   1. By stretching their molecules to take it in

   2. When they get thirsty, they get really dry and drink it up

   3. Their holes soak it up

   4. The fibres of the sponge soak up the water

Solutions

1:C - Flamingos eat algae and shrimp which both have pigments called carotenoids in them. They are what give carrots their orange colour and turn ripe tomatoes red and a flamingo’s feathers pink! Their chicks are grey or white and change colour over the first few years of their life., 2:B - The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is a technical name for a lung disease usually known as silicosis. The president of the National Puzzlers’ League made the word up. D is a longer word but I made it up., 3:D - Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system and the closest to the sun. Seen from Mercury, the sun would look more than three times as big as it does from Earth, and the sunlight would be up to seven times brighter., 4:A - The Guinness world record for the fastest dive by any bird is the peregrine falcon, estimated as reaching 300km/h (186mph)., 5:C - Sponges are made of loose fibres with spaces in between. If you put one in water, the holes absorb it, so the sponge swells up until it’s full. Damp sponges soak up water more quickly than dry ones because water molecules are attracted to one another.

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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