Why are red apples sweet and green apples sour? The kids’ quiz

1. Isla, 8, asks: why do red apples taste sweet and green apples taste sour?

   1. We associate the colour red with sweetness

   2. Red apples are grown on trees, but green apples grow out of the ground

   3. Red apples turn their acid into sugars as they ripen

   4. Red apples absorb more sunlight, so taste sweeter

2. Ellie, 11, asks: what do the Easter Island statues represent?

   1. Important people who died

   2. The importance of a head

   3. Nothing!

   4. Why moisturiser matters

3. Guinness, 13, asks: is a dog really a man’s best friend?

   1. No, cats are

   2. No, dogs have only been domesticated for 100 years

   3. It’s humans who are a dog’s best friend

   4. Maybe – they’re definitely our oldest friends!

4. Nihal, 8, asks: why do we have galaxies in space?

   1. To make sure space isn’t empty enough to get lost in

   2. So spacemen can take their space-dogs on walks

   3. Scientists believe the first galaxies formed due to gravity and density

   4. Nobody knows

5. Dylan, 9, asks: how does sunlight help plants grow?

   1. Without sunlight, plants can’t see which direction they’re meant to grow in

   2. Sunlight is used by plants as energy to help collect water and CO2

   3. Plants don’t need the light of the sun, they need the warmth of the sun

   4. It’s not the plant that needs sunlight, but the soil in which it grows

Solutions

1:C - Red and green apples contain something called malic acid. During ripening, red apples tend to convert more of this into sugars than green apples do. Less acid means a sweeter taste!, 2:A - The statues on Easter Island were built to honour dead chieftains or important people, but they’re not all just heads! Some have torsos and limbs, and unique features to better represent the people they honoured., 3:D - Dogs have been keeping us company for so long that experts are still working out when and where they were first domesticated! Some think the process began more than 25,000 years ago. It’s hard to say if they’re everyone’s best friend, but if you have a dog, I’m sure they’re yours., 4:C - Scientists believe some of the first galaxies grew around pockets of space that were denser than the surrounding space. Most big galaxies have black holes at their centre., 5:B - In a process called photosynthesis, plants harness energy from sunlight and use it to fuse water from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air to form simple sugars, like glucose. These travel around the plant and keep it strong and healthy.

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 Everything Under the Sun: Quiz Book, as well as her new title, Everything Under the Sun: All Around the World.