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Betsy, 5, asks: why do onions have layers?
Because they like to play dress-up in lots of coats
Each layer is a leaf that stores food and protects the onion
To make people cry more when it’s chopped
They’re secret Russian dolls in disguise
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Asher, 6, asks: do sharks swim in groups?
No, because it would mean less food
Yes, they even have best friends they swim with
No – they’d eat each other
Sharks can’t swim
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Rowie, 4, asks: how many dinosaurs were meateaters?
All of them
None – so they never tried to eat each other!
About 30 species
About 130 species
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Ruaridh, 8, asks: why do love hearts look so different from the hearts in our bodies?
The hearts in our bodies actually do look like that
The shape comes from the end of Cupid’s arrow
The love heart shape goes all the way back to Ancient Greece, but nobody knows why it represents love
Our real hearts are far too ugly to put on Valentine cards
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Grace, 9, asks: how many miles would your blood vessels go if they were all stretched out?
50,000 – twice the circumference of the Earth
The distance between Paris and Rome (685 miles)
The length of Australia (2,500 miles)
The circumference of Pluto (4,627 miles)
Solutions
1:B - Each layer is actually a modified leaf. These leaves wrap tightly around one another to protect the onion’s centre and to store food and water., 2:B - Some species of shark have other sharks they feel more comfortable swimming with. Studies have shown that “friendships” between sharks can last many years. Hammerhead sharks can have groups with more than 100 members!, 3:D - According to the Natural History Museum, there were about 130 species of dinosaur that ate meat, including about 30 species that ate plants as well as animals. They typically ate lizards, turtles, eggs and small mammals., 4:C - The love heart symbol dates back to Ancient Greece, but it didn’t really represent love at the time. It wasn’t until the middle ages that the shape began to represent the heart and love. It was actually drawn upside down until the 1500s!, 5:A - The average adult’s blood vessels, when stretched out, would reach about 50,000 miles! The Earth’s circumference is nearly 25,000 miles, measured round the equator.
Scores
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5 and above.
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4 and above.
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3 and above.
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2 and above.
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0 and above.
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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.