Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 80: AMAZING ATOMS and EXTRAORDINARY ELEMENTS!

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ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

AMAZING

m a ke f r u i t y l e s model molecu

Which element are you? Take our quiz!

Create a bubbly chemical reaction

Pull out a periodic table poster

AND

EXTRAORDINARY

WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 80

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS


WELCOME!

We’re on a mission to find out what the universe is made of! Emmi

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WHIZZ POP BANG is only available by subscription. If you haven’t subscribed yet, simply go to whizzpopbang.com and sign up for as little as £3.33 per magazine, including UK delivery. Back issues are available to purchase at whizzpopbang.com/shop With the help of Whizz Pop Bang magazine, just imagine what your child might one day discover!

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Welcome to WHIZZ POP BANG – the magazine bursting with enticing articles, mind-boggling facts and hands-on experiments to get your child hooked on science! Whizz Pop Bang is a gender-neutral magazine with plenty of inspirational male and female scientists and content that appeals to all children.

The magazine is ideal for home educators and it’s linked to the national curriculum too, for use in schools. Whizz Pop Bang will help with literacy development as well. Transform science teaching in your school with our hands-on science and reading resources. Our downloadable lesson packs link fun science experiments and reading with key curriculum topics for years 2-6. Subscribe at whizzpopbang.com/schools

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All experiments have been tried and tested by our team. The activities should be done under close adult supervision and are done at your own risk. Launchpad Publishing Ltd cannot accept liability for damage done.

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As well as our writers, we also have a team of science advisers who help to ensure that our content is accurate, up-to-date and relevant. Our advisers include: palaeontologist Steve Brusatte; molecular microbiologist Matt Hutchings; robotics engineer Abbie Hutty; mechanical engineer Amiee Morgans; GP Dr Cathy Scott; astronomer Mark Thompson; physicist Dr Jess Wade; child psychologist Dr Naira Wilson. To find out more, go to whizzpopbang.com/about

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EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

I’ve made a fantastic fizzing chemical reaction! Gakk

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Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Assistant Editor: Tara Pardo Designers: Rachael Fisher and Simon Oliver Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Staff writer: Joanna Tubbs Contributors: Esther Barron, Sarah Bearchell, Anna Claybourne, Claire Cock-Starkey, Joe Inglis, Owen Inglis and Kirsty Williams

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Atoms are the tiny particles that make up everything in the known universe, from the pape planet Jupiter, so it’s no wond r of this magazine to the er that scientists love to study them! Inside this edition of Whizz Pop Bang, you can learn all about these fascina ting particles and try out so me awesome experiments – use flame tests to identify eleme nts, split water molecules using ele ctricity, trap oxygen gas in foam and much more!


CONTENTS

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AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Read all about a Jurassic sea dragon, everlasting bubbles and a goldfish that learnt to drive!

WHAT’S THE MATTER?!

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Find out about atoms and elements, create a bubbly chemical reaction and make edible molecules! molecules!

ANIMAL ANTICS e ark ©P

We’re diving into the ocean to take a look at tentacletrailing, chemical-creating, wibbly-wobbly jellyfish. jellyfish

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SILLY SCIENCE

Which element are you? you Will you be magnificent magnesium? Or maybe glorious gold? Take our fun personality quiz to find out!

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

Upcycle junk mail into colourful paper beads, then use them to make jewellery and keyrings.

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PULLOUT

Pull out a periodic table poster to stick on your wall, then solve an atomic symbol crossword puzzle!

INTERVIEW WITH A SCIENCE HERO

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Sudan Paramesvaran is helping to discover what the universe is made of as part of the world’s largest experiment.

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© 2005-2016

s.wlonk.com

sen element

Keith Enevold

HOW STUFF WORKS

Pointy pencils are perfect for drawing and writing. Take a look at how they work!

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

Extraordinary elements, elements from glowing neon and magical mercury to the world’s biggest gold nugget! s eba ©S

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SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

The periodic table is used all over the world, but how did Dmitri Mendeleev come up with the idea?

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Y’S WONDER CLUB

Ask our robot, Y, your burning science questions and share all of your adventures in science with the club.

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

I’d love to see pictures of your experiments! Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an JOKES AND ANSWERS adult to tag us on social media Laugh out loud at some awesome jokes and find @whizzpopbangmag the answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and get creating to win a cool chemistry lab!

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

Marvel at a metal element that melts in your hand!

FIND THE SCIENCE EQUIPMENT Hidden on each double page is a piece of science equipment. Tick each one to find the complete kit!


s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa Tell us what you like and what you’d like to change. Have you got any ideas for future magazines? We’d love to hear from you! Tell us what you think here: bitly/3ru9ZBK

© Jens Goos / Shutterstock.com

Hippos can recognise their friends’ voices, even from far away, according to new research. The noise hippos make is described as a ‘wheeze honk’, though they also squeal, bellow and grunt. The researchers found that hippos living in Mozambique could tell friends, neighbours and enemies apart from their voices alone.

THE GOLDFISH THAT COULD DRIVE This might sound like a Dr Seuss book, but goldfish really have driven a robotic car – and all in the name of science. The experiment was carried out by researchers in Israel who wanted to investigate whether animals were able to navigate outside of their natural environments. The robotic car had a fish tank on top and a camera system that tracked the fish’s movements and drove the car in the direction the fish was swimming. Several goldfish were trained to drive the car by earning food rewards when they reached a destination. One fish, named Mr Darcy, was a particularly skilful driver. This research suggests that the ability to navigate is a universal feature of animals, whatever environment they’re in. You can watch Mr Darcy take to the road here: bit.ly/3ILJ2iF

© Matan Samina

HIPPO HELLO

© Vangert / Shutterstock.com

HELP MAKE WHIZZ POP BANG EVEN BETTER!


JURASSIC SEA DRAGON The huge fossil of a 180-million-year-old ichthyosaur has been discovered by chance in Rutland Water Nature Reserve, near Leicester. Ichthyosaurs were prehistoric marine reptiles that looked a bit like enormous dolphins, though they’re not related to them. They were apex predators, with sharp teeth and enormous eyes to help them hunt underwater. Rutland is over 48 km from the coast, but millions of years ago it was covered by a shallow ocean. The 10-metre-long fossil was discovered during maintenance work at the nature reserve when a worker spotted what he thought was a pipe sticking out of the mud. It turned out to be the largest and most complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever found in Britain – and the first of its species.

© Anglian Water/Leicestershire and

Rutland Wildlife Trust/Matthew Power

Photography

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MOON CRASH!

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The researchers combined water with a clear, gooey liquid called glycerol that absorbs moisture from the air, slowing the rate of evaporation, and tiny plastic particles, which made the bubble thicker, preventing the liquid from draining downwards. The longest-lasting bubble ever produced finally popped over a year later, after turning green. The team suspects microbes were responsible for the colour and the bubble eventually popping.

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Well, nearly – researchers in France have blown a bubble that lasted for 465 days! Soap bubbles usually only last a few seconds because gravity pulls the liquid to the bottom of the bubble, leaving a thin, fragile film on top, and the water quickly evaporates.

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‘EVERLASTING’ BUBBLES

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An out-of-control SpaceX rocket is on a collision course to crash into the Moon on the 4th of March – but don’t worry, there’s no one on board. Since completing its mission to deliver a satellite in 2015, the empty rocket has been hurtling through space, its path determined by the gravitational pull of the Earth, Moon and Sun. The collision will leave a small crater on the Moon’s surface, but we won’t even notice it here on Earth. The rocket is one of many pieces of ‘space junk’ – abandoned spacecraft and satellites orbiting the Earth.

© Patrick Foto / Shut ters

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What’s the smallest thing there is? A grain of sand? A speck of dust? There are lots of things that are even smaller than that – so small that we can’t even see them!

Take a piece of cheese. Cut it in half, then cut one half in half again. Keep going like this until you’ve got the smallest bit of cheese you can cut. Now imagine you had the world’s tiniest knife and could keep going. How small would the smallest piece be?

The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus thought that if you kept on cutting, you’d eventually end up with something very tiny, which he called ‘atomos’. Nowadays we atoms. call them atoms EVERYTHING is made up of atoms! Everything in the universe! Atoms are so small they even make up things you can’t see, like germs, bad smells – everything!

What’s an atom made of? Mainly empty space! In the centre is a tiny nucleus made of even smaller particles called protons and neutrons. The nucleus is surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Protons, neutrons and electrons are called subatomic particles. Electron cloud Nucleus

Proton Neutron © Yzmo / Wikimedia commons

Why can't you trust atoms? They make up everything!

Atoms can’t be cut in two

By T

MATTER?

Matter is the stuff everything is made of – and there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye!

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It’s elementary! Different things are made of different kinds of atoms. Each kind makes up an element. Atoms of different elements have different numbers of protons, neutrons and electrons. This makes elements look and behave differently. It’s what makes oxygen different from gold.

Helium is the second lightest element in the universe. Because it is lighter than the surrounding air, a balloon filled with helium rises if you let go of the string. A standard-sized helium balloon can lift about 14 g. Can you work out how much weight these bunches of balloons can lift? How many balloons would you need to lift the final weight? Draw in the number of balloons and check your answers on page 34.

70g

Flame test Scientists use flame tests to identify different elements. Sodium turns a flame bright yellow, boron turns it green, copper turns it blue, potassium turns it purple, and magnesium turns it bright white.

You will need: • • • • •

3 heat-proof plates or dishes (e.g. ramekins) Alcohol hand sanitiser gel (ideally over 60% alcohol) Cream of tartar Table salt (large sea salt crystals work best) Matches

What did the chemist say when she found two helium atoms? He He!

What you do: 1. Wearing gloves, pour a small blob of hand gel onto each of the plates. Add a pinch of salt crystals to one and a pinch of cream of tartar to another, and leave one with just hand gel in it – this is your control. 2. Ask an adult to carefully set the gel blobs alight using a match. 3. Watch carefully and record the colour of the flames.

You should find: The flames are different colours because of the elements they contain. The flame containing cream of tartar should look more lilac or purple than the control because it contains the element potassium, and the flame containing salt should look more yellow because salt is sodium chloride.

All the elements were created in the Big Bang when the universe began – but it took a few hundred thousand years for the universe to cool down enough for all the different kinds of atoms to form.

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The world's most famous table I’ve got a table. Not that kind of table!

Atomic number (number of protons) ent kinds of atoms There are only 118 differ they make are known. The 118 elements the periodic table. arranged in a chart called

r properties are grouped Elements that have simila are on one side and the together. All the metals er. Turn to page 17 to non-metals are on the oth le works. see how the periodic tab

© Humdan / Shutterstock.com

Check out this speedy musical introduction to the elements of the periodic table! bit.ly/33yxtwk

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Element symbol

Element name

How many chemica l sy mbols are there in the sentence below? Star t at the beginn ing, you mus t use each letter once and only in the orde r they are w ritten. Th e letters can be uppe r or lower case. Use the periodic table to help you.

T IC K LI S H A LPA C A S K IC K C A C T I Write your answer here and check it on page 34.


BOOM!

Atoms of an element can combine with atoms of other elements and become compounds. This happens during a chemical reaction.

Create oxygen in a chemical reaction How many elements can you see around you – are there any that you can’t see? (Tip: There might be some in your purse, in your pencil case or in your kitchen drawers. There are even some in the air you’re breathing!)

The element hydrogen makes up 75% of the universe’s mass.

Clear the area and get ready for some explosive chemistry!

You will need: • 3% or 6% hydrogen peroxide solution (you can buy this from a chemist or online) • Dried yeast • Washing-up liquid • Food colouring (any colour you like) • A tray or large roasting tin • An empty bottle • A funnel • A small jug or cup • Safety goggles (or glasses) and rubber gloves

What you do:

Just add heat… At room temperature, some elements, like iron, are solid. Some, like mercury, are liquid and some, like oxygen, are gases. Atoms in a solid are locked into a structure. They don’t move. If you heat up a solid element and give the atoms more energy, they can move around. The element becomes a liquid in which the atoms can flow.

1. With everyone wearing safety goggles and gloves, place the bottle on the tray and ask an adult helper to pour about 100 ml of hydrogen peroxide into it using the funnel. 2. Pour in some food colouring and a squeeze of washing-up liquid and gently swish it around (taking care that the hydrogen peroxide doesn’t touch your skin). 3. In another small jug or cup, mix about 3 tablespoons of warm water with 1 tablespoon of dried yeast and stir for 30 seconds.

Heat up a liquid, and the atoms have enough energy to move even further apart. They become a gas.

4. Using the funnel, pour the yeast mixture into the bottle, give it a quick swish and wait for the ‘magic’ (chemistry) to happen!

You should find: You’ve made oxygen – and a lot of foam! The bubbles in the foam contain pure oxygen gas, trapped in the washing-up liquid. When hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) breaks down, it turns into oxygen (O2) and water (H2O). This happens naturally over time, but the yeast you added contains a catalyst (say cat-a-list) – something that speeds up a chemical reaction – so it happens super-fast!

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Let’s stick together! Like people, atoms like company. They rarely exist on their own and prefer to be joined to other atoms, forming molecules. Atoms in a molecule are joined by chemical bonds. Compounds are made up of molecules of different kinds of atoms and elements are made up of molecules of the same kind of atom. The kinds of atoms in a molecule and the way they’re arranged make them different substances.

In oxygen (an element), oxygen atoms exist in molecules made of two oxygen atoms.

In water (a compound), oxygen atoms are chemically bonded to two hydrogen atoms.

Make fruity model molecules you can eat! You will need: • A selection of small fruits or berries (e.g. strawberries, red or green grapes, blueberries) • Wooden cocktails sticks

What you do: 1. Decide which fruits will represent different atoms. 2. See if you can make molecules of oxygen, water and carbon dioxide.

3. We used strawberries for carbon, grapes for oxygen and blueberries for hydrogen atoms.

Water molecule H 2O

Carbon dioxide molecule CO2

could even try making a more complicated molecule, like diamond or graphite. Or make up a whole new one! You

Carbon atoms arranged in one structure make diamond, but the same atoms arranged in a different structure make graphite – the ‘lead’ in your pencil. Turn to page 24 to find out how this works!

Diamond is hard and strong

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Graphite is soft and slippery


Split a compound into elements The air we breathe is made up of a mixture of nitrogen molecules and oxygen molecules. About three quarters of it is nitrogen and about a quarter is oxygen, with small amounts of other gases like carbon dioxide. Different molecules in a mixture can be separated from each other.

Chemistry is everywhere! Chemical reactions don’t just happen in a science lab. They’re happening around you all the time.

Water molecules (H2O) are made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. You can split these molecules using electricity.

You will need: • A 9-volt torch battery • • 2 electrical wires. Alternatively, fold two • 25 cm x 5 cm pieces of foil in half lengthways • three times. Encase • each strip in sticky tape, • leaving a centimetre • bare at each end.

2 pencils, sharpened at both ends A pinch of bicarbonate of soda A glass or jar A spoon A piece of cardboard Sticky tape

What you do:

hen iron comes into contact with oxygen •W and water, a slow chemical reaction makes iron oxide – or rust!

1. Half-fill the glass with water, add the bicarbonate of soda and stir until dissolved.

•W hen you light a fire, a combustion reaction takes place.

2. Place the cardboard over the jar and punch two holes in it with the pencils, pushing them through until the graphite tips are under the water and the tops are sticking up above the cardboard.

•W hen you bake a cake, the Maillard reaction causes the top to brown. hemical reactions are happening inside •C your body right now! When you breathe in oxygen, it chemically combines with the sugar in your food to make carbon dioxide, water and energy to keep you moving and growing.

Why were hydrogen and oxygen best friends? They had bonded!

3. Attach the wires and battery as shown in the photo. Take care not to touch the two ends of the wires together when they’re connected to the battery. A short circuit would make the battery hot and can cause fire.

You should find: The lead inside the pencils contains graphite, which is a form of carbon that electricity can travel through. Adding bicarbonate of soda helps the water to conduct electricity. The electricity splits water molecules (H2O) in a process called electrolysis (say elec-trol-iss-iss). Bubbles of hydrogen are formed on one pencil and bubbles of oxygen on the other.

know the pencil producing more bubbles is making hydrogen because water molecules have twice as many hydrogen atoms as oxygen atoms (H2O)! You

The

dark side of matter

Modern science can only describe 5% of the matter in the universe. Scientists still don’t know what the rest is made of! They call this dark matter and dark energy. Maybe you’ll solve this mystery one day!


AL ANIM S TIC

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Jellyfish

Our vet Joe Inglis got all excited when he heard the word ‘jelly’! But instead of tucking into his favourite pudding, his mission was to find out about these wibbly-wobbly sea creatures!

600 million year s ago

Jellyfish are soft marine animals with umbrella-shaped bodies and long trailing tentacles. They float in the seas all around the world and are also known as sea jellies.

This is when the first jellyfish are thought to have evolved, making them the oldest complex animals in the world!

Super-sized jellies Jellyfish come in lots of different shapes and sizes. The smallest jellyfish are so small they can only be seen with a magnifying glass. The largest weigh up to 200 kg and can reach 2 m in diameter!

Chemical stings © Parkerspics / Shutterstock.com

Lion king The massive lion’s mane jellyfish is thought to be the longest animal in the world, with tentacles stretching out up to 36 metres – that’s as long as three double-decker buses!

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All jellyfish have stinging cells on their tentacles, which they use to stun their prey. They are usually not dangerous to people, although stings can be painful. But some jellyfish release very toxic chemicals. Box jellyfish, which live in the warm waters off northern Australia and the Indo-Pacific, are the most dangerous. Their venom causes potassium to leak into victims’ blood streams. In rare cases, this can be fatal to people.


A jellyfish’s mouth is also its bottom

How do you make a jellyfish laugh? With ten tickles!

Jelly jelly tasty Although jelly doesn’t sound too dangerous, most jellyfish are carnivores (meat eaters). They capture small fish, tiny plankton particles and even other jellyfish using their long tentacles and then suck them into their mouths to digest them.

Jet-powered jellies Jellyfish are surprisingly good swimmers. They move by squeezing their bodies to push themselves forward through the water, using much less energy than other swimming animals, such as fish.

Wobbly water Jellyfish are invertebrates, which means they don’t have a bony skeleton supporting their bodies like we do. Instead, their bell-shaped bodies are mainly filled with water!

Jellyfish don’t have brains! Instead, they have nerves that can sense light, vibrations and chemicals in the water and a sense of gravity. These help them to move around and hunt their prey.

Which jellyfish has caught the shrimp? Write your answer here and check it on page 34. a b

d

c

e


Take this personality quiz to reveal your elemental self. Start by answering these three questions...

1

You fall off your bike and graze your knee, what do you do?

l Get straight back on your bike and ignore the pain

If you scored 3-5, you’re a metal! SCORE 1

l Take a few minutes’ rest

2

l Cry until someone helps you

3

2

Someone purposefully breaks the model of the International Space Station that you spent hours making. How do you react?

l It’s no big deal – I can make it again

SCORE 1

l I get really cross and break their model too!

2

l I go and tell my parents

3

3

How flexible are you?

SCORE 1

l Not very bendy at all l I can touch my toes without bending my knees

2

l I can touch my toes and do the splits!

3

Add up your total score. Your score

Q1

+

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Q2

+

Q3

Which element a re y o u ?

=

Total

Metals typically have high melting and boiling points (they’re not easily flustered!). They’re also generally hard and malleable (meaning they can be bent or hammered into different shapes).

How would you best describe your personality?

Bright and rebellious!

Fun and playful!

1

2

Reliable and faithful

3

What did Sherlock Holmes say to Dr Watson when he saw the periodic table?


o w

The element you are most like is...

Draw a diamond, a gold bar, a helium balloon or some mercury into the empty boxes. When you’re finished there should be only one of each kind in every row, column or block of four squares. Check your answer on page 34.

1

Magnificent magnesium. You’re the fireworks at the party! Magnesium is a metal that burns in the air with a dazzling white flame. Magnesium also plays lots of important roles in our bodies – keeping our muscles, nerves, bones, blood pressure and immune systems working properly. gallium. You’re 2 Gallant one of the most entertaining

If you scored 6-9, you’re a non-metal. Non-metals have a variety of properties and come in a range of colours. They are shapeshifters because they generally have low melting and boiling points, and can be quite brittle (meaning that when they’re solids, they tend to break if you try to bend them).

Shy but fun

Kind and dependable

4

5

Adaptable and helpful

6

It’s element-ary!

elements – gallium is a lot of fun and features in many YouTube videos! What makes it such a unique metal is that it’s a solid at room temperature but it becomes liquid when you place it in the palm of your hand.

3

Glorious gold. You’re cool as a cucumber, and very precious! Gold is an inert metal, which means that it’s very stable and doesn’t tend to react with other substances. It’s highly valued as a precious metal for its beauty and rarity. helium. You’re 4 Hesitant happy with your own

company and unflappable! Helium is an inert gas that doesn’t react with other elements. It’s famous for keeping party balloons and airships afloat. It’s also used in welding and in manufacturing (e.g, for making the semiconductors used in smartphones and tablets).

5

Pleasing potassium. You’re kind to others above all else. Potassium is an alkaline metal that plays a key role in keeping our bodies healthy. You can find it in fresh fruits and vegetables, like bananas.

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Creative carbon. You’re a handy person to have around! Carbon mostly exists as a grey solid, but it can also appear in diamond form, when it’s both incredibly hardwearing and beautiful. As graphite, it’s useful for pencil leads, and it has recently been found to have amazing properties as a nanoparticle.

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b... clu O C E

Emmi's

Recycle junk mail into an accessory you can wear or give as a gift!

MAKE A PAPER BEAD BRACELET You will need: • • • • •

Junk mail or old magazines Craft glue A ruler A paintbrush Scissors

2

2.6 cm

Measure 1.3 cm along the shorter edge of your piece of junk mail. Draw a line to the corner to make a long triangle. Cut it out and throw it away as this first piece won't be the right shape.

1

• Cocktail sticks • Polystyrene packaging or sticky tack • Thin elastic • Paint (optional)

1.3 cm

Measure 2.6 cm up the opposite side to your first measurement and draw a line to the bottom left corner and cut it out.

3 4

Tightly roll the wide end of the long triangle of paper around the cocktail stick.

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Keep rolling the paper, making sure it rolls evenly. The tip of the triangle should end up in the middle of the bead. Add a blob of glue to the end of the paper and stick it down. Rub glue all over the bead until the end is stuck firmly in place.

Continued on page 21 ➜


Periodic table poster to stick on your wall! The periodic table lists all of the 118 chemical elements we know about, but it does much more than that! It also gives us lots of information about the elements’ properties.

Symbol

Each tile shows the name of the element, its chemical symbol (one or two letters that represent its name) and its atomic number (how many protons it has). Your periodic table poster (over the page) includes some extra symbols to give you more information. See the key on page 18 to find out what they mean.

Atomic number Name

An example of how it is (or was) used or where it occurs in nature

The table arranges the elements in rows (called periods) according to their atomic number, and also in columns (called groups) according to their chemical and physical properties. Elements on the left side of the table are more reactive than the ones on the right, which means they’re more likely to explode if they come into contact with other elements! The layout of the periodic table helps scientists to easily recognise what an element is like and to make predictions about how it will behave.

The first 94 elements in the periodic table are found naturally on Earth, but the other 24 are synthetic. This means they have been created by people, usually by smashing elements together at super-fast speeds to create nuclear reactions! It is likely that there are more elements yet to be discovered and synthesised.

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The Periodic Table Take a look at the extra symbols at the top of each tile to find out more about the element. Solid at room temperature Liquid at room temperature Gas at room temperature Human body Top ten elements by weight Earth’s crust Top eight elements by weight Magnetic Ferromagnetic at room temperature Noble metals Corrosion resistant

Rf

Periodic Table of the Elements, in Pictures and Words © 2005-2016 Keith Enevoldsen elements.wlonk.com

Db

Radioactive All isotopes are radioactive Only traces found in nature Less than a millionth per cent of the Earth’s crust Never found in nature Only made by people The colour of the symbol is the colour of the element in its most common pure form. For example: metallic solid red liquid colourless gas

Sg

Bh

Hs

Mt

D

Superheavy Elements – radio


ble of the elements

t

Ds

Rg

Cn

Nh

Fl

Mc

Lv

Ts

Og

Es

Fm Md

No

Lr

ts – radioactive, never found in nature, no uses except atomic research

radioactive, never found in nature, no uses except atomic research


How often should you make jokes about the elements?

What did the proton say to the electron?

Periodically!

Don’t be so negative!

The clues below are all atomic symbols from the periodic table. Find them in the table and then fill in the element’s name to complete the crossword! Check your answers on page 34. 1

2

4

3

5 6

7

8 9 10

11 12

13

14

15

16

17 18

19 20

DOWN

ACROSS 5) N

13) B

1) Ca

7) Ar

2) Si

11) Na

8) Cs

16) Ga

3) Be

14) O

9) Ag

18) H

4) Kr

15) He

10) Li

19) Mg

6) C

17) Au

12) Ne

20) Pb

Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

1. A duck was given £7, an ant was given £21, a spider was given £28. How much money was the dog given? 20 whizzpopbang.com

2. What is it that when you take away the whole, you still have some left over? 3. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?


5

With the bead still , on the cocktail stick e m so o int push the stick ing ag polystyrene pack ck or a piece of sticky ta and leave it to dry.

6

T ip: If your bead is stuc k on the cock ta il stick, hold the bead between two fi ngers and tu rn th e stick. Th is w ill loosen the glue an d it shou ld sl ide off easi ly.

7

I’d love to see your paper bead bracelet! Take a photo and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag and email it to Y@whizzpopbang.com

Photos @ Jenna Williams

Cut a piece of elastic to fit your wrist, leaving enough spare to knot it at the end, and thread it through the beads to make a bracelet.

Make at least six beads in this way. You can make smaller beads by reducing the width of the bottom of the triangle. Try making it 1 cm wide. You can leave the beads as they are or paint them; it’s up to you!

ECO

More

ideas...

You could make more jewellery, such as a necklace. Upcycle the ring from an old keyring by adding a string of beads. These would make great gifts! Although junk mail is recyclable because it’s paper, it requires energy to recycle it. Some paper also gets shipped to other countries to be recycled, which uses even more energy, so it’s important to reuse as much as we can.

Continued from page 16

It’s up to us to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! There are ways to reduce the amount of junk mail you get through the door. Ask your parents to opt out by filling in a form from the post office (which you can download online) and put a ‘no junk mail’ sign on your door.

whizzpopbang.com 21


Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... find out about the universe!

Sudan Parames varan, sc Council for Nuclea ientist at the European r Research (CE RN)

The LHC is actually the final element in a chain of particle accelerators.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)* smashes together tiny particles at very, very high speeds!

Each accelerator gives the particles more energy and increases their speed. When the particles reach a certain energy, they are moved to the next accelerator. The LHC uses a combination of electric fields and very powerful magnets (called superconducting magnets) to move the particles round and round until they are at the correct energy. At this point they are smashed into each other!

Sudan Paramesvaran is a physics lecturer at the University of Bristol and a scientist at the European Council for Nuclear Research (CERN), where he is involved in the world’s largest science experiment, the Large Hadron Collider. If you have any questions of your own for Sudan, you can contact him on sudan@cern.ch

The LHC is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world. It is a 27- km ring built 100 metres underground near Geneva in Switzerland. Particles are among the smallest things we know to exist, and everything around us is made of them. There are trillions of trillions of particles in a grain of sand! We use the LHC to smash subatomic particles called protons together to learn more about the universe and what it is made of.

The LHC is one of the hottest and coldest places in the universe.

The superconducting magnets are cooled to -271.3 ˚C, which is very close to the coldest possible temperature of -273.2 ˚C. At the other end of the scale, temperatures of around 5.5 trillion degrees Celcius have been obtained by colliding particles at the LHC. *Large refers to the fact that it is a huge ring. Hadron refers to the particles we are colliding; a hadron is a type of particle. Collider refers to the fact we have two beams of particles, one going clockwise, and one going anticlockwise, and then they are brought in to collide with each other.

The Large Hadron Collider


Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

Thousands of people look after the Large Hadron Collider...

© Sudan Paramesvaran

...and they use bikes to travel around underground! There are engineers, computing experts, scientists and technicians. There are many tasks involved with ensuring the LHC continues to function and everyone who works on the project has a role to play.

Sudan working with the trigger system

We are trying to find out what the universe is made of and why it has evolved into the state it is now.

We have a theory which explains a lot of what we have seen so far. This is called the Standard Model of Particle Physics. However, there are lots of things we don’t know. In fact, most of the universe is made of stuff that we can’t explain. As we don’t know what this stuff is, we call it ‘dark’, and use names such as ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’ for these unknown objects. We are trying to get as much information as possible about these things to try and find explanations.

One of the reasons the LHC is so big is that we want to collide our particles together at very high speeds and energies.

We need to find a way of continually increasing the energy of our particles. We do this with electric fields, which give our particle s a little boost as they travel around the circ le. Each time the particles go around the ring, they get a little more energy. However, to keep them moving in a circle we need to have some way of directing them. We use very powerful magnets to do this. There are over 1,200 of these in the LHC.

on at CERN

An image of a particle collisi

© CERN

The fantastic thing about the LHC is that it is built to discover. The discoveries it has already made have changed our understanding of the world around us, and of the entire universe. There is still lots more to find out and the LHC will be colliding particles for the next 15 years or so, trying to answer the biggest questions about the nature of the universe.

I love working in an area where we don’t know what we are going to find!

Every time we look at collisions, something different can happen and it’s very exciting to see if anything new pops up. I also love the fact that we work with many other people from all over the world to do this.

whizzpopbang.com 23


Pencils

HOW STUFF

WORKS 1

Pencils might seem like one of the simplest tools around, but have you ever wondered how these everyday writing implements work? Here’s the science behind pointy pencils!

2

Most pencils have a wooden body. This is made up of two halves that are glued together and then painted. See how a pencil is made here: bit.ly/32uQoaV

35 miles

The length of the line a standard pencil can draw! That’s the equivalent of about 45,000 words.

This pencil has snapped! Which of the pieces below is the missing end of the pencil? Write your answer and check it on page 34.

a

b

d

c

e

24 whizzpopbang.com

f

Inside the wooden body is a thin strip of graphite, a type of carbon that is found naturally in some kinds of rock.


According to legend, graphite was first used to write with by sheep farmers in an English village in the 16th century. They used a mysterious lump of black material they found underneath a tree stump to mark their sheep! The first modern pencils were developed by an officer in Napoleon’s army in the 1790s who came up with the idea of mixing graphite with clay and then encasing it in wood.

3

Pencils are made with flat ends, which are then sharpened to a point to expose the graphite core.

4

Graphite is made from lots of very thin layers of carbon atoms which are held together very weakly. When the tip of a pencil is pushed across paper, these layers of carbon are peeled away and stick to the fibres on the paper’s surface, leaving behind a line of dark graphite.

Weak attraction between layers

imedia Commons

Pencils come in different hardnesses, from the softest 9B to the hardest 9H. The difference between them is due to the amount of clay that is added to the graphite inside the pencil. Adding more clay makes the pencil harder and lighter in colour, while less clay and more graphite makes them softer and blacker.

© Salavat Fidai / Wik

n Graphite is so soft that it ca . be carved using a sharp knife But it’s also very brittle, so it’s easy to break.

whizzpopbang.com 25


g... in z a m A ly e m o s e w A 0 1

E Y R A N I D R O A R T EX sorts of ve come up with all ha s an m hu e iv nt ve In ents! and wonderful elem uses for Earth’s weird

1

Bismuth forms amazing geometric crystals as it cools. The rainbow colours are caused by a reaction with oxygen in the air. Bismuth compounds are used in medicine, especially to stop diarrhoea!

2

3

5

Mercury is a silvery liquid metal and is used in thermometers to measure temperature. As the temperature changes, the mercury expands or contracts to show the temperature on a scale.

City streets are often lit up by brightly coloured neon signs. Neon is a type of gas and is only used in signs that are red or orange – other colours are created by different gases.

4

In 1993, engineers added 600 tonnes of lead weights to the base of the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy to stop it from tilting any further.

Toxic antimony was used by the Ancient Egyptians to make black eye make-up and was used as a laxative (medicine to make you poo) by people in Medieval times.


S T N E M E Y EL

6 8

7

The world’s largest gold nugget was discovered in Australia in 1869 by two miners and was named Welcome Stranger. It was 61 cm long and weighed 72 kg!

Lots of things are made from iron (which is used to make steel), including cars, aeroplanes, nails, spoons and …irons! You need iron in your body to stay healthy, so it is even added to breakfast cereal.

Titanium is a metal named after the titans (Gods of Earth in Greek mythology). Because it is strong and lightweight, it is used in aircraft, laptops, bicycles and medical implants like hip joints.

9

It’s not just Superman’s home planet. In real life, krypton is a rare gas! Scientists have used krypton to discover the age of ice in Antarctica by measuring it in tiny bubbles trapped in the ice.

10

For more than 200 years, copper plates have been fixed onto ships’ hulls to protect them from saltwater and to stop animals like barnacles and mussels attaching. Nowadays, larger ships’ hulls are made of copper alloys (mixtures of metals).

© 1. Sebastian Janicki / Shutterstock.com, 2. MarcelClemens / Shutterstock.com, 3. Karin Hildebrand Lau / Shutterstock.com, 4. N. Rotteveel / Shutterstock.com & Bjoern Wylezich / Shutterstock.com, 5. QQ7 / Shutterstock.com & nathapol 993 / Shutterstock.com, 6. Anatoli Lvov / Wikimedia Commons, 7. spaxiax / Shutterstock.com, 8. Alex Mit / Shutterstock.com, 9. Jurii / Wikimedia Commons, 10. Cmglee / Wikimedia Commons.

whizzpopbang.com 27


Sensational Scientists

By Claire Cock-Starkey

DMITRI MENDELEEV

Today, the periodic table is used by students and scientists all over the world, but how did its inventor come up with the idea?

DMITRI MENDELEEV WAS BORN IN 1834 IN TOBOLSK IN SIBERIA, RUSSIA.

Dmitri grew up in a small Siberian town with his 14 brothers and sisters. He was interested in chemistry, so he studied hard to get into a good school in St Petersburg – a big Russian city. At first he worked as a teacher, but he later went back to university to study chemistry in greater depth and eventually became a professor. The 1850s and 1860s were an exciting time for chemistry because lots of new discoveries were being made. Dmitri attended a conference in 1860 where chemists from all over the world met and discussed the latest ideas. One of the discoveries that especially inspired Dmitri was atomic mass.

Carbon atom protons = 6 neutrons = 6 6 + 6 = 12 neutron proton electron

Atomic = mass

28 whizzpopbang.com

12

Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. Adding the number of protons and neutrons in an atom gives its atomic mass. Carbon atoms have 6 protons and 6 neutrons, so its atomic mass is 12.

ied to list all ientists had tr sc , st a p e th In 89, French elements. In 17 of the known d started e Lavoisier ha in to n A t is em s with ch ents into group em el l a ic em ch putting ed them into ties. He group er p ro p r ila m si rths. , metals and ea ls a et -m n o n gases,


Dmitri realised that he could create a much better list of all the elements if he put them in groups and ordered them by their atomic mass. As he began to work on his new periodic table, he realised that he could use the patterns in the groups of elements to work out where elements that had not yet been discovered could fit in.

Fellow chemists were really impressed with Dmitri’s periodic table because it meant that every element now had a number and a fixed position on the table. This was really useful because it meant they could predict what an element would look like and how it would react with other elements – just by looking at where it was on the table. The value of the periodic table was proven in the next ten years when the undiscovered elements that Dmitri had included in his table were actually discovered! Dmitri had used his periodic law to work out where these unknown elements would fit in the table and what properties they would have. When the elements gallium, scandium and germanium were discovered, Dmitri’s predictions were shown to be correct.

See the modern periodic table on page 8.

When Dmitri first published his periodic table in 1869, it included the 70 elements known at the time. Today, the periodic table includes 118 elements!

The periodic table has been really important for the development of chemistry. Dmitri got lots of prizes and praise for his discovery. But perhaps the most fitting celebration of his work happened many years after his death. In 1965, a new element was discovered. It was named mendelevium in Dmitri’s honour. Now he will always have a place on the periodic table he designed.

whizzpopbang.com 29


Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club! Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our adventures in science hizz Pop Bang robot, Y, and other W atured on readers! Everyone fe an this page will receive e! enamel pin badg

AS K Y,

When you the Sun, why do you look at sneeze? From Cecilia, aged 6

F oR

CURIoUS K I DS

It looks like you all had great fun visiting the Stone Age in Issue 76!

Oshi, aged 7, discovered that Stone Age people ate raisins, pomegranate seeds and asparagus!

7, Johnny, aged g in ak m d love gh this salt dou . ce neckla

Jude, aged 6, ing had fun mak der n the Mars la 67 e su from is

, Annie, aged 4 ly h g u ro o th ing enjoyed mak . o o p ge Stone A

Y’s Wonder Club Badges Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

This is called photic sneezing – it only happens in about a quarter of people and we don’t completely understand how it works. You normally sneeze if something irritates your nose, sending nerve signals to the ‘sneeze centre’ in your brainstem. This area of cells controls all the breathing and changes involved in a sneeze, helping you to… ATISHOO!... sneeze out whatever was irritating you. Bright lights might cause sneezing because the eyes and nose are connected by the same nerve. Or it might be that very bright light causes so much brain activity that it also activates the sneeze centre! Maybe you’ll discover the answer one day, Cecilia!

Investigate scientific questions to earn your Super Scientist badge.

Collectable enamel badges for you to earn! Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

E


Here are some of your excellent shadow puppets from issue 76.

We loved seeing all your awesome Stone Age axes from the Issue 76 Eco Club. Here are some examples…

7 Freya, aged

Oscar, aged 8

Heath, aged 8

Isaac, aged 6

Archie, aged 11 Laurie, aged 11

DE AR Y, If the asteroid

that hit Earth killed every living thing, how are we alive? What have we evolved from?

From Lilia Peterson, aged 8

S TA R R L ET T E

e You’v a won r! e bind

Although the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago killed everything near the crash site, living things furth er away did survive. Scientists think the big extinction was caused by climate change that happened because of the asteroid impact and lots of volcanoes erupting. Large dinosaurs could not adapt to the new conditions and became extinct – but smaller ones survived and evolv ed into birds. Small mammals also survived because they ate a wide range of food and could burrow undergrou nd until the environment improved. These rat-sized creat ures eventually evolved into an incredible variety of mam mals – including humans! Check out this awesome resource to see how you’re related to other living things: Onezoom.org

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

Write a report or a review to earn your Science Reporter badge.

H I, Y ! Why is the sky blue?

From Ben, aged 10

gases, like oxygen Earth’s atmosphere is made up of ugh these gases to and nitrogen. Sunlight travels thro raindrops we see the reach us on the ground. If it hits t is made up of – whole spectrum of colours the ligh end of the spectrum as a rainbow. Light from the blue lecules in the is more likely to crash into gas mo n. It scatters around atmosphere and change directio restingly, violet the sky, making it look blue. Inte doesn’t look violet light is also scattered, but our sky y good at detecting because human eyes are not ver it. Imagine if they were!

Send your experiments, ideas, photos, reviews and questions to Y@whizzpopbang.com or Y, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Don’t forget to include your name, age and address. We can’t return any post, sorry.

To find out how to earn your badges, go to whizzpopbang.com/wonder-club. Schools can get involved too! Find out how here: bit.ly/39xNQ Q qV

whizzpopbang.com 31


How much can you remember from this issue?

um/ Test your m to dad/friend

Test your knowledge with our super-duper quiz. Just tick the answers you think are correct, mark them using the answers on page 34 and then add up your score. If you need some help, check out the hints at the bottom of the page.

see what they know!

1

What is the name of the largest gold nugget ever found?

2

What element is named after Dmitri Mendeleev? eriodicum a) P

a) Goldy McGoldface

b) Mendelevium

b) Big Yellow

c) Dmitrivium

c) W elcome Stranger

3

When were all the elements created?

the a) When an asteroid hit o Earth 66 million years ag

4

b) I n the Big Bang at the start of the universe

6

What are jellyfish also known as? a) Pudding fish

7

How long a line can a standard pencil draw? a) 35 miles b) 350 miles

hen our galaxy formed c) W

5

c) 3,500 miles

What does LHC stand for? r

a) Large Hippopotamus Collide

b) Wibble-wobble fish

b) Large Hydrogen Collider

c) Sea jellies

arge Hadron Collider c) L

zing?

ee What is photic sn

n you look

a) Sneezing whe at the Sun

n you have b) Sneezing whe taken your photograph s suddenly

hen photon c) W vibrate

Why is gold so expensive? Because it’s Au -some!

8

Answers on page 34.

W hat is krypton? a) A green crystal b) A rare gas c) A metal that’s liquid at room

temperature

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages… 1) Page 27 2) Page 29 3) Page 7 4) Page 24 5) Page 12 6) Page 22 7) Page 30 8) Page 27

I scored: .......... 1-3: Cool chemist! 4-6: You’re in your element! 7-8: Top of the (periodic) table!


W

We’d like you to create a model of an atom or chemical structure. You can use anything you like to make your model – use your imagination! You could use marshmallows and spaghetti, recycle rubbish from the recycling bin, or even bake and decorate a cookie, cupcake or pizza. It’s up to you! Send in a photo of your model and you could win one of four fantastic chemistry sets.

! IN

Chemical creations

Chemistry lab kit Discover the wonders of chemistry with this awesome laboratory set from trendsuk.co.uk. It includes ten different chemicals, glass test tubes, apparatus, safety goggles and a methylated spirit burner to help you find out about fascinating chemical reactions. You can perform more than eighty experiments with the help of the detailed instruction manual. Children under 10 should be supervised. Send your photo to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Atom competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post your photo to Atom competition, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please don’t forget to include your name, age and address. Deadline: April 8th 2022. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com

WINNERS

Issue 78 competition winners Thank you to all of you who sent in your entries to our Space Station competition. Your models were out of this world! These five lucky winners will each receive a brilliant bundle of space-themed books from hatchettechildrens.co.uk:

Andrea Clerici, 9

Alba Larder, 8

Jonathan Sheen, 7

Sahand Anvarian, 7 Charlie Reilly, 6

whizzpopbang.com 33


JOKES

What music do iron and lead listen to? Heavy metal! How does copper say goodbye? C u!

What did the atom in the nuclear reactor say? It’s time to split!

What did the rusty iron sa y? Oxidants hap pen!

ou get y o d t Wha u mix when yo steel? ith helium w ars! Flying c

Page 6 – True/Untrue

Page 13 – True/Untrue

UNTRUE: About a hundred years ago, scientists discovered that we can split atoms! It’s called nuclear fission and it’s how nuclear energy is made.

TRUE: Jellyfish have only one opening to the digestive system, so jellyfish poo comes out the same way that food goes in. Yuk!

Page 7 – Balloons puzzle Two balloons can lift 28 g. Three balloons can lift 42 g. Seven balloons can lift 98 g. You would need 5 balloons to lift the 70 g weight. Page 8 – Chemical symbols puzzle There are 17 chemical symbols in the sentence: Ti – Titanium S – Sulfur C – Carbon K – Potassium K – Potassium I – Iodine Li – Lithium C – Carbon S – Sulfur K – Potassium H – Hydrogen Ca – Calcium Al – Aluminium C – Carbon Pa – Protactinium (or C - Carbon and Ac - Actinium) Ca – Calcium Ti – Titanium Page 9 – True/Untrue TRUE: Three quarters of the universe’s mass is hydrogen. Most of the rest is helium, and all the others make up just 2%!

How do you get gold’s attention? Shout A, u!

Answers Page 20 – Atomic symbols crossword

Page 13 – Jellyfish puzzle

1

Jellyfish e has caught the shrimp.

4

Page 15 – Elements grid

K

A

R

L 8

Y

L

I

T

C

5

H

I

U

I

A

E

S

I

M

N

G

N

E

A

2) The word ‘wholesome’! 3) Seven – take away the ‘s’ and it becomes ‘even’.

S

I

B E

9

S

I

L

11

S

E

O

N

U M

U

I

U M

V

E

7

C

13

B

R

R

G

O

O R

G

Y

D

R

O L

M 20

L

Page 24 – Pencils puzzle The other half of the broken pencil is d. Page 32 – Quiz 1) c 2) b 3) b 4) a 5) c 6) c 7) a 8) b

O

N

Y 17

H

14

X

N

M 18

A

A

B

I

I L

6

L

D

L

N

Y

M

E

M

Page 20 – Riddles

G

H

I

1) £14 – the animals are each given £3.50 per leg!

U

15

G

A

O

R

O 12

16

M

R

C

N

19

T

L

M

O

3

S

N

I

P 10

2

C

E

A

D

G G

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Melting metal This amazing metal is gallium and it’s lots of fun to play with! It’s a solid at room temperature but when you hold it, it melts in your hand. That’s because it has a really low melting point (just under 30 °C), which is lower than your body temperature. When you put it down, it becomes a solid again. Unlike mercury, another wellknown liquid metal, gallium is non-toxic and so is safe to have fun with! Gallium has a really high boiling point of 2,204 °C (water boils at 100 °C), so it has one of the greatest differences between melting and boiling point of any element.

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

© Jenny Inglis


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