Olivia Corner

There you are. I had my hand beautifully painted! Great! Let’s keep exploring. Dad, you look handsome in that local costume.

What are you

doing here? You can’t go!

Oh, I forgot to pay.

Now I Know! Now I Know!

Henna berries are small and shaped like a ball. When the berries are ripe, they crack into four sections with many seeds inside.

Henna is widely planted in India.

Essential oils can be extracted from henna flowers and used as a raw material for cosmetics.

Henna is really versatile. Yes. Henna is one of the main cash crops in India.

Kulfi is sold there. That’s a typical ice cream in India.

Let’s go and buy some.

Aw! My new clothes!

Now I Know! Now I Know!

Henna plants like a sunny environment. They can grow in sandy, clay or acid soil.

Henna

The growth of henna can be affected by the seasons. At the beginning of the rainy season, the plants grow rapidly and grow new branches and leaves. Later, their growth gradually slows down. In dry or cold seasons, the leaves turn yellow and fall off the tree.

Henna flowers have a pleasant smell. Their petals are white or red in colour. Each flower has four sepals and a tube forms at its base. The stylus is upright.

Henna plants are usually grown from seed. They are an ornamental plant that can be planted in courtyards and pots as well.

The Big Ears

We’ll harvest lots of vegetables today!

Hurray!

I’ll cook a hearty meal tonight! Hey, there’s a rabbit.

Aw, it hopped away. How did it know I was coming?

The rabbit has a keen sense of hearing. That’s how it detected you were nearby.

If my ears were bigger, would my hearing be better? I have an idea to make your ears bigger. Does that have something to do with its big ears?

Yes!

Ha, ha. Our ears can’t get any

bigger.

Now I Know! Now I Know!

Tiny sounds can be heard when a cone is placed on the ear. This is because the *dispersion of sound is *reduced, so the loudness of sound increases.

Huh?

*dispersion: the process by which things (including sounds) are spread over a wide area *reduced: made less or smaller

Let’s get back inside. I’ll do an experiment to show you. How are you going to make our ears bigger?

Ha, ha. I’m not really going to make your ears bigger. I’ll use some tools to make a “big ear”.

Now, listen closely to the sound from the radio.

Now I Know! Now I Know!

When you call out to the distance and turn your hands into a horn, you can reduce the dispersion of sound so that the sound can travel farther.

The volume of the radio is low. I can’t hear it clearly. I have a big ear like the rabbit. Now, put the small end of the cone close to your ear and let the other end face the radio. How does it sound now?

The sound has become much louder with this cone. Now I can hear it

clearly.

Now I Know! Now I Know!

Megaphones are often cone shaped in order to reduce the dispersion of sound and increase the loudness. I want to try it too!