Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2020 i Ask Science and Arts Magazine for Kids and Children

A Mammoth Mystery About 25,000 years ago, ancient humans built an enormous circle of mammoth bones—and no one knows why. The giant structur e is in Russia. Researchers started carefully digging it up in 2014. I t’s not the f irst ancient mammoth-bone ring they’v e found. But it is the oldest. It’s also quite large, at about 40 feet (12 m) across. The bones include at least 64 skulls, and other bones of do zens of mammoths. Ancient humans did hunt mammoths, but researchers don’t know f or sure whether these bones came from hunts, or from mammoths that died natur ally. They also don’t know what people used the structure for. It doesn’t look like anyone liv ed inside—ev en though it might hav e been the coolest…

Carbon dioxide from burning gas collects in a layer around the Earth. It traps heat and warms the planet. Gasoline comes from oil, a fossil fuel. It’s the remains of ancient living things squashed for millions of years under the ground. Once we’ve pumped all the oil from the Earth, we can’t make more. BIOFUEL One simple way to use less gas is to fill up with biofuel, a fuel made from plants. Biofuel can be brewed from corn, switchgrass, wheat stems, or other plant waste. Even old cooking oil can be turned into diesel, a fuel used in trucks. Most car engines can’t run on pure biofuel, so it’s mixed with gasoline. But every little bit helps! Biofuel Pros • Works with existing • cars Could turn farm waste…

1478 Winding Up The award for Earliest Known Drawing of a Working Car goes to the artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci. He probably meant it to be a large wooden wind-up toy for a bored king, not a serious ride. It was only three feet long and had no seat. 1672 Steaming Ahead The first real motorized carts ran on steam power. Ferdinand Verbiest was a Dutch mathematician and astronomer working at the court of the emperor of China. He also liked to tinker with steam engines. He built what may have been the first working steam-powered car. Verbiest’s steam wagon could chug along at a fairly brisk pace, but when the water ran out, so did the ride. 1769 Crashing Forward In France, inventor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built a…

The Global Positioning System, or GPS for short, is a network of about 30 satellites sitting above the Earth. Anywhere you go on Earth, there are several of these satellites somewhere above you. GPS satellites constantly send signals that just tell their name and the time (“Satellite A. 3:11”). To find out where you are, a GPS unit or cellphone reads the signals from three or four satellites and compares how long it took for each signal to arrive. The delay tells how far away you are from each satellite. Your phone compares the three distances and uses that to tell where you are. If you know you’re, say, 20,000 kilometers from satellite A, you must be somewhere on the red circle. If you’re 40,000 km from satellite B, you…

Cars by Dan Zettwoch I love science comics! This one is all about cars—their history, how they work, and some of the weird cars that have roamed the roads. I especially enjoyed reading about early road trips, before there were even roads. Somehow, cars these days seem much less exciting. If safer. Why Things Don’t Work: Motorcycle by David West Many books explain how things work. But sometimes it is even more interesting to find out why things don’t work. This smart cartoon book follows two kids (who I hope are old enough to drive) as they repair an old motorcycle part by part and learn to ride it. Why won’t it start? Why is it so noisy? And when is my turn? Full of Beans by Peggy Thomas Henry…

Dear Plush, My sisters and cousins and I are making our own cookbook. We have three recipes so far: princess pancakes, rocket ship sushi, and camp keep muffins. We call it the Quadruplette A Cookbook because our four names all start with A. Do you have any tips on baking? Annie M., California Dear Annie, What an exciting project! Who wouldn’t want to try rocket ship sushi? Baking is always more fun with friends, I think, even if you’re not together actually in person. That’s my main tip—ask more cousins! And always taste test. May your cakes always rise, Plush Dear Bone Pony, I love history! What kind of ancient horse were you: Hyracotherium, Orohippus, Mesohippus, Miohippus, Epihippus, Parahippus, Merychippus, Hipparion, Pliohippus, or Hippidion? Yours truly, Phoebe M., Iowa P.S.…