Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 113: Festive Science

Discover why stars twinkle!

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

Race rocket shooter s

FT D A R C CLE Y UPCGIFT S W O B

Remarkable robins

n g i s e d e R ! h g i e l s S a n t a ’s WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 113

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

WELCOME!

What a very merry magazine!

Emmi

Get ready to unwrap some fe st Whizz Pop Bang! You’ll be red ive science fun in this edition of esign racing rocket shooters and cra ing Santa’s sleigh using science, ft wrapping paper. Discover why ing eco-friendly gift bows from old stars twinkle and explore fasc inating facts about robins and reind eer. You’ll also find out how 3D printers work and meet a psychologist who studies th e science of gift-giving – and why it makes us so happy!

WHIZZ POP BANG is made by:

Editor-in-Chief: Jenny Inglis Editor: Tammy Osborne Designer: Rachael Fisher Illustrator: Clive Goodyer Contributors: Tommy Donbavand, Joe Inglis, Tara Pardo, Isabel Thomas and Joanna Tubbs

Merry Christmas everyone!

I’ve made some awesome gift bows to decorate all my presents!

Riley

hello@whizzpopbang.com whizzpopbang.com facebook.com/whizzpopbangmag twitter.com/whizzpopbangmag

ESOME

THE AW

E FOR

GAZIN

CE MA

SCIEN

KIDS!

Create THE AWESOME st rainfore SCIEN CE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS! weather How colossal cranes work

ON AMA ZTEP RE UIC

Build marshmallow bridges!

t rainfores ADVEN ’s biggest

EN GI NE ER IN G

e world Explore th

st Which rainfore you? animal are quiz !

Take the

Make rainforest friendly chocolate ice cream

pinterest.com/whizzpopbangmag instagram.com/whizzpopbangmag

SUBSCRIBE!

ISSN 2399-2840

GET IN TOUCH

COO L CAP YBA RAS E 109 OM ISSU PBANG.C WHIZZPO

EX PE RIM

IN ES AM someAZ ZZLMeet EN TS PU animal engineers

EXPER IMENT S PUZZL

tiktok.com/@whizzpopbangmag

G FA CT

S SCI EN

CE NE WS

e an Mak cled upcy il penc case

WHIZZPOPBANG.CO M ISSUE 110

ES AMAZ ING FACTS

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 Aimee 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

SCIEN CE NEWS

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 £4.59 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!

GROWN-UPS

EDUCATORS

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

!

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.

Indicates content linked to the National Curriculum

Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ © 2024 Launchpad Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents of WHIZZ POP BANG without written permission is prohibited. Illustrations: © 2024 Clive Goodyer

t hu ©S

Where you see this symbol, use a QR code reader on a phone or tablet to visit a relevant web page.

ISSN 239 9-28 40

Gakk

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

CONTENTS 6

4

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

Read about a space mission to an alien ocean, shapeshifting sea creatures and rat detectives.

SANTA SCIENCE

Learn about flight as we design a new sleigh for Santa!

TWINKLE, TWINKLE

How we wonder what stars are, and why they twinkle! Find out here… ©

ANIMAL ANTICS

NA

12

SA

Get to know the red-breasted robin and learn how you can attract them to your garden this winter.

SILLY SCIENCE

Get into the Christmas spirit with some festive brain games, puzzles and riddles.

16

tte hu ©S

INTERVIEW

t rs

HOW STUFF WORKS

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

…record-breaking flights. Santa’s not the only one with impressive flying skills!

SENSATIONAL SCIENTISTS

Hedy Lamarr may have been a film star, but she was more interested in inventing things.

30

28

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

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win a Letterbox Lab Science Kit.

34

17

24

Fancy printing your own toys? Almost anything is possible with a 3D printer!

26

m

22

Meet Lara Aknin and learn all about the science of gift giving.

Atom

hutterstock.co

Use old wrapping paper to make beautiful bows to pop onto this year’s pressies.

Cut out some awesome rocket shooters and see how far they fly!

m

14

©S

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

PULLOUT

oc k. co

10

32

s © Lotpro Car

I’d love to see pictures of your experiments! Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

JOKES AND ANSWERS

Laugh out loud at some awesome jokes and find the answers to all of our quizzes, puzzles and riddles.

35

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

Meet a super-cute reindeer and find out why it must be a female.

FIND THE CHRISTMAS PICTURES Hidden on each double page is a Christmas picture.

Tick each one to find them all!

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa

S U C O F N I E F I L D L I W RST PRIZE

YOUTH CAT

Life under dead wood

ADULT CATEGORY

Alexis Tinker-Tsa valas / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

IZE FIRST PR EGORY

The swarm of life

A tranquil m

oment

Hik kaduwa Liyanag

Ingo Arndt / Wildlife

Photographer of the

4 whizzpopbang.com

e Prasantha Vinod /

Wildlife Photographer

of the Year

Wetland wrestle

Year Karine Aigner / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

The demolition squad

Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

FI

Do you like taking photos? Why not make it a New Year’s resolution to photograph your local wildlife throughout the coming year.

Get inspired by some of the winning photos from this year’s W ildlife Photographer of the Year competition, and maybe you’ll have an amazing photo of your own to enter by the end of the year. You can visit this year’s exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum until the 29th of June 2025: nhm.ac.uk/wpy

STICKING TOGETHER Comb jellies can fuse together if they get injured,

Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

merging their nervous systems. This surprising discovery was made when scientists studying these jellyfish-like creatures spotted some with two mouths and two bottoms! After fusing together, the two animals behave as one, synchronising their muscle contractions and merging their digestive tracts to share food. We already knew that comb jellies were super cool – they produce disco-light displays of bioluminescence and can regrow injured body parts. They can even age backwards, reverting to their baby stages when things get dangerous. The researchers hope that this latest discovery might lead to new medical advances. © Bruno C. Vellutini/ Wikimedia Commons

ALIEN OCEAN

ACTION RATS © SpaceX

© NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft is on its way to Jupiter! It blasted off in October and will travel almost three billion kilometres before it arrives at Europa, Jupiter’s icy moon. Scientists are interested in Europa because its icy crust is thought to conceal a vast saltwater ocean.

This mission is designed to find out whether this ocean could support extraterrestrial life.

The spacecraft carries scientific instruments to take pictures of Europa’s surface, measure its magnetic fields and Europa’s sample particles in hidden ocean its atmosphere.

The spacecraft won’t reach Europa until 2030.

years old

One of the rats pulling the ball on their vest

© APOPO

How old will you be then?

A team of giant rats is helping to fight the illegal wildlife trade – that’s when criminals capture endangered animals and sell them illegally. Eleven African giant pouched rats – named Kirsty, Marty, Attenborough, Irwin, Betty, Teddy, Ivory, Ebony, Desmond, Thoreau and Fossey – were trained to pick up the scent of elephant tusks, rhino horns and pangolin scales. They were rewarded with flavoured rodent treats. By the end of the training period, the rats could detect and remember the smells, even after months of not smelling them. The next step is to train the rats to alert their humans when they’ve sniffed out illegally smuggled wildlife by using their front paws to pull a ball on the chest of specially made vests to trigger an alarm.

Santa Science What would Santa do without his trusty reindeer to pull his present-filled sleigh through the skies?

Read on for the Whizz Pop Bang guide to designing a brand new sleigh for Santa... using science!

STEP 1: THRUST

What do Santa’s helpers learn at school?

The elfabet!

With no reindeer to pull the sleigh, we’re going to need an engine to provide thrust. Thrust is the force that pushes aeroplanes along. This force can come from jet or rocket engines, which fire hot gases out behind them, or propeller engines that blow air backwards to push the vehicle forwards.

The world’s most powerful jet engine creates 61,000 kg of thrust – enough to lift up over 2,000 children!

How many tools can you count in this four-page feature?

Check your answer on page 34.

STEP 2: DRAG

WHAT A DRAG!

It’s all very well having lots of thrust, but if the sleigh is the wrong shape it’s never going to go very fast. This is because of air resistance, or drag, slowing it down. When you ride your bike and feel the wind against you, you’re feeling drag slowing you down.

Find out how the shape of an object affects the amount of drag it experiences by using wa ter instead of air.

Yo u will need

To reduce drag and help our sleigh reach top speed, we need to design it so that it slips through the air as easily as possible. We need to make it aerodynamic. Aerodynamic shapes tend to be thin and pointy to cut through the air, so the old sleigh shape has to go. Let’s replace it with a sleek, rocket-shaped design instead!

Modelling clay or sticky tack 2 tall glasses Weighing scales (optional)

What you do 1. Get two lumps of modelling clay or sticky tack that are the same size (you could weigh them).

2. Shape one lump into a ball and the other into a thin, flat disc. Which do you think would fall through water the fastest, and why?

3. Fill the two glasses with water.

4. Drop the ball and disc into the two glasses of water at the same time.

Drag is an example of a type of friction.

Friction is a force that slows down moving objects.

Was your prediction right?

Try experimenting to find the shape that travels the fastest through water.

whizzpopbang.com 7

STEP 3: LIFT

So far, our sleigh has lots of power, and we’ve reduced the drag so that it can travel quickly, but in order to get airborne we need lift.

Lift is the force that pushes things upwards against gravity, and in flying machines it usually comes from wings. Let’s add a couple of wings to our new sleigh!

Wings create lift in two ways – one as a result of air pushing against their underside when they are angled upwards, and the second due to an effect called the Bernoulli principle.

The curved top of the wing makes the air rushing over the top travel faster than the air taking the shorter route underneath. The faster the air travels, the lower its pressure. So the slower, high pressure air underneath the wing pushes up against the faster, low pressure air on the top, creating lift.

STEP 4: WEIGHT

Bad news – the first test flight of the sleigh hasn’t gone well. It was overloaded with presents, so it didn’t make it off the ground! So what’s the problem? We’ve got power, we’ve minimised drag and we’ve got lift from our wings. The trouble must be the weight of all those presents in the back. Every kilogram of weight acts against the lift provided by the wings, so to get airborne we need the sleigh to be as light as possible. The only option is to make sure the presents aren’t too heavy – no cement mixers or anvils this year I’m afraid.

Fast moving air = less pressure

Wing Slow moving air = more pressure Lift

The fastest aeroplane in the world is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, an American spy plane that can fly at more than 3,000 km/h.

STEP 5: LIFT OFF!

With the heavy presents ditched and a sleigh full of super-light toys, Santa fires up the sleigh and blasts off from the North Pole. We’ve done it! The thrust of the engines is overcoming the drag of the air, and the lift from the wings is stronger than gravity pulling down the weight of the presents. Who needs Rudolph?!

The world’s heaviest aeroplane can take off weighing 250,000 kg – that’s about as much as 50 elephants.

Answer on page 34

CREATING LIFT Yo u will need A sheet of paper

What you do 1. Place one end of the piece of paper on the palm of your hand, so that the length of the paper hangs over the ends of your fingers.

2. Blow over the top of the paper.

You should find The end of the paper should rise up slightly.

This happens because the fast-moving air that you’re blowing over the top of the paper is of lower pressure than the air beneath the paper, so the paper is pushed upwards.

What do you call Santa when he stops moving?

Santa Pause! whizzpopbang.com 9

Twinkle, Twinkle Ever wondered how many stars there are in the Universe or what makes them twinkle? Read on to find out...

WHAT ARE STARS?

Stars are massive, bright spheres of very hot gas, called plasma. A star’s plasma is held together by its own gravity pulling it inwards.

ENERGY

Inside stars, a process called nuclear fusion generates energy, producing heat and light.

Nuclear fusion is when atoms fuse together, releasing huge quantities of energy. Stars can produce heat and light for billions of years.

HOW BIG ARE STARS?

When we look at the night sky with our naked eyes we see millions of stars. © NASA

Answer on page 34

10 whizzpopbang.com

Our star, the Sun, is massive compared to the Earth. It has a diameter of 1.4 million kilometres (compared to Earth’s 12,742 km), but it is actually only an average-sized star.

There are some much bigger stars in our universe – up to 1,500 times as big as the Sun – and some much smaller stars – around 100 times smaller than the Sun. Almost all of the stars that we see with our naked eyes are larger than the Sun. That’s because the stars are so far away that the light from smaller stars is not bright enough for us to see without using a telescope.

HOW FAR AWAY ARE THE STARS?

After the Sun, the next nearest star to Earth is called Proxima Centauri. It’s 40 trillion kilometres away. That’s so far away that light from this star takes 4.2 years to reach the Earth. Scientists use this as a measure of distance; they say that Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away from Earth. It would take about 75,000 years for a spaceship to get there!

Red stars are the hottest and blue stars are the coldest.

Answer on page 34

HOW OLD ARE THE STARS? Most stars are between 1 and 10 billion years old.

Our star, the Sun, is about 4.6 billion years old. It won’t run out of the hydrogen needed for nuclear fusion for another 4 billion years!

TWINKLING STARS Find out why stars appe ar to twinkle.

Yo u will need A glass A torch

What you do 1. Half fill a glass with water.

2. Place a torch on the floor or table so that its light is shining up towards the ceiling.

3. Turn off the lights.

4. Hold the glass of water over the torchlight and gently swirl the glass so that the water sloshes around (without spilling it). What do you notice about the torchlight on the ceiling?

You should find

HOW HOT ARE THE STARS? The centre of the Sun is about 15 million °C, but the hottest stars in the universe can reach temperatures of 3 billion °C!

When we look at the stars we are looking into the past.

The torchlight appears to dance and twinkle as the moving water refracts and scatters the light.

Similarly, when starlight travels through the Earth’s atmosphere, it passes through turbulent air, which makes the starlight appear to twinkle. When you look at stars from space, they don’t twinkle because there is no atmosphere to refract and scatter their light.

Answer on page 34

whizzpopbang.com 11

AL ANIM S TIC

AN

ROBINS We sent our vet Joe Inglis to find out more about one of this season’s most iconic creatures...

Robins’ chests are actually more orange than red, yet the robin’s original name was the ‘redbreast’. This was because the word ‘orange’ was not used in Britain until the 16th century when people started importing and eating oranges!

Jet Setters

SpiderS for Supper?

The robin is a familiar sight in British gardens and, with its striking red breast, it’s one of the easiest birds to identify. Robins are not just found in this country though – they can also be found across Europe and Asia and in North Africa.

Robins are insectivores; however, they don’t just eat insects – they also enjoy juicy earthworms and tasty spiders, as well as berries and bird food left out by kind people.

Although they do catch insects at dusk and on some moonlit nights, robins are mainly active during the day. Animals who are most active during the day are diurnal (say dye-ur-nal) and animals who are awake at night are nocturnal.

Robbin’ robins To attract a robin into your garden or allotment, simply grab a spade and start digging. If you’re lucky, a hungry robin might come and perch on a nearby branch or fencepost waiting for a chance to find some food. Robins are attracted to digging because they can often steal a worm or two from the soil for their dinner.

12 whizzpopbang.com

19

The robins pictured on Christmas cards look like lovely sweet birds, but real robins in the wild are not always as cute as we might like to think! Male robins often fight with other males and sometimes attack other types of birds. These fights can be serious, with many male robins dying as a result.

The age of the oldest recorded robin – that’s more than 17 times longer than the average robin, which has a life expectancy of just 1.1 years.

Where’s Batman?

Home sweet home Robins navigate using an inbuilt magnetic compass.

Answer on page 34

Female robins are expert nest builders, using leaves, moss and feathers to build with. They sometimes build their nests in very strange places – barbecues, flower pots, watering cans and even hats that have been left outside!

ROAMING ROBINS Use coloured pencils to draw paths for each robin to reach a worm of the same colour. The robins can only travel in straight lines inside the grid (not diagonally) and their paths must not cross.

First Flights Robins normally lay two or three clutches of eggs during the spring and summer breeding season, each typically containing five or six eggs. The young robin chicks can fly by the time they are just two weeks old – impressive! © Shutterstock.com

whizzpopbang.com 13

FESTIVE FUN

Can you crack these brainteasers?

Check your answers on page 34!

Chimney trail Help Father Christmas find a route to all the chimneys in this block without crossing over his own path. He can use stairs and ladders but can’t jump spaces or climb the walls. Don’t miss any!

Riddles

1) A hungry reindeer was tied to a rope about two metres long. About five metres away was a basket of fresh carrots. How did the reindeer reach the carrots to eat them?

2) Four elves are comparing their heights. Figgy, Jinx, Berry and Noelle are lining up in order, from the shortest to the tallest.

Figgy is neither the shortest nor the tallest.

Jinx is taller than Berry and Noelle.

Berry is shorter than Figgy.

Berry is not the shortest.

In which order are they standing?

14 whizzpopbang.com

Where’s the pair?

These socks will help keep Father Christmas cosy! Can you find him a matching pair?

E

Toy trouble

Cracker conundrum

Gakk is helping Santa’s busy elves pick out toys to deliver to children on Christmas Eve. Can you find the things on Gakk’s list?

Christmas crossword 1) You might find presents under this on Christmas morning 2) A furry animal that pulls Santa’s sleigh 3) The colour of Rudolph’s nose 4) White flakes that fall from the sky 5) The jolly man with a big white beard 6) This goes bang when two people pull it 7) A prickly plant with red berries Fill in your answers clockwise around the snowflake.

Put these Christmas crackers back together to uncover the names of Santa’s reindeer. The first one has been done for you.

D

?

ER

IT Z

DA

?

R

RUD

R AN

?

NCE

?

EN

AS H

COM

?

CE R

CU

?

ER

D ON N

?

ID V IX

EN

BL

?

?

OL H

ET

b... clu O C E

Emmi’s

Don’t waste a mountain of wrapping paper… With a little engineering, a few sheets of used paper can decorate presents for the whole family!

GIFT BOWS Yo u will need

sed wrapping paper (or colourful paper U from an old magazine or leaflet) Scissors Stick y tape Old newspaper, magazines or brown packaging paper for wrapping presents Stapler

2

1

Cut out nine strips of paper 1.5 cm wide – three long (26 cm), three medium (22 cm) and three short (15 cm).

3

Give one strip a full twist before taping the ends together to make a loop.

4 Repeat steps 2 and 3 with the other strips to create more loop s.

the Flatten the centre of of loop to make a figure . eight. Tape it in place

16 whizzpopbang.com

Continued on page 21 ➜

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

5

ps together Stick or staple the loo rting with the to build your bow, sta g with the biggest ones and endin re. small ones in the cent

The scrunch test To test whether wrapping paper can be recycled, scrunch it into a ball. If it stays in a ball, it can be recycled, but if it doesn’t then it can’t and will probably end up in landfill.

If you end up with this kind, you can turn it into gift bows!

ECO

More

ideas...

We can all help to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference!

Give presents that don’t need wrapping, like magazine subscriptions, wild animal sponsorships or a shoebox full of materials for science experiments!

Use biodegradable tape or string instead of plastic sticky tape to wrap presents.

Turn last year’s greeting cards into gift tags or festive bunting to deck the halls.

Continued from page 16

108 million rolls of wrapping paper (and 40 million rolls of sticky tape) were binned in Britain last Christmas. Recycling doesn’t solve the problem – it’s much better to use less in the first place. whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Predictions Fins help to stabilise the flight of rockets. Do you think the fins on your rocket shooters will help the rockets to fly further, or will the extra weight of the fins slow your rockets down? Make a prediction and then test it – science is all about finding out answers by experiment!

Rocket design

Result s tab le

To find the average distance that each rocket flew, add up the total distance that the rocket flew over all five test flights and then divide this number by the number of test flights (i.e. five).

Distance travelled Test 1

Test 2

Test 3

Test 4

Test 5

Average distance

W ithout fins Small fins Large fins The rocket that flew the furthest on average was: _________________________________________________________________________ I think that was because: _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________

I’ll huff and I’ll puff ...

Repeating this experiment five times and calculating the average distance helps to compensate for any changes in the strength of your puff!

18 whizzpopbang.com

Further investigations You could design your own experiment to investigate shorter or longer paper rockets or you could try adding nose cones.

PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making!

ROCKET SHOOTERS Which design will fly the furthest...?

Yo u will need

Scissors Templates from page 19 Sticky tape Drinking straws Find a printable Tape measure version of the pullout here: bit.ly/3YVJPbD

What yo u do 1. Carefully cut out the rocket templates on page 19.

5. Similarly, fix the red fins onto the red tube. (The green rocket doesn’t have any fins.)

2. Roll the green rectangle shape lengthways around a straw and tape it in place so that it can easily slide up and down the straw without being too loose.

6. Slide one of the rockets onto your straw and blow into the straw as hard as you can. Use the tape measure to measure the distance the rocket flies and make a note of this on the results table below.

3. Fold over the end of the rocket and tape it in place to create a closed tube. Repeat with the other two rectangles so that you have three sealed tubes.

4. Tape the blue fins onto the blue tube, bending them slightly so that they form a cross shape when viewed from the end.

7. Repeat the test flight several times with the same rocket, recording the result each time.

Make sure you’re standing in the same spot for each test!

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 with the other two rockets, recording your results each time.

When you do science experiments, it’s very important to only change one thing at a time so that you can easily see how the change affects your experiment. In this experiment, you’re just changing the fin design, whilst keeping everything else the same.

whizzpopbang.com 17

What do monkeys sing at Christmas?

Jungle Bells!

20 whizzpopbang.com

We’d love to hear about your results!

Send them to Y@whizzpopbang.com and ask an adult to tag us on social media @whizzpopbangmag

whizzpopbang.com 19

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... study happiness! © Dale North

ey

Lara is a social psychology professor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, where she studies the science of gift-giving. If you have any questions of your own for Lara, you can contact her on lara_aknin@sfu.ca

Lara Aknin Psychologi st

“

I study what makes people happy!

”

I’m especially interested in whethe r giving makes people feel happy. Some of my research (and that of other scientis ts) has found that helping others can make us happier than helping ourselves.

“

© Shutterstock.com

Giving gifts makes people happier than receiving them.

”

In one of my studies, college stu dents were given some money and were told to spend it on either themselves or others . Students told to spend the money on someon e else were happiest at the end of the day . We’ve even conducted experiments with tod dlers in which they were given yummy treats and asked to share some with a toy monke y who liked treats. We found that toddlers smiled more when sharing treats with the mo nkey than when receiving treats themselve s!

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

“

Your time is the greatest gift.

”

When you give gifts, try to find those that you think will have a meaningful impact on the recipient an d try to spend time with them too . So, if your little brother has been as king for a frisbee, consider using so me of your pocket money to buy the gift and try to spend time playing fris bee with him.

“

Being generous can make people happy…

”

the help …but so too does being grateful for son, try sea day holi we get from others. So, this spend and s to find time to count your blessing those of h time with your friends and family. Bot t powerful activities represent some of the mos happiness-boosting strategies!

“

The best thing about my job is studying what fascinates me.

”

I also feel really lucky that I get to work with so many brilliant scien tists. If you’re interested in being a psycho logist when you grow up, keep paying attention to quirky, cool and confusing stuff that you and other people do!

whizzpopbang.com 23

HOW STUFF

WORKS

3D printerS Imagine if you could dream up an idea for a toy or gadget and then a machine would make it for you.

That’s what 3D printers do, and here’s how they work...

3D printers work by building up a three-dimensional (3D) object from lots of thin layers of material. The main steps are:

1

The first stage is to

design the object that

you want to print. This is usually done on a computer, or you can copy an existing object using a 3D scanner or even a photograph.

2

Once the design has been created, a special computer program divides up the

design into very thin slices ready for printing.

3

The printer builds up the object one layer at a time until the full 3D object is created.

4

After printing, the

rough edges are removed, along with

any unwanted sections.

24 whizzpopbang.com

3D printers have been used to make all sorts of things, from artificial coral reefs to spare parts for the International Space Station (printed in space!).

There are many different types of 3D printer, which can make objects from all sorts of different materials including plastic, metal and paper.

All of the different types of printers use one of three basic processes: melting, curing or laminating.

Some 3D printers melt the material into shape. Some do this by firing a laser at a layer of hard material to melt it in just the right places, and others squeeze out tiny drops of molten material that harden as they cool.

Curing printers use special

chemicals or light to harden soft materials so

MAKE A 3D BOWL

Create your own 3D object using the lamination technique.

Yo u will need

Thick corrugated cardboard Scissors Glue Paint (optional)

What you do

1. Cut a circle shape out of the cardboard. This will be the base of the bowl.

2. Next, cut out several ring shapes, each one slightly larger than the base circle.

3. Glue the circles on top of the base circle to create a bowl shape.

4. If you like, you can paint or decorate your bowl.

they form the right shapes.

Laminating printers cut out each layer from a thin material such as paper or plastic and glue

them on top of each other to create the finished object.

3D printers can even print new body parts! Scientists have already tried 3D printing hearts and lungs, and they hope to one day be able to use these for transplants.

Have a go at inventing your own shapes and send pictures of your creations to Y@whizzpopbang.com

3D printers can be used to print food!

Answer on page 34

whizzpopbang.com 25

.

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

I K A E R B R E CO R D had a tough If you thought Santa e world in time flying around th these other one night, check out neys. record-break ing jour

1

In 2016, Luke Aikins set a record for skydiving 7,600 metres without a parachute! While travelling at 193 km/h, he steered his way to a safe landing on a bouncy net.

Watch the record-breaking fall here

The world’s highest mountain range is no obstacle for bar-headed geese. Every year they flap their way over Himalayan peaks more than 7,000 metres above sea level.

3

bit.ly/4gODd5J

4 5

2

Arctic terns fly up to 3 million kilometres during their 30-year lifespan. Each year they make the

The record

for hoverboard flight was set by

Franky Zapata. The French daredevil flew 2,252.4 metres on his jet-powered Flyboard Air, which can reach a top speed of 150 km/h.

world’s longest migration from Northumberland to Antarctica and back.

The tiny Perlan 2 next to a jet engine.

The Perlan 2 is the world’s highest-flying glider. In 2018, the glider rode huge waves of air that blew over mountains, shooting up towards space, reaching an altitude of 23.203 km!

S T H G I K ING FL

6

8

Humans aren’t the only mammals that can glide! Giant flying squirrels have been seen gliding 450 metres between trees. The stretchy skin between their back and front legs acts like a furry wingsuit.

7

Here’s a record you CAN try to beat at home. The farthest

flight by a paper aeroplane

made from a single sheet of A4 paper is 88.31 metres. The design was inspired by hypersonic aerospace vehicles (planes that travel four times faster than the speed of sound!).

Try making your own record-breaking plane!

bit.ly/3ND2jak The Transition was the first flying car to meet both road and air safety standards. It has four wheels but only two seats – the space in the back houses the giant retractable wings.

9

10

Felix Baumgartner set a world record for skydiving from the edge of space. The following year his 39-kilometre fall was beaten by a teddy bear! Babbage the Raspberry Pi mascot was dropped from a weather balloon 31 metres higher than the one Felix jumped from.

The Daedalus 88 runs on pedal power! It set the record for the

longest human-powered flight when Kanellos Kanellopoulos

pedalled for 3 hours 54 minutes to fly 115 kilometres between two islands.

© 1. Luke Aikins/Red Bull Content Pool, 2. TSRAWAI, 3. Zapata Racing, 4. Andreas Trept, 5. FLUGKERL2, 6. Shutterstock.com, 7. Shutterstock.com, 8. Lotpro Cars, 9. Red Bull Stratos/Red Bull Content Pool, 10. NASA

whizzpopbang.com 27

Sensational Scientists

Hedy Lamarr Imagine being a famous actor AND an award-winning inventor! Hedy Lamarr made both those dreams come true.

Eva wig sler d e H ie ia K Mar born in a, was , Austri na Vien 1914. in

The unknown was always so attractive to me.

Hedy began acting as a teenager, and was soon cast in her first Hollywood movie.

Despite not speaking English, she moved to America to begin a new life as a Hollywood star.

Hedy enjoyed the acting, but she was bored by the parties and glamour that came with the job.

Hedy preferred to stay at home, tinker with her inventions and read her engineering books.

Inventors are inspired by problems. At the time, the British were fighting the Germans in the Second World War. Hedy knew that one of the problems faced by the military was how to control torpedoes over long distances.

The best option was to use radio signals. A transmitter at base sent out a signal at a certain frequency. A receiver inside the torpedo was tuned to the same frequency, so that it could pick up the signals. But there was a big problem: if the enemy worked out which frequency was being used, they could pick up the signal too, and find out where the torpedo was heading. They could even jam the original signal by sending out their own signal at the same frequency.

28 whizzpopbang.com

Hedy came up with a new way to send radio signals, called frequency hopping. She worked with her friend, a musician called George Antheil, to develop the idea. In 1942, they patented their secret communication system.

In 1997, Hedy and George won an Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award for their work. Hedy was also the first woman to win a ‘BULBIE’ – known as the Oscar™ of inventing.

7

2,292,38

OFFICE ATENT YSTEM P S E T Callif.

STA NS n Beach, UNITED MMUNICATIO Manhatta l, ei th n O C rge A ECRET , and Geo

1, 1942 d Aug. 1

Patente

sler Hedy Kie

S

geles

Los An Markey,

ea was Hedy’s id time to that, from ansmitter tr time, the ut the radio o g in d n se p’ ould ‘ho signal w frequency from one following r, to anothe attern. At p t a secre e same exactly th eceiver r time, the torpedo e inside th frequency, p would ho the g in w o foll ern. same patt

knowing Without pattern, t the secre ould find it w s enemie ork rder to w cy a h h muc n e h frequ out whic o was using. d e the torp ld make , u o w d This very har jamming ossible. p if not im

a great e v a h u o Do y ention? v n i n a r o idea f Send it to g.com popban Y@whizz

eir secret rge hoped th o e G d n a y d He help the stem would sy n o ti a ic n commu orld War. the Second W in w nics to vy a n first – electro t a d re o n ig as vanced Their idea w 0s wasn’t ad 4 9 1 e th in y technolog e. But after it into practic t u p to h g u red and eno was rediscove t n te a p e th the war, e military to as used by th w m e st sy ir the s. By that mmunication co re cu se create ired so Hedy tent had exp a p e th , e m ti money ’t make any n id d e rg o e and G vention. from their in used nt idea is still a lli ri b s y’ d e H read sis of the ‘sp a b e th ’s It today. t stops chnology tha spectrum’ te mobile ing in on our people listen ng our or intercepti phone calls, ls. d Wi-Fi signa Bluetooth an

o rolls to the pian ay w ar il m a si play. worked in ich notes to The device g piano wh in y la -p lf se that told a

Hedy and George were not trained as engineers or scientists, but they had the most important skills for any inventor – creativity and BIG imaginations. whizzpopbang.com 29

der Club!

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

Welcome to Y’s Won to share your This page is for you with our robot, adventures in science p Bang readers!

Y, and other Whizz Po ce question Everyone whose scien is page gets answered on th ng wins a Whizz Pop Ba Science Joke Book, ome available in our awes at online science shop

whizzpopbang.com/shop

F oR

Dear Y, If atoms are invisible (because they are so small), how do we know about them?

CURIoUS K I DS

Lizzie, aged 9

Look at all these fantastic Amazon rainforest models (from Issue 109)!

Emma, aged 6

Even though we can’t see at oms, scientists have thought they existed for hundreds of yea rs, because of how elemen ts (which are made up of atoms ) behave. More recently, scienti sts have developed tools, like sup er-powerful microscopes, tha t let us ‘see’ atoms indirectly. They’v e also done experiments that show how atoms behave. So, even though atoms are too sm all to see with our eyes, there is lots of evidence proving they’re rea l!

Emily, aged 8

Leonardo, aged 6, and Ella, aged 4

Luke, aged 6

Alfie, aged 7, used some big sticks from his garden to make the trees.

Callum, aged 9

Harriett, aged 6, and Elisabeth, aged 4

Isaac, aged 7

enamel badges Y’s Wonder Club Badges Collectable for you to earn!

Help local wildlife to earn your Wildlife Watcher badge.

Investigate scientific questions to earn your Super Scientist badge.

Help save the planet to earn your Eco Hero badge.

E

We loved seeing all the awesome petal perfumes you made (from Issue 109)!

Hi Y, If water is made of hydrogen, which fuels fires, and oxygen, which is flammable, then why does water extinguish fire?

Barclay and Freddie made the perfume as part of their creative potion badge for Beavers and Cubs.

Albert, aged 9

You’re right, Albert – water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, but when they combine in a chemical reaction to form water (H2O), their behaviour changes completely. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms are tightly bonded together, so they no longer act like separate flammable gases.

Instead, they form a stable liquid (water), which extinguishes fire by cooling it down and preventing oxygen from reaching the flames. Without heat and oxygen, the fire goes out. This is a great example of how elements can behave very differently after they combine in a chemical reaction.

Hugo, aged 6, with his Roseander Delight scent.

Freya, aged 10, with her Rose Délicate perfume made from rose petals.

Meg, aged 10, used lavender, rose petals and mixed herbs.

Bella, aged 9, put in roses, blackberries, strawberries, apples and vanilla essence.

Abigail, aged 8, made the water clock from the Ancient Greece edition (Issue 91).

Mila, aged 6, made this magnificent mushroom from the Fantastic Fungi edition (Issue 99).

Hello Y, I have heard that something in your hair is also in your fingernails. So why are your fingernails see-through and not the colour of your hair?

I was very happy when it worked. My favourite part was the soldering.

Max, aged 8, built a radio with his dad. It came in lots of tiny pieces and he had to solder every piece individually!

Charlotte, aged 7

The something you have heard about is a protein called keratin, which both hair and nails are made of. But your hair and your nails look different because of how the keratin is arranged and what else is in them. In hair, the keratin forms strands and contains pigments, which give it colour. Fingernails, on the other hand, are made of tightly packed layers of clear keratin without pigment. That’s why nails are see-through. Their appearance also depends on the skin and blood vessels underneath, which can make them look pink.

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

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

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 Q qV involved too! Find out how here: bit.ly/39xNQ

whizzpopbang.com 31

Test your mum/ dad/postm an to

see what they know !

1

How much can you remember from this issue?

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.

2 4

What colour are a robin’s chest feathers?

According to scientists, what makes people happier? a) Giving presents b) Receiving presents

3 5

c) Eating Brussels sprouts

Where is NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft heading? a) To the Moon

b) To one of Jupiter’s moons c) To Europe

6 8

a) A secret communication

b) A secret camera system

7

c) A secret cookie recipe

If you see a reindeer with antlers in December, it must be… a) a male b) a female c) Rudolph

a) Red b) Green c) Orange

What beat Felix Baumgartner’s skydiving record? a) A cat b) A log

What did famous actor Hedy Lamarr invent? system

What do you call a singing elf ?

A wrapper!

c) A teddy bear

What force pushes things upwards against gravity? a) Thrust b) Drag c) Lift

Which material is commonly used for 3D printing?

I scored...

a) Rocks b) Plastic c) Marshmallows

Need a hint? Find the answers by reading these pages…

1) Page 22 2) Page 12 3) Page 5 4) Page 27 5) Page 29 6) Page 8 7) Page 35 8) Page 25

1-3: Santa's helper!

4-6: Christmas cracker!

7-8: Holiday hero!

!

IN

r!

Flying machine challenge!

W

We want you to design your own flying machine!

To be in with a chance of winning one of three awesome Letterbox Lab science kits, take a photo of your design and send it in.

Add labels to your drawing to show us how it works!

Letterbox Lab science kit The Letterbox Lab Marvellous Mixtures box is the ultimate introduction to the wonder and joys of scientific discovery. From splitting and spinning inks and releasing rainbows and gases to balancing solutions and crafting gummy worms, this kit amazes and surprises at every turn.

WINNER Issue 111 competition winners Thank you to everyone who entered our Halloween competition. The answer to the question ‘How many bones do people have in their bodies?’ was ‘Adults have two hundred and six bones, but babies have more because some bones still have not fused together’. These two lucky winners will each receive a copy of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Alasdair Mitchell, aged 7 Sophia Kapel, aged 11

Send your entry to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Festive science competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post it to Festive science 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.

Sorry, we are unable to return any post.

Deadline: January 8th 2025. UK residents only.

Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com.

whizzpopbang.com 33

ing How does Good K zas? is piz Wenceslas like h and even!

Deep pan, crisp

S E K O J What’s the best present?

A broken drum – you just can’t beat it!

What do you get if you eat Christmas decorations?

Tinsilitis!

Who hides in a bakery at Christmas?

A mince spy!

=6

=5

Santa Science What would Santa do without his trusty reindeer to pull his present-filled sleigh through the skies?

Read on for the Whizz Pop Bang guide to designing a brand new sleigh for Santa... using science!

STEP 1: THRUST

What do Santa’s helpers learn at school?

The elfabet!

With no reindeer to pull the sleigh, we’re going to need an engine to provide thrust. Thrust is the force that pushes aeroplanes along. This force can come from jet or rocket engines, which fire hot gases out behind them, or propeller engines that blow air backwards to push the vehicle forwards.

Answers

Page 13 – True/Untrue

Page 6 – Tool puzzle =8

Why are Christmas tree so bad at sewin s g?

They always dr op their needles!

=7

STEP 2: DRAG

WHAT A DRAG!

It’s all very well having lots of thrust, but if the sleigh is the wrong shape it’s never going to go very fast. This is because of air resistance, or drag, slowing it down. When you ride your bike and feel the wind against you, you’re feeling drag slowing you down.

Find out how the shape of an object affects the amount of drag it experiences by using water instead of air.

You will need

To reduce drag and help our sleigh reach top speed, we need to design it so that it slips through the air as easily as possible. We need to make it aerodynamic. Aerodynamic shapes tend to be thin and pointy to cut through the air, so the old sleigh shape has to go. Let’s replace it with a sleek, rocket-shaped design instead!

Modelling clay or sticky tack 2 tall glasses Weighing scales (optional)

What you do 1. Get two lumps of modelling clay or sticky tack that are the same size (you could weigh them).

2. Shape one lump into a ball and the other into a thin, flat disc. Which do you think would fall through water the fastest, and why?

3. Fill the two glasses with water.

4. Drop the ball and disc into the two glasses of water at the same time.

The world’s most powerful jet engine creates 61,000 kg of thrust – enough to lift up over 2,000 children!

TRUE: Like many birds, robins can sense the Earth’s magnetic field. They use this skill to help them find their way around.

Page 15 – Toy trouble

Page 15 – Cracker conundrum

Page 13 – Roaming robins

ASH (DASHER) NCE (DANCER) CER (PRANCER) VIX (VIXEN) ET (COMET) PID (CUPID) ER (DONNER) ITZ (BLITZEN) RUD (RUDOLPH)

Drag is an example of a type of friction.

Friction is a force that slows down moving objects.

Was your prediction right?

Try experimenting to find the shape that travels the fastest through water.

How many tools can you count in this four-page feature?

Check your answer on page 34.

whizzpopbang.com 7

STEP 3: LIFT

So far, our sleigh has lots of power, and we’ve reduced the drag so that it can travel quickly, but in order to get airborne we need lift.

Lift is the force that pushes things upwards against gravity, and in flying machines it usually comes from wings. Let’s add a couple of wings to our new sleigh!

Wings create lift in two ways – one as a result of air pushing against their underside when they are angled upwards, and the second due to an effect called the Bernoulli principle.

The curved top of the wing makes the air rushing over the top travel faster than the air taking the shorter route underneath. The faster the air travels, the lower its pressure. So the slower, high pressure air underneath the wing pushes up against the faster, low pressure air on the top, creating lift.

STEP 4: WEIGHT

Bad news – the first test flight of the sleigh hasn’t gone well. It was overloaded with presents, so it didn’t make it off the ground! So what’s the problem? We’ve got power, we’ve minimised drag and we’ve got lift from our wings. The trouble must be the weight of all those presents in the back. Every kilogram of weight acts against the lift provided by the wings, so to get airborne we need the sleigh to be as light as possible. The only option is to make sure the presents aren’t too heavy – no cement mixers or anvils this year I’m afraid.

STEP 5: LIFT OFF!

With the heavy presents ditched and a sleigh full of super-light toys, Santa fires up the sleigh and blasts off from the North Pole. We’ve done it! The thrust of the engines is overcoming the drag of the air, and the lift from the wings is stronger than gravity pulling down the weight of the presents. Who needs Rudolph?!

The world’s heaviest aeroplane can take off weighing 250,000 kg – that’s about as much as 50 elephants.

Answer on page 34

Slow moving air = more pressure

Page 14 – Chimney trail

You will need A sheet of paper

What you do 1. Place one end of the piece of paper on the palm of your hand, so that the length of the paper hangs over the ends of your fingers.

Page 15 – Christmas crossword

2. Blow over the top of the paper.

You should find

Fast moving air = less pressure

Wing

CREATING LIFT

The fastest aeroplane in the world is the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, an American spy plane that can fly at more than 3,000 km/h.

Lift

The end of the paper should rise up slightly.

This happens because the fast-moving air that you’re blowing over the top of the paper is of lower pressure than the air beneath the paper, so the paper is pushed upwards.

T R

What do you call Santa when he stops moving?

Santa Pause!

E

whizzpopbang.com 9

C

Page 10 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Although there are billions of stars in the universe, we can only see around 2,000 stars on a clear night with our naked eyes (without the help of a telescope).

Page 11 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: Red stars are the coolest, followed by yellow and then white.

The hottest stars are blue.

Page 11 – True/Untrue TRUE: Stars are so far away that the light that comes from them takes many years to reach us. This means that when we see a star exploding, the explosion actually happened many years ago – so we are looking back in time!

R C

L

H

A

O

Y R L

E

E

R

K

D

A

E T N

A

N

S

Page 14 – Riddles

E

D S

I N E R

E

R

O W

1) The reindeer could reach the Page 25 – True/Untrue carrots because the other TRUE: Special 3D printers have been designed to create end of the rope wasn’t tied to 3D foods like chocolates, pasta and pizza. NASA has anything! even 3D printed food in space for astronauts!

2) The elves should be in this Page 32 – Quiz order: Noelle, Berry, Figgy, Jinx 1) a 2) c 3) b 4) c 5) a 6) c 7) b 8) b Page 14 – Where’s the pair?

Whoops! In Issue 112, on page 14, the cosmic cryptogram puzzle contained a typo. The first letter in the second cryptogram (representing V) should not have been O, since O had already been used to represent C in the first cryptogram. Thanks to eagle-eyed Amelia, aged 10, for spotting this mistake!

Antler antics Reindeer are the only species of deer in which both males and females grow antlers. They’re used for fighting, foraging for food and showing off. Reindeers’ antlers grow at an amazing rate of 2.5 cm a day! They shed their antlers each year, then regrow even bigger ones.

Males shed theirs in late autumn, whereas females keep theirs throughout the winter, shedding them in late spring. So any reindeer sporting antlers around Christmastime must be female!

© Shutterstock.com

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

New in th

Spark curiosity with a Letterbox Lab hands-on science kit, delivered straight to your door each month.

Every kit iting includes exc , experiments ire sp in designed to tists. young scien

e Whizz Pop Bang Christmas shop...

Letterbox Lab From just ! s t i Science K 17.99 £

All packed in a box that fits through most letterboxes.

FREE UK P&P!

whizzpopbang.com/letterbox