Whizz Pop Bang Science Magazine for Kids! Issue 115: Make Some Noise!

ISSN 2399 -2840

THE AWESOME SCIENCE MAGAZINE FOR KIDS!

Make a paper cup telephone

the t e e M ’s d l r o w st noisie ls anima

Th

er d u l xc PLUS Craft a doggy draught e

es

cie

nc

eo

fs

ou

nd

WHIZZPOPBANG.COM ISSUE 115

EXPERIMENTS PUZZLES AMAZING FACTS SCIENCE NEWS

WELCOME!

There’s so much to SHOUT about in this month’s magazine!

Put on your ear defe nders – it’s about to ge t noisy!

This edition of Whizz Pop Ba ng is bursting with the scien ce of sound. Disc over how soun d travels, how animals use no ise to communicate and how spea ke rs work. Try your hand at making a pape r cup te lephone , expe riment with sound and have a go at some surprising ly noisy pape r proje cts.

Plus, uncove r the se crets be hind movie sound ef fe cts!

I’ve made a doggy draught excluder – it’s a lot quieter than Atom!

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

Riley

THE AWESOME SCIEN

Wigg ly worm s

KIDS!

Craft a model solar system

adventures s

ec

h s c over t pl ts of the

Di

re

e

s

twitter.com/whizzpopbangmag instagram.com/whizzpopbangmag

CE MAGAZINE FOR

Makseand moon

te Recreatian the Mar

Growmosphere youratown stalactite E 112 OM ISSU PBANG.C

WHIZZPO CREATE NE WS SPARKLY SCI EN CE Craf FA CT S CRYSTAL AZ IN G ES AM papert GEODES TS PU ZZL

EX PE RIM

EN

jewels

EXPER IMENT S PUZZL

tiktok.com/@whizzpopbangmag

WHIZZPOPBANG.CO M ISSUE 114

ES AMAZ ING FACTS

SCIEN CE NEWS

ISSN 239 9-28 40

smic Coplorers xUNDERGROUND

e Calculat eight your wenus on V

facebook.com/whizzpopbangmag pinterest.com/whizzpopbangmag

KIDS!

et

whizzpopbang.com

E FOR

GAZIN

CE MA

SCIEN

E

hello@whizzpopbang.com

ESOME

THE AW

WHIZZ POP BANG is made by:

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

EXPERT SCIENCE ADVISERS

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

SUBSCRIBE!

ISSN 2399-2840

GET IN TOUCH

an

Gakk

Atom

Emmi

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 © 2025 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: © 2025 Clive Goodyer

CONTENTS SOUND SCIENCE

©

Find out how sound travels and how we hear it, and make a paper cup telephone and a smartphone speaker.

c to rs

om k .c

ANIMAL ANTICS

Vet Joe Inglis has a whale of a time getting to know the loudest animal in the world. Can you guess what it is?

NOISY NATURE

Roaring, squawking and buzzing – nature is noisy! F ind out how and why animals make so many different sounds.

EMMI’S ECO CLUB

16

Get creative with old socks and tights and make an awesome doggy draught excluder.

17 22

PULLOUT

Scare your family silly with a pair of noisy paper projects!

INTERVIEW WITH A SCIENCE HERO

Step behind the scenes with Caoimhe Doyle, whose sound effects bring films to life.

24

HOW STUFF WORKS

Find out how speakers convert electrical energy into music.

TEN AWESOMELY AMAZING…

things that can beat sound in a race.

And sound travels pretty quickly!

26

INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS

One of these inspiring inventors came up with the microphone. But which one was it? ©

U. S.

Na vy

30

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

35

S

te

12 14

Laugh out loud at some hilarious wildlife photos and find out why scientists have been studying dinosaur poo!

t hu

6

AWESOME NEWS AND AMAZING FACTS

4

e yl Do

28

Y’S WONDER CLUB

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

32 34

aoi ©C

e mh

QUIZ POP BANG AND COMPETITION

Test your knowledge with our super-duper science quiz and win a hilarious book.

JOKES AND ANSWERS

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

SPECTACULAR SCIENCE

See cornflour gloop dancing on a speaker, then have a go at making your own!

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

© NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (NRC-Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia)

s Awesome New cts and Amazing Fa

SAY CHEESE! WINNER

S T U CK

© Jose Miguel Gallego 4 Comedy Wildlife 202

Mantis flamenco

Unexpected role swap 2024

edy Wildlife 2024

You’re not

my mother!

e 2024

Comedy Wildlife 202 4

4 whizzpopbang.com

Shake ruffle rattle and roll

Awkward smiley frog

ki / Comedy Wildlif

© Ralph Robinson /

© Leslie Mcleod / Comedy Wildlife 2024

© Tap ani Linnanmä

Gang of four

Hide and seek

Are you kidding?

© Marti Phillips / Com

© Randy Herman / Com

edy Wildlife 2024

zyk / Comedy Wildlife

I’ll tell you a secret

© Kingston Tam / Comedy Wildlife 2024

edy Wildlife 2024

Molina / © Przemyslaw Jakubc

© Jan Piecha / Com

© Milko Marchetti / Comedy Wildlife 2024

Check out the hilarious winners of the latest Comedy W ildlife Photography Awards.

These awards aim to help people to better understand animals and their lives. This year’s competition opens in March. It’s free to enter and it’s open to kids too – you’ve got until July to send in your entries, so grab a camera and head outside! comedywildlifephoto.com

S Q U IR R E L

LOOKING INTO THE PAST © NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Chris Willott (NRC-Canada), Lamiya Mowla (Wellesley College), Kartheik Iyer (Columbia)

How can a telescope see back in time?

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured amazing images of a galaxy like our own forming in the early universe. The JWST is a powerful space telescope orbiting the Sun. Because it detects infrared light (wavelengths that humans cannot see), it is able to look much further back in time than any previous telescope.

This image shows clumps of stars in the process of joining together to form a galaxy like our own – the Milky Way. Scientists have named this distant galaxy F irefly Sparkle, because it looks like a swarm of colourful fireflies.

GOOD NEWS FOR BRITISH BEES! Scientists studying the spread of the bee-killing yellow-legged hornet have found that efforts to stop them invading Britain are working. This species of hornet can kill 50 bees a day and – since arriving in France in a cargo of pottery from China – has devastated honeybee colonies in France and Italy. The hornets were first spotted in Britain in 2016, and would have set up home here by now if they hadn’t been stopped. “This is due to the fantastic efforts by vigilant members of the public who report suspected sightings of yellow-legged hornets,” said ecologist Dr Richard Hassall.

If you spot one, you can report it here

bit.ly/40gu1RF © Brais Seara / Shutterstock.com

Light from the Sun (our closest star) takes eight minutes to reach us on Earth, so we see the Sun as it was eight minutes ago.

When we look up at distant stars in the night sky, the light we see has taken many years to reach us, so we are seeing them as they were years ago. The JWST detects light from some of the earliest and furthest away stars in the universe, so it is capturing images of them as they looked billions of years ago, just after the Big Bang!

FOSSILISED POO REVEALS DINOS’ SECRET TO SUCCESS Researchers studying fossilised dinosaur poo and vomit have worked out what dinosaurs ate – and how this helped them take over the world.

It turns out that the secret to their success was their diet. Unlike other animals around at the time, planteating dinosaurs enjoyed a wide variety of different plants, which helped them to survive climate changes that limited the choice of veggies on offer. And as the herbivores got bigger and stronger, so did the carnivores eating them. “The way to avoid extinction is to eat a lot of plants,” said researcher Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki. © Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki

whizzpopbang.com 5 © Bruno C. Vellutini/ Wikimedia Commons

I t ’s t i m e t o From soft and

tune in to t

squeaky to

he science

of sound.

loud and booming,

all noise starts in the same way – with ((((vibrations)))).

When you pluck a guitar string, it vibrates (moves back and forth very quickly). These vibrations are passed on to the air around the elastic band. They keep travelling through the air as sound waves. When the vibrations reach your ears, you hear them as sounds.

If you don’t have a guitar to hand, try stretching an elastic band over a box and plucking it.

Sometimes you can see the vibrations that cause a sound – like your vibrating elastic band. Sometimes you can feel the vibrations – try putting your hand on your throat as you speak.

MAKE A SMARTPHONE SPEAKER Sound from a smartphone’s speakers can be funnelled to your ears to make the phone sound louder.

Yo u will need

A smartphone A toilet roll tube A pencil and a pen A craft knife or small, sharp scissors Two paper cups

W h a t y o u do 1. Ask an adult if you can borrow their phone (in the name of science!) and hold the bottom edge on top of the toilet roll. Use the pencil to trace round the phone. You should end up with a narrow rectangleshaped slot drawn on the toilet roll.

Sometimes the vibrations are too small to see or feel, but they are still there. Ask an adult if you can borrow their phone and pop it inside an empty jar, then stretch a balloon over the top (you might need to secure it with an elastic band). Drop some rice pops or sprinkles on the balloon, then call the phone and watch what happens as vibrations from the speaker pass through the air and the jar to the balloon.

2. Ask an adult to help you to cut out the slot you’ve drawn using a craft knife or scissors.

3. Use a pen to trace a circle round the toilet roll on each of the paper cups.

4. Ask an adult to help you to cut out the circles. Aim to cut out around the inside of the circle’s line so that the ends of the toilet roll fit snugly inside.

5. Play some music or sound on the smartphone and then push the bottom of the phone through the slot in the toilet roll.

Yo u should find

The sound should travel through the toilet roll and out of the paper cups.

whizzpopbang.com 7

MAKING

Why did the sound engineer get in trouble at school?

Because she was always making waves!

WAVES

Sound travels in waves. You can model this using a slinky.

Hold one end and ask your parent/assistant/pet gerbil to stretch the other end across a table. Push and pull your end of the slinky back and forth to squash the coils together.

Watch how the squashed area moves along the slinky.

Sound moves through air in a similar way. Sound waves are areas of squashed (high-pressure) air that are passed on from one area of air to the next.

I’M ALL EARS

When sound waves reach your ear, they make your eardrum vibrate. These vibrations are passed on to three tiny bones inside your ear, which make the sound louder. From there, the vibrations travel to your cochlea. This part of your ear is lined with tiny hairs that are very sensitive to vibrations. The cochlea looks like a snail shell but works like a tiny curled-up piano that plays every sound you’ll ever hear. Your brain decodes messages from your cochlea to work out exactly what you are hearing.

Mixed-up noise makers Can you unscramble the letters in these words to find six things that make loud noises? Check your answers on page 34.

8 whizzpopbang.com

1. AIDOR 2. ENDHURT 3. WIREFORK 4. MEANPEGOH 5. SPARKSEE 6. PIXELSOON

CLANGER HANGERS

HELPING CHILDREN TO HEAR BETTER

Most ears do an amazing job, but some children have a problem with their eardrums, or their ears cannot make sounds louder because the three little bones don't work properly. This is known as glue ear. It can get better by itself, but sometimes this takes a long time.

Does sound travel better through solids or gases?

Yo u will need

A wire coat hanger A 1-metre length of string

I’m trying to help children with glue ear by using special headphones that can change sound into vibrations, so that the eardrum doesn't have to. The headphones pick up sound waves before they get to the ear and turn them into vibrations that travel straight to the cochlea.

That way, children can hear even if their own eardrums aren’t working.

W hat yo u do 1. Loop the string through the hanger.

2. Wind the ends of the string around your two index fingers and ask an assistant to tap the dangling coat hanger gently (or you could try knocking the hanger against something hard, like a door). What do you hear?

The headphones will make sure children don’t miss out on anything while their glue ear gets better.

3. Now put your index fingers in your ears and try tapping or banging the hanger again (making sure you’re leaning forward so that the hanger isn’t touching your body).

Sound waves can travel through anything that vibrates, including solids, liquids and gases. But they can’t travel through total emptiness (which scientists call a vacuum). That’s why sound can’t travel in outer space.

wn

ON THE MOVE

© Tamsin Bro

Dr Tamsin Bro

wn Paediatrician, Cambridgesh ire Community Se rvices

You should find Sound travels faster and father through solids than through gases, like air, so more of the sound energy makes it to your ears when they’re in contact with the string.

whizzpopbang.com 9

EPIC ECHOES Sound waves can bounce off surfaces and back to your ears, so you hear the original sound twice. This is called an echo. Some spaces, like sports halls and tunnels, produce lots of echoes because hard, smooth surfaces reflect sound well. But rooms with lots of soft surfaces, like carpets and curtains, don’t. This is because soft surfaces absorb sound.

Try experimenting with echoes next time you’re in a tunnel.

Noisy word search Find all these words. They might be written forwards, backwards, horizontally or vertically.

Check your answers on page 34.

Bang Boom Screech Roar Howl Rumble Loud Squeak Crash Thunder

J

Q

T

H

U

N

D

E

R

S

S

N

X

P

B

O

O

M

I

Q

C

H

A

C

R

O

A

R

C

U

R

E

O

I

R

U

M

B

L

E

E

B

O

W

N

D

B

B

U

A

E

U

A

M

L

L

A

A

I

K

C

F

I

A

P

O

N

U

F

O

H

J

G

X

L

U

G

E

R

Z

W C

Y

V

R

D

Q

N

Y

A

Q

C

R

A

S

H

M

B

Y

D

10 whizzpopbang.com

This sonogram shows a developing baby inside the womb.

BRRING, BRRING! CAN YOU TALK THROUGH STRING? Make a paper cup

telephone to find

out!

Yo u will need

Two paper cups or empty yoghurt pots Two paper clips

ECHOLOCATION Some animals use sound rather than light to find their way around and to catch prey. Bats let out a series of fast, high-pitched squeaks (too high for us to even hear!) which bounce off surfaces around them and back to their ears, allowing them to build a picture of their surroundings – and to know how close flying insects are.

A 5-metre length of string (or thread, wool, metal wire, fishing line, garden twine or dental floss)

What you do 1. Make a small hole in the bottom of each cup.

2. Thread each end of the string up through the bottom of each cup, knotting it to a paper clip to keep it in place.

3. Hold one cup and give the other to a friend. Stand apart so that the string is stretched tightly between the cups.

4. Whisper a secret into the cup. Can your friend hear you by putting their cup to their ear? Test different materials in the same way. Which one makes the best ‘string’ telephone?

Try saying these tongue twisters into your telephone

PUTTING ECHOES TO WORK Echoes are very useful for taking a peek at growing babies. During an ultrasound scan, harmless, high-frequency sound waves are bounced off the baby. Bones, muscles and skin all reflect sound differently. A scanner detects the echoes and uses the information to create a picture of the baby.

© Shutterstock.com

A tricky frisky snake with sixty super scaly stripes.

The big bug bit Fuzzy wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy the little beetle, wuzzy had no but the little beetle bit the hair. Fuzzy wuzzy big bug back. wasn't very fuzzy, was he?

You should find

Vibrations pass through some materials better than others. They travel better through dense materials such as metal.

They also travel better through materials that are tightly stretched.

whizzpopbang.com 11

AL ANIM S TIC

AN

sperm whale 2 km

With his ear defenders in place, our vet Joe Inglis has been sounding out some of the loudest creatures on the planet to find the animal that makes more noise than any other.

The depth to which sperm whales can dive in search of food.

Loud and proud

Although there is some debate amongst scientists about how to compare the different noises animals make, it’s generally believed that the short intense clicks made by sperm whales are the loudest, having been measured at an ear-splitting 230 decibels (compared to just 70 decibels for a loud human shout!).

Sperm whales have the largest brains on the planet – around five times as big as a human brain – suggesting that they are highly intelligent animals.

clickety click blowhole

spermace

ti organ junk (melon)

lower ja

w

© Kurzon / Wikimedia Commons

Sperm whale clicks are incredibly short, only lasting around 1 ten thousandth of a second. Whales use bursts of clicks for echolocation (turn to page 10 to find out how this works!), to help them to hunt, navigate their environment and communicate with other whales.

To make these explosively loud clicks, the whales force air from their noses into a large barrel on the top of their heads called the spermaceti organ. This is filled with up to 1,900 litres of oil and wax and is where the click sounds are amplified. The melon (or junk) underneath helps to focus the noises.

Big tooth

Pod living Sperm whales are sociable animals, and the females and their calves live in groups of 10-20 animals called pods, usually in the warm waters of the tropics. Older male animals tend to roam further afield on their own, returning to the equator to breed.

Sperm whales are the largest toothed whales on the planet, measuring up to 20 metres in length with some males weighing in at over 50 tonnes.

Even their teeth are big, weighing a kilogram each! While they are undoubtedly supersized, sperm whales are nothing compared to blue whales, which can weigh over 150 tonnes!

I’m having a whale of a time!

Hunted hunters Sperm whale poo and vomit is used to make perfumes.

Answer on page 34

The amount of fish and squid a sperm whale eats every day.

© Martin Prochazkacz / Shutterstock.com

1‚000 kg

For many centuries sperm whales were hunted for their blubber, which was used to make oil for lamps before electricity was available. Nowadays, whaling is banned in most parts of the world – but whales still face threats from fishing nets, collisions with ships and from eating rubbish in the sea. Noise pollution from ship engines, drilling surveys and military exercises can also interfere with their navigation, causing them to lose their way and become stranded on the beach.

whizzpopbang.com 13

Noisy Nature ANIMAL SOUND CHAMPIONS You’ve met the world’s loudest animal on page 12. Now meet some other champs…

You might think that your little brother or sister is noisy, but guess what? The loudest lifeforms on Earth are NOT humans... they’re animals!

Longest Range Award: BLUE WHALE Blue whale calls can be heard underwater more than 800 km away. It helps that water carries sound waves really well.

Loudest Primate Award: HOWLER MONKEY

Loudest Invertebrate Award: TIGER PISTOL SHRIMP This shrimp clicks its claw shut so fast that it makes a sound louder than a gunshot and creates a bubble bullet that travels at over 100 km per hour, stunning small fish and shrimps.

The sound is loud enough to deafen a human!

Even louder than a tantruming toddler, the howler monkey’s howls can reach up to 140 decibels and can be heard 4.8 km away through dense jungle.

Best Singer Award: BIRDS Birds have a special vocal organ called a syrinx, which allows them to sing non-stop.

They can even sing two songs at the same time!

HOW animals make sound

Birds have a syrinx, an organ between their windpipe and lungs containing two membranes – one for each lung. The membranes vibrate and make sound as air passes to or from each lung.

Fish make sounds by squeezing and expanding their swim bladders.

Many insects, spiders, crabs and related animals rub certain body parts together.

All other land vertebrates, except birds, have a larynx or voice box with vocal cords that vibrate to make sound.

WHY animals make sound Unlike humans, animals don't chat for fun.

They mostly use sounds for vital messages, such as...

Keep out!

Beware danger!

Yo u will need Hey, I’m so gorgeous!

Hey guys, I’ve found food!

Back off, I’m dangerous

MAKE A DUCK QUACKER

Mum I’m over here!

A drinking straw Scissors A ruler

W h a t y o u do

1. Cut a length of straw 12 cm long.

2. Cut one end of the straw as shown and press it flat.

Er, I’m not really dangerous

Guess the noisy animal Read these clues to a friend, one at a time. They must try to guess the answer using as few clues as possible.

CLUES 1. These animals made the sound of TIE fighters in the Star Wars movies.

3. Put the pointed end in your mouth, pressing it between your lips, and blow.

Yo u should find

The pointed ends of the straw vibrate to make a quacking sound. You might need a few tries to make it work.

2. They make the deepest sounds of any land animal.

3. They make some sounds through their long noses.

4. Re-arrange the letters in THE PLANES to find the answer.

Check your answer on page 34.

whizzpopbang.com 15

b... clu O C E

Emmi’s

DOGGY DRAUGHT EXCLUDER

Brrr!

It’s cold outside!

But you can cut your family’s carbon footprint by trapping warm air inside your home with this cute draught excluder.

1

Yo u will need

Old pair of tights

Old pair of socks

hredded scrap paper S or fabric strips

Buttons

Elastic bands Needle and thread

Scissors

2

Cut one leg off a pair of tights.

Stuff it with scrap paper or fabric.

3

Knot elastic bands around each end to create a tail and nose.

4

Cut each sock in half. Sew them to the heel of the tights to make ears.

16 whizzpopbang.com

Add button eyes.

Continued on page 21 ➜

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

Hunt for draughts around doors, windows and places where pipes leave the building.

Instead of turning up the heating, use your doggy draught excluder to plug the gaps.

More

ECO

ideas...

r There are lots of othe save things you can do to energy in your home:

you leave a room.

Turn off lights when ile you Turn off the tap wh brush your teeth. computers Switch off TVs and em instead of leaving th on standby. e or Don’t leave the fridg freezer open for long.

Continued from page 16

If you have lots of old tights and socks, you could make a different dog for each room!

We can all help to save the planet. Lots of small actions can make a BIG difference! ts is one of Getting rid of draugh ve energy the easiest ways to sa around in your home. Gaps let warm air doors and windows aughts and out, causing chilly dr lder. More making rooms feel co e energy than a quarter of th on heating. used in homes goes tat down Turning the thermos to 18 °C, just 1 °C, from 19 °C by more can cut heating bills than 10%.

whizzpopbang.com 21

➜

Riddles

Check your answers on page 34.

es 1) What comes and go no with an aircraft, is of raft use to it yet the airc cannot fly without it?

2) What word becomes louder when you add two letters to it?

3) What occurs once in a pop group, twice in an orchestra, but never in a jazz band?

MAKE AN ORIGAMI BANGER Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding. It’s normally a quiet pastime, but you can also make paper BANG or POP like this…

What yo u do

1. Cut out the page and fold the paper along the four dotted green lines. Then fold the paper in half lengthways along the red line.

2. Fold the shape in half. You should have a shape which looks rectangular at one end and triangular at the other.

3. Fold each triangular flap backwards so that its edges meet the rest of the paper and form a triangle shape. (TIP: don’t crease this edge too firmly – the banger should be slightly open.)

4. Hold the loose ends of your banger between your thumb and first finger and turn it so that the loose edges on the inside of the banger are at the bottom.

Lift the banger to head height, then flick your arm and hand sharply downwards. The paper inside should pop out, making a popping or banging sound.

5. To repeat, just push the paper that popped out back inside your banger.

18 whizzpopbang.com

PULL OUT pages 17-20 and get making!

MAKE PAPER SCREECH! Who knew you could make so much noise with a piece of paper?!

What yo u do 1. Cut out the paper rectangle and fold in half along the red dashed line.

2. Cut out the two small triangle shapes in the middle, marked with a green dotted line.

3. Fold back along the blue dashed lines to make this shape.

4. Place your fingers as shown and pinch the paper together. Hold it up to your mouth, so that the flat panels are next to your cheeks. Blow hard into the gap in the paper, releasing your pinch gradually until you hear a surprisingly loud buzzing or screeching sound.

We’d love to see a photo of your paper screecher!

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

Find a printable version of the pullout here: bit.ly/3ZuEg38

whizzpopbang.com 17

whizzpopbang.com 19

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

In my job I get to... make movie sound effects!

Caoimhe is a Foley artist based in Ireland.

“

A Foley artist is someone who creates sound effects for film, television and video games.

Caoimhe Doyle Foley artist

cape.com © Jody Daunton http://anotheres

”

© Caoimhe Doyle

They recreate the footsteps for all the characters in the movie and then create many of the other sound effects using var ious props, from car bumpers to celery! On the day of filming, the most important sounds to record are the voices of the actors. The other sounds like footsteps and movements are added later. Actors often use fake swords and the Foley artist will crea te the real sound of steel on steel.

hone Caoimhe using a waterp to create spooky sounds

“

I knew straight away that I wanted to be a Foley artist.

”

One evening, I saw a Foley art ist at the studio I was working at. He had all sor ts of stuff lying around, like car doors, squeak y hinges and lots and lots of shoes. I was so cur ious – how could this be a job? It looked like so much fun! As I watched him work he asked me if I’d like to try it out. I loved it and never looked back! © worldclassphoto / Shuttersrock.com

Try this simple experiment to see how important sound is. Watch a scene from a film with the sound turned off, then watch it again with the sound on but with your eyes closed. How easy was it to understand what was going on?

Interview with a SCIENCE HERO

“

In some movies, around 90% of the sound you hear has been recreated after the film has been shot.

”

We bury microphones in pits of dirt and into metal oil drums to capture unusual acoustic environments. We have all sorts of swords, suits of armour, springs, shoes and vegetables in our collection of props. Even documentaries use Foley sound effects to make animal footsteps and movements, like eating, hunting, fighting and swimming, when a long lens is used to capture animals in the wild.

Recreating the sound of galloping © Caoimhe Doyle

“

horses

Sound effects can change the way we feel during a film.

”

a Pictures tell us what is happening in feel to film, but sound can tell us how e, about what we are seeing. For instanc slick r hea we if ie, in a superhero mov tial whooshes when a character with mar has he arts techniques moves we feel like super-special speed and power.

Different shoes make different sounds © Jody Daunton http

© Caoimhe Doyle

Make some noise!

://anotherescape.com

You can try these real movie sound effects at

home:

Screeching tyres – blow a bit of air into an emp ty hot water bottle and seal it. Then, holding it firmly with two hands, rub it in circles on a kitchen floor.

reaking bones – get a bunch of celery and slow B ly twist it until it snaps.

Flapping dragon wings – flap a pair of leather gloves against a feather duster.

Recreating the sound of breaking bones!

Walking on snow – put dry cornflour into a pillowcase and crunch your hands down on the top (watch out – this one’s very messy!).

whizzpopbang.com 23

HOW STUFF

WORKS

SPEAKERS

You hear them pumping on the stereo, bleeping and ringing in mobile phones and blasting out of cars – speakers are everywhere! They turn electrical signals into sounds, but how do they do it?

Pump up the volume

Speakers are very simple. They consist of a fixed magnet and a moving electromagnet coil attached to a lightweight cone.

1

Electrical cables

connect the speaker to the stereo or other device.

2

When a speaker is hooked up to an electronic device, an electric current flows around the wire coil. It becomes a temporary electromagnet and is attracted towards (or repelled away from) the permanent magnet.

As the electric current through the coil varies, the coil moves back and forth.

Permanent magnet

24 whizzpopbang.com

3

The cone is made of paper or plastic and is attached to the coil. When the coil moves in and out, it pumps the cone back and forth, sending sound waves into the air.

Surround

4

Speakers are housed inside a frame, also known as the basket. A flexible rubber or plastic surround attaches the fragile cone to the frame.

5

The spider is a flexible rubber ring that attaches the wire coil to the basket.

Dust cap

Shivers and shakes Like the skin of a drum, the surface of the cone pushes vibrations out into the air. When these sound waves hit your eardrum, you hear them as sound. The more the cone moves, the louder the sounds that thump out of the speaker.

Find the matching pair of speakers.

Check your answer on page 34.

.

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

T A E B N A C T A H T S G N I H T cond. out 330 metres per se ab at r ai h ug ro th NIC! ls Sound trave is officially SUPERSO is th an th er st fa es Anything that mov times faster than sound. This is why you see a flash of lightning before you hear the thunderous noise that it makes. The further away the storm, the longer it is before the sound of thunder reaches your ears.

Sound takes around 3 seco to travel a kilometre

nds

2

A plane breaking sound ba the rrier

shock waves

Have you ever heard a sonic boom as a military plane flies overhead? A supersonic jet plane squeezes the air around it so fast that lots of smaller sound waves combine to make one big shock wave, which sounds like a BOOM when it reaches your ears.

© U.S. Air Force photo by Edwa

rd Aspera Jr.

1

Light travels nearly a MILLION

© U.S. Navy

© BREWBOOKS

3

© Settles1

Bullets move through

air at almost twice the speed of sound, producing smaller versions of the shock waves that form around a supersonic plane.

howing Shadowgram s m a o shock waves fr t supersonic bulle

5

4

Space jumpers Alan Eustace and Felix Baumgartner

have both broken the sound barrier by free falling from the edge of space! Eustace set a world record by jumping from a capsule 41,419 metres above Earth’s surface. He accelerated to 367 metres per second, before opening his parachute.

Cracking a whip creates a loop that travels from the handle to the very end of the whip, speeding up as it goes. As the loop reaches the end of the whip and opens up, it breaks the sound barrier and creates a mini sonic boom!

26 whizzpopbang.com

©

BA

LZ

AC

E C A R A N I D N U O S T EA

6

© Morio

7

Diplodocus had a long tail with a very thin and bendy tip. When the dinosaur moved its huge bottom, the momentum travelled down the tail like the loop in a whip, making the tip move faster than the speed of sound! This would have made a loud noise that may have been used to scare off rivals or communicate over long distances.

The supersonic car ThrustSSC set a land

©

speed record when it zoomed across a Nevada desert at 341.1 metres per second (763 miles per hour!). You can see the car at Coventry Transport Museum!

8

Space rockets

have to accelerate to 7,900 metres per second to escape Earth’s gravity. Watch an amazing film of the shock wave made by an Atlas V rocket breaking the sound barrier here (at 1:52):

9

Sh

m

co

ck.

sto

er utt

© U.S. Air Force

The X-15 has reached al mo seven times the speed of st sound!

bit.ly/4h7dswV

© NASA/Sandra Jos

Anything moving faster than five times the speed of sound is said to be hypersonic. Several organisations are designing hypersonic ‘spaceplanes’ that could travel from London to New York in 20 minutes, or London to Sydney in two hours!

eph and Kevin O’C

10

onnell

You can break the speed of sound in your kitchen – by dropping a marble into a bucket of water! The marble makes an air-filled crater as it hits the water. As the walls of the crater start to close over the marble, the air rushes out through the gap at supersonic speeds. © Vikramdeep Sidhu

whizzpopbang.com 27

I ncredible I nventions

Microphones change sound energy into electrical signals.

They make it possible to capture sound – to make it louder, send it over long distances, put it into computers and record sound to play back later.

There’s no doubt that credible microphones are an in agree e can invention – but no on s! whose invention it wa

Emile Berliner

In 1876, I read about Alexander Graham Bell’s brand-new invention – the telephone!

I was working in a stable where people kept horses, and knew nothing about electricity, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how cool it sounded.

It was Hughes’ invention.

David Edward Hughes

I decided to try and make my own telephone to send sound waves along electrical wires. After a year, I had come up with a brandnew type of sound detector.

It didn’t just change a voice into an electrical signal, it also made the sound louder, to stop the signal fading as it travelled!

Exactly – whose invention was it?

I hope I can convince Whizz Pop Bang readers it was mine!

... I said HUGHES, not whose!

Thomas Edison

As soon as Bell heard about my invention, he paid me $50,000 to use it – over $1 million in modern money!

Telephones went from being a bit rubbish to a technology that changed the world!

Berliner built his first microphone using a tin-can telephone and a toy trumpet.

Answer on page 34

Emile Berliner

28 whizzpopbang.com

A speaker turns electrical signals back into sounds. It’s like a microphone in reverse!

No, no, no – I got there first!

Speaker

Back in 1866, I began using a wooden board to pick up weak sound vibrations and make them louder. I attached carbon rods to the board – carbon is a material that lets electricity flow through it. Whenever a sound made the board vibrate, the rods vibrated too, and the flow of electricity changed to match the vibrations! In 1878, I was the first to use the word ‘microphone’ and explain how the invention actually worked.

I could have made a fortune, but I decided not to patent the idea – I wanted everyone to be able to use it. Then I noticed Mr Edison trying to make the American public believe he had also invented the microphone!

Batteries Wooden board

Carbon rods

David Edward Hughes

That’s because I did! I carried out loads of experiments to make my design the best.

I used a thin metal disc, or diaphragm, that vibrates when sound waves hit it.

They’re used in today’s microphones too! As the diaphragm vibrated, it pushed against a ‘carbon button’ – a not-too-tasty sandwich of metal with a carbon filling. Each push changed the amount of electricity flowing through the carbon.

Loud sounds (strong vibrations) pushed harder on the button. High-pitched sounds (quicker vibrations) pushed on the button more often. This created bursts of electricity that matched the original sound waves!

Thin metal diaphragm

Metal Wires Carbon Thomas Edison

Microphone

Speaker

Which tangled wire from the microphone leads to the loudspeaker? Check your answer on page 34.

Edison’s and Berliner’s inventions were very similar. For more than ten years, they fought in the courts and were rude about each other in the newspapers! Edison also claimed that Hughes had stolen his ideas. In 1892, US judges decided that Edison had invented the carbon microphone. Many still believe that it was really Berliner or Hughes. Others say it’s impossible to tell, and that all three had built on earlier ideas anyway.

What do you think?

Email me at Y@whizzpopbang.com

der Club!

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, How do kettles work?

CURIoUS K I DS

From Meg, aged 10

Electric kettles have a metal coil at the bottom called a

heating element. When you turn the kettle on, electricity

heats the coil, which transfers heat to the water around it.

The molecules in the warmer water have more energy, so they move faster and spread apart, making the water expand. The warm water rises to the top of the kettle, allowing the cooler, denser water to take its place by the heating element. These convection currents keep water moving around the kettle until it’s all heated evenly. Once the water temperature reaches 100 °C, it boils and makes steam. Some kettles have a thermostat that switches them off automatically when the water boils. Have a look inside your kettle when it’s cold and see if you can spot the heating element!

Look at all these fantastic movable skeletons you made (from the Spooky Science edition, Issue 111)!

Blake, aged 7

Alastair, aged 9

Sherine, aged 6

Sienna, aged 6

Emi, aged 5, took her copy of Whizz Pop Bang to the New Scientist Live science festival!

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

Hi Y, Why is the funny bone called a funny bone and not an elbow bone?

Ethan, aged 8, and his grandma had fun making the working heart model from the Spooky Science edition.

From Oliver, aged 7

Great question, Oliver! It’s certainly not very funny when you bang your funny bone on something – it really hurts! That’s because the spot at the back of your elbow that we call the funny bone is where your ulnar nerve (one of the main nerves in your arm) rests against the humerus – your upper arm bone. So, bumping that bit of your elbow can squash the nerve against the bone, causing a lot of pain. It can also feel tingly and ‘funny’ (but funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha), which might be why we call it the funny bone. It might also be because humerus sounds like the word humorous, which means funny!

…and so did Phoebe, aged 9!

Inspired by the Ancient Greece edition (Issue 91), Amelia, aged 7, constructed this awesome marble run!

Hello Y, If dopamine makes us feel happy, are there chemicals associated with the other emotions?

Arlo, aged 10 PS me and my sister love your magazine!

Oscar, aged 11, made an X-ray image from the Spooky Science edition.

Joe, aged 9, made the blood cell cereal from the Spooky Science edition to eat for breakfast. Looks delicious!

Hi Arlo, I’m so happy to hear you and your sister are enjoying Whizz Pop Bang! You’re right – different brain chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) are linked to different emotions. Dopamine is a ‘feel-good’ neurotransmitter which is linked to the brain’s reward system. A neurotransmitter called serotonin helps you feel calm and balanced, while a hormone called adrenaline gets you excited or scared during intense moments. Oxytocin is often called the ‘love hormone’ because it helps us feel close to others. Emotions are caused by a mix of these chemicals working together. But feelings are also shaped by our thoughts and experiences.

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.

Get problem solving to earn your Epic Engineer badge.

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

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

Test your mum/dad/ music tea cher 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.

How far can sound travel through air in one second?

3

5 7

a) About 1 metre b) About 50 metres c) About 330 metres

2 4

What part of a speaker moves in and out to create sound waves? a) The electrical cables b) The cone c) The basket

What has recently ues given scientists cl diets? about dinosaurs’ etons a) Dinosaur skel o and vomit b) Fossilised po footage c) Ancient video

Where does sound travel the fastest? a) Through gases b) Through solids c) Through a vacuum

Who invented the telephone?

6 8

a) Alexander Graham Bell b) Emile Berliner homas Edison c) T

Which animal’s call can be heard more than 800 km away? a) A blue whale’s b) A lion’s

Why are farms so noisy?

Because all the cattle have horns!

c) A howler monkey’s

What sea creature can make a sound loud enough to deafen a human?

W

a) A trumpetfish b) A sperm whale c) A tiger pistol shrimp

How do Foley artists recreate the sound of breaking bones?

I scored...

a) By snapping plastic rulers b) By breaking chicken bones c) By twisting celery

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

1) Page 26 2) Page 24 3) Page 5 4) Page 14 5) Page 9 6) Page 14 7) Page 28 8) Page 23

1-3: A faint whisper 4-6: A sound score 7-8: Loud and proud

d

To celebrate World Book Day, we’ve got three copies of Make Some Noise: the mind-blowing guide to all things music by the world’s funniest band, to give away! To be in with a chance of winning one, find the answer to this riddle by colouring in the picture below.

What can you hear but not see and only speaks when it’s spoken to?

!

IN

r

Resounding Riddle

W

Use a red pen to colour in the shapes containing even numbers and a blue pen to colour in the shapes containing odd numbers.

Make Some Noise, by Taskmaster’s Alex Horne Welcome to the silly, strange and totally hilarious world of music! With funny tales, absurd history and unbelievable facts, this book will help you become a musical mastermind.

WINNER

Issue 113 competition winners Thank you to everyone who sent in entries to our Festive science competition.

We loved all your fantastic flying machine pictures!

These three lucky winners will each receive an Violet McGurn, awesome Letterbox Lab aged 7 science kit.

Rishika Goel, aged 10

Arthur, a ged 7

Send your entry to win@whizzpopbang.com with ‘Sound competition’ as the subject of your email. Alternatively, post it to Sound 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: March 8th 2025. UK residents only. Full terms and conditions available at whizzpopbang.com.

Cut out your World Book Day token here and claim a FR EE book from a bookshop near you.

Val id from February 13th to March 23rd 2025.

whizzpopbang.com 33

S E K O J

I lost the volume knob on my stereo.

It hasn’t turned up since!

What do you call a vibrating cow?

A milkshake!

How does a lion like its mea t?

RAW!

What noise do sheep dogs make?

Baaaaaaaark! e What’s th e on noisiest b of all? bone!

The tromPage 8 – Mixed-up noise makers

Page 15 – Guess the noisy animal quiz

1) RADIO 2) THUNDER 3) FIREWORK 4) MEGAPHONE 5) SPEAKERS 6) EXPLOSION

ELEPHANTS. Elephant sounds were altered to make the noise of the Star Wars TIE fighters.

Page 10 – Noisy word search R

S

H

U

N

D

E

X

P

B

O

O

M

I

Q

A

C

R

O

A

R

C

U

R

U

M

B

L

E

N

D

B

B

U

A

Q

T

S

N

C

H

R

E

O

I

E

B

O

W

J

E

U

A

M

L

L

A

A

I

K

C

F

I

A

P

O

N

U

F

O

H

J

G

X

L

U

G

E

R

Z

W C

Y

V

R

D

Q

N

Y

A

D

C

R

A

S

H

M

B

Y

Q

Answers

Page 18 – Riddles

Page 29 – Tangled wires

1) Noise 2) Loud 3) The letter ‘r’

Wire B leads to the loudspeaker.

Page 32 – Quiz 1) c 2) b 3) b 4) a 5) b 6) c 7) a 8) c

Page 25 – Matching speakers puzzle Page 28 – True/Untrue UNTRUE: He used a tin-can telephone and a toy drum.

Whoops! In Issue 113, the answer to the True/Untrue on page 9 was missing. It should have said FALSE: The Antonov An-225 Mriya, a Russian cargo aircraft designed in the 1980s, is the longest and heaviest plane ever built, with a maximum take-off weight of 640,000 kg, which is roughly the same as 130 elephants!

Page 13 – True/Untrue TRUE: Ambergris is a solid, waxy substance that comes from the digestive tract of sperm whales and is found in their poo and vomit! It has been used for many years in the production of perfumes, although it has largely been replaced by synthetic chemicals. However, it is still incredibly valuable – a small block is worth tens of thousands of pounds!

Cut out your World Book Day token here and claim a FR EE book from a bookshop near you.

Val id from February 13th to March 23rd 2025.

Dancing Cornflour When cornflour is mixed with water, it becomes a goo that flows like a liquid until it is hit or pressed – then it acts like a solid (DO try this at home!).

Underneath the cornflour goo in this photo, there is a speaker that is vibrating and making sound waves.

The cornflour goo is getting continually hit by the vibrating speaker, making these weird and wonderful dancing cornflour figures!

R A L U C A T C E SP

e c n e i c s

See it dance, and find out how to make some of your own, here:

bit.ly/3OUU I 84

GIANT CRYSTAL CAVE This incredible cave in Mexico contains some of the biggest crystals ever found – the largest is about 12 m long, 4 m across and weighs 55 tons! The cave is 300 metres below the ground in an area called Naica, which lies on an ancient fault in the Earth’s crust and above an underground magma chamber. The giant selenite crystals formed over about 500,000 years because of a reaction between hot groundwater containing sulphide and cool surface water. © Shutterstock.com

Craft a springy Y toy

COMING SO O

N

...

Join us nex t month for our awe some Signs of Sp ring edition!

Learn the secrets of seeds

Make a bird feeder

FREE UK P&P!

SHOP ONLINE whizzpopbang.com/shop

Get Whizz Pop Bang back issues, books, binders and more in our online shop