UK Britannica What on Earth Magazine September 2022 Sample Issue

The ultimate magazine for curious young minds!

MAGAZINE

September 2O22

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AMAZING FACTS!

JUMBO PUZZLES!

LOTS TO READ : LOA DS TO LOOK AT : ASK T HE EXPERTS : QUIZ : JOKES : AND MORE!

CONTENTS

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A wild and wonderful world awaits you inside!

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FACTOPIA Follow the trail of hilarious illustrations and crazily connected facts. From talking like a pirate to… vegetables that give off sparks in the microwave!

SNAP IT! Eye-popping photos to amuse and amaze.

Including a stunning photo taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

1O

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EUREKA! Fascinating inventions and discoveries. Meet the world’s biggest water lily and find out how scientists are making chocolate taste even better!

LISTIFIED Discover eight amazing lost treasures that no one can find (yet). Plus, find out how high you could jump if you were standing on Pluto.

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Page 24

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winning entries in a short story competition about amazing inventions.

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FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT SEPTEMBER Celebrate 1O historic anniversaries and events, including the birth of Google and the accident that changed the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s life.

CAN YOU THROW A SATELLITE INTO SPACE? Find out how the new SpinLaunch (pictured left) could change the future of spaceflight.

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COVER FEATURE: THE ANIMAL GAMES! Meet the greatest athletes of the animal kingdom and see which one would take the gold in the long jump, gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting, marathon and more.

INFOGRAPHIC: THE OLDEST LIVING THINGS ON EARTH From 2OO-year-old giant tortoises and 4OO-year-old sharks

to a species of underwater sponge that can live for more than 1O,OOO years!

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ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! Our epic serialisation of the true history of the universe continues with a trip back in time to meet Cleopatra and Tutankhamun.

MY BRITANNICA A Send It In special presents the two

ASK THE EXPERTS Your chance to test Britannica’s brilliant experts. This month’s answers feature the first dinosaurs to roam the Earth and the country where the most languages are used.

THE BIG BRITANNICA QUIZ Stretch your brain power with our brilliantly tricky quiz.

PUZZLES & GAMES A special jumbo edition featuring a musical Word Search, Spot the Difference, Space-Doku!, Word Morphs, Connect the Planets and Number Triangles!

JOKES & RIDDLES Hand-picked by our jokes editor May!

SEND IT IN! Email us your letters, photos and favourite facts to: editor@britannicamagazine. com Or write to us at: Britannica Magazine The Black Barn Wickhurst Farm Tonbridge Kent TN11 8PS

ZANY FACTS

Follow the trail of crazily connected facts all the way from talking like a pirate to… vegetables that give off sparks!

International Talk Like a Pirate Day takes place every year on 19 September.

Ahoy! Me hearties!

By Kate Hale and Paige Towler Illustrations by Andy Smith

One man holds the world record for having the most toothpicks in his beard:

3,5OO 4

According to legend, the famous pirate

BLACKBEARD lit fuses under his hat to scare his enemies

At the World

Beard and Moustache Championships, some competitors style their facial hair in wacky designs

The state of Alaska, USA, is known for growing giant, record-breaking vegetables – such as 63-kilogram cabbages – because the Sun shines there about 2O hours a day every summer

One famous baseball player’s used toothpick sold at an auction for hundreds of dollars

The Baseball player Babe Ruth sometimes put a cabbage leaf under his hat to stay cool

Eat your greens!

The first carrots that people ate were yellow and purple

Some vegetables give off

sparks in the microwave!

5

PHOTOS

HEAVENS ABOVE!

The James Webb Space Telescope, pictured below, is the most powerful telescope ever built. After launching in December, the JWST is now orbiting the Sun about a million miles away from Earth.

This spectacular image shows a part of the Carina Nebula where new stars are born.

6

!

Astonishing photos from around the world

SCALE: 2 light years (1 light year: the distance travelled by light in one year at 186,282 miles per second or 67O.6 million mph) 7

PHOTOS

SCUBA-DRIVING!

The sQuba is one of the first cars that can be driven on both land and underwater. This electric test model cost more than £1 million to develop. It travels through the water like a submarine and can reach depths of up to 1O metres.

!

H A O W THE INVISIBLE MAN

Can you spot the Chinese ‘camouflage artist’ Liu Bolin hidden in the image on the right? Before the photo was taken, Bolin’s face and body were carefully painted (above) so he blended in with the background.

8

!

OW!

W

!

H O O O LETTING OFF STEAM

The Fly Geyser in Nevada, USA, is two metres tall and shoots scalding hot water that rises from deep underground up into the air. The geyser sprung up from a well more than 1OO years ago. Its vivid colouring comes from algae growing on its sides.

BUZZ OFF!

This photo of a corsac fox and an upland buzzard was taken on the Mandu grasslands of Mongolia in central Asia. The animals are two of the top predators in this environment and so often end up hunting the same small rodents.

As natural hunting rivals, they are sometimes driven to fight each other over food.

CREDIT: BAOZHU WANG/BIRD PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

9

Eureka!

The latest astonishing discoveries, inventions and scientific breakthroughs.

Spotted: thousands of wild tigers!

Big news! An international organisation that works to save animals has announced that there are as many as 5,578 wild tigers in the world, 40 per cent more than we thought there were. This is great news for tigers. But it might be an even bigger win for the people who count them. It turns out that at least some of that 40 per cent increase isn’t because the tiger population is growing. It’s because humans are getting better at finding them.

Robot muscles that can lift 1,OOO times their weight Do you ever feel like you could do with a helping hand, perhaps to carry the shopping or pick up your school books?

Well, a team of scientists at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa have been developing tiny artificial muscles that may one day be used to build robots with human-like grips.

These ingenious artificial muscles are made using a flexible synthetic (i.e. human-made) material that is designed to stretch and 10

contract in a similar way to the muscles in your body.

Although there is one important difference between these artificial muscles and human muscles: the muscles built by scientists are much stronger. During experiments, a single artificial muscle weighing just 8 grams was able to lift 8 kilograms – which is roughly the same weight as a microwave!

And as well as being able to lift up to 1,000 times their own weight, the artificial muscles

A robotic hand and wrist built from tiny artificial muscles.

can be combined to mimic real-life human muscles and body parts, such as the robotic hand and wrist pictured left.

By activating different artificial muscles in sequence, the scientists were able to make the robotic hand bend its fingers, twist its palm and rotate its wrist.

If you would like to watch the robotic hand in action, ask a grown-up to show you the short online video at the following link: tinyurl.com/43zjpu7v

NEWS

Football club scores in fight against global warming

The world’s biggest water lily discovered!

See those blue and red stripes on the shoulders of Reading FC’s new football kit? Each stripe represents a year’s average global temperature.

The bluer stripes represent years when average global temperatures were colder.

The redder stripes show years with hotter temperatures.

The unique stripy graphic was designed by Ed Hawkins, a professor at the University of Reading who also works at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science. He translated actual climate records into colours to make the story of global warming easy to understand at a glance.

The team hopes that fans watching Reading play in their colourful new strip will be inspired to help turn climate change around. Plus, the kit is made from recycled plastic bottles, and so when the new Reading FC shirts finally wear out, they can be recycled, too.

Scientists have identified a new species of giant water lily, in a discovery described as ‘one of the botanical wonders of the world’. The species, which is named Victoria boliviana after Queen Victoria, is the first discovery of a giant water lily in more than 100 years. It is also the largest water lily in the world, with leaves that can grow to more than 3 metres wide in the wild!

You can see the giant water lily for yourself at Kew Gardens in London.

Go to www.kew.org to find out how and when to visit.

The record-breaking giant water lily on display at Kew Gardens.

Can science help chocolate taste even better?

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, and cocoa bean farming is a tricky business. That’s because before cocoa beans are dried, roasted, ground up and turned into bars, they spend some quality time with germs.

Not the scary type that cause disease, but the helpful type that ferment things.

If you like yogurt and pickles (and yes, chocolate), you have eaten food made tasty by microbes – tiny critters that are too small to see.

But depending on which microbes happen to end up in which basket of fermenting cocoa beans, the beans can be really yummy or… well, not so nice. And as you can imagine, it’s pretty hard to sell yucky-tasting

HOW COCOA BEANS ARE TURNED INTO CHOCOLATE 1

Cocoa pods are harvested and left in the sun to ferment.

2

The cocoa beans are dried, roasted and then…

3

…ground into cocoa powder.

4

Cocoa butter, cocoa liquor and sugar are blended to make chocolate.

cocoa beans. So not being able to control the flavour means farmers end up wasting part of their cocoa bean harvest.

Enter science! A group of researchers in Switzerland has figured out how to detect which microbes are working in which batch of cocoa beans and use that information to figure out which microbes make the tastiest chocolate.

The scientists can then encourage the tasty-making microbes while discouraging the yuck-making ones. This is great news for everyone: farmers make the money they need to live and we get to eat chocolate that tastes even more delicious!

11

LISTS

LISTIFIED! Prepare to be amazed (and amused!) by the unusual facts crammed into these irresistible lists.

TREASURE HUNT Eight amazing lost treasures that no one can find (so far).

1

The Copper Scroll treasure

Missing since: about 70 CE. In the 1940s and 1950s, a series of ancient writings on papyrus, parchment and bronze were discovered in caves in the Judean Desert in the Middle East. One of them, known as the Copper Scroll, talks about the location of a huge hoard of hidden treasure. Some historians think the treasure is just a legend, while others think it is real – and still hidden, waiting to be found.*

2

The Knights Templar treasure

Missing since: 1307.

The Knights Templar was a religious order founded in 1119 that became very powerful and wealthy. King Philip IV of France was worried about their growing power, so he arrested the most important knights in 1307 and broke into their treasury, hoping to take all the gold, jewels and other valuables stored inside.

However, it was empty. Treasure hunters have been trying to track down the Templars’ missing gold ever since.

3

Incas’ golden city

Missing since: about 1600.

Many old stories tell of an ancient lost city called Paititi, which, according to some, is where the ancient Inca people

12

hid many golden treasures when their homelands in South America were invaded by Europeans. If the lost city does exist, it may be concealed within the jungles of Peru.

4

Shakespeare’s lost play

Missing since: 1603.

The great English playwright William Shakespeare seems to have written a play called Love’s Labour’s Won, as records show it was published in 1598 and was still being sold in 1603. However, some people think this might have been an alternative title for one of his other plays, such as The Taming of the Shrew, which is still regularly performed today.

5

The Florentine Diamond

Missing since: 1918.

The Florentine Diamond dates back to around the 14th–15th centuries** and is said to be the largest gem of its type in the world. At the start of the 20th century, it was owned by the Hapsburgs, the royal family of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the end of the First World War in 1918, Charles I of Austria took the famous diamond to Switzerland – where it is said to have been stolen by someone close to the

The last photo of Mallory and Irvine on Mount Everest.

The Copper Scroll describes a hoard of hidden treasure. royal family and smuggled to South America. The Florentine Diamond may have been cut up into smaller diamonds and sold in the 1920s, but no one knows for sure.

6

Mallory and Irvine’s camera

Missing since: 1924.

British explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared in June 1924 while trying to climb Mount Everest.

They both died in the attempt, but what remains a mystery is whether they reached the summit first. If they had, they would have beaten Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay (who are currently credited with the achievement) by almost 30 years. In 1999, Mallory’s body was discovered without the photograph of his wife,

High Jump Ruth, that he had planned to leave at the summit. There was also no sign of the camera that Mallory and Irvine took to photograph themselves at the top. If the missing camera is ever found, it could reveal the truth about their doomed expedition.

7

Peking Man

Missing since: 1941.

In 1941, valuable fossils of an early human known as the Peking Man mysteriously disappeared and have never been found. They were originally discovered in China and some experts think they were lost at sea while being transported to the United States. Others think that they are still in China, buried under a car park.

when it was stolen. Despite a huge police search across the whole of Brazil, the famous Jules Rimet Trophy has never been recovered.

*If you’d like to join a 2,000-year-old treasure hunt, you can start looking for clues in the Copper Scroll itself, which is on display at the Jordan Museum in Amman. **According to one story, a French nobleman called Charles the Bold was carrying the Florentine Diamond when he was knocked off his horse during the Battle of Morat in Switzerland in 1476. A soldier picked up the diamond

How high a human being could jump on nine different planets and moons On Earth, a human can do a standing jump roughly half a metre in the air and stay up for half a second.* But how high and for how long could a human jump on another planet or moon, where the force of gravity is different?

ENCELADUS (A MOON OF SATURN)

42.6 metres About as high as: The statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Off the ground for: 1 minute.

CERES (A DWARF PLANET)

17.5 metres About as high as: A four-storey building.

Off the ground for: 22 seconds.

PLUTO (A DWARF PLANET)

7.6 metres About as high as: A giraffe.

Off the ground for: 1O seconds.

THE MOON

3 metres About as high as: The ceiling of the average room.

Off the ground for: 4 seconds.

8

The FIFA World Cup

Missing since: 1983.

Between 1930 and 1970, winners of the football World Cup were presented with a gold cup called the Jules Rimet Trophy. In the photo above, the trophy is being held up

by Bobby Moore, captain of the England team that won the World Cup in 1966.*** When, in 1970, Brazil won the tournament for a record third time they were allowed to keep the cup for good. However, in 1983 disaster struck

MARS The Jules Rimet Trophy has been missing since 1983. but later sold it for a small amount of money because he mistakenly thought it was made of glass. ***The Jules Rimet Trophy was also stolen in England, in 1966, shortly before the start of that year’s tournament. Luckily, it was later found hidden beneath a hedge by a collie dog named Pickles, who became a national hero.

1.3 metres

SATURN

O.47 metres** About as high as: A golden retriever.

Off the ground for: Half a second.

JUPITER

O.19 metres About as high as: A banana.

Off the ground for: A quarter of a second. *The highest recorded standing jump on Earth is 1.65 metres, by Brett Williams from the United States. **Because Saturn and Jupiter are made mostly of gas, you would need to be standing on something solid, such as the outside of a spaceship, to jump within their atmospheres.

The height of your jump would still be related to the strength of each planet’s gravitational pull.

Listified! by Andrew Pettie and illustrated by Andrés Lozano is out now.

About as high as: A cow.

Off the ground for: 2 seconds.

MERCURY

1.3 metres About as high as: Ahem, another cow.

Off the ground for: 2 seconds.

VENUS

O.55 metres

Christ the Redeemer

About as high as: Three steps on a flight of stairs.

Off the ground for: O.7 seconds.

13

1925

1666

The Great Fire of London began in a bakery on Pudding Lane on September 2nd. It raged for four days, destroying more than 13,OOO houses, 87 churches and other important buildings.

On September 17th, the 18-year-old Frida Kahlo almost died in a bus crash in her native Mexico. Kahlo’s injuries were so severe that she spent weeks in hospital. While recovering, she started to paint self-portraits and, over the course of her life, went on to become one of the world’s most celebrated artists.

1O fascinating facts 1893

On September 19th, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give all adult women the right to vote in political elections.

This photo features some of the women who led the campaign to make this happen.

1822

Brazil in South America has celebrated its independence each year since 1822 on the Sete de Septembro – or the ‘Seventh of September’.

14

1962

The book Silent Spring by the marine biologist Rachel Carson was published on September 27th. It inspired people to take better care of the environment.

1838

On September 3rd, Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. The speeches he made and books he wrote about his experiences inspired many other black people in the United States in their struggle for freedom and equality.

2OO8

The Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland was built to accelerate tiny particles around a loop deep underground to conduct scientific experiments. It opened on September 1Oth.

about September…

1976

The Muppets are a cast of funny, furry characters created by puppeteer Jim Henson.

The first episode of their TV series The Muppet Show was aired in the US on September 5th.

Today, more than 4O years later, the Muppets are still popular.

This photo shows Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy starring in the The Muppets movie.

1846

Neptune was discovered by astronomers Urbain Le Verrier and John Couch Adams on September 23rd.

1998

Google, the technology company that helps people find what they’re looking for online, was officially founded in California, USA, on September 4th.

http://www.google.com/

15

SPACE

Can you throw a satellite into space?

Meet the SpinLaunch – the extraordinary new machine designed to hurl rockets and satellites straight up into space!

By Lisa Thomas

W

hat is the best way to launch a satellite into space? For the last 70 years, the answer has been the same: load the satellite onto a rocket and then blast the rocket up into space.

However, space rockets need to burn a lot of expensive and environmentally unfriendly fuel to generate enough power to break free from Earth’s gravity. To solve this problem, a new machine called the SpinLaunch is trying a different approach. It spins the rocket around at speeds of up to 5,000 mph, before releasing the rocket so it’s sent flying 30 miles up into the atmosphere.

A half-size version of the SpinLaunch is already being tested in New Mexico, USA. If it is successful, a full-size SpinLaunch is planning to hurl its first satellites into space in 2025. Read the panel opposite to find out how it works.

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Right: a test version of the SpinLaunch in New Mexico, USA.

HOW THE SPINLAUNCH WORKS… 1 Loading the SpinLaunch First, the satellite that is about to be hurled into space is placed inside a rocket which is then loaded into the SpinLaunch. The rocket (pictured below) is attached to the end of a long arm inside the SpinLaunch which is designed to spin round at very high speeds.

3

Releasing the rocket The spinning arm releases the rocket at exactly the right moment to hurl it out of the SpinLaunch and up into the sky. It will reach about 3O miles above Earth’s surface.

4 2

Spinning the rocket The long arm starts to spin the rocket round and round inside the SpinLaunch. The arm is designed to spin faster and faster until the rocket containing the satellite is travelling at a speed of 5,OOO miles per hour, which is more than five times faster than the speed of sound! The inside of the SpinLaunch is also a vacuum, which means that all the air has been taken out. The lack of air resistance enables the arm to spin even faster.

How the launchers compare in size London Eye Full-size SpinLaunch

Blasting into orbit Once it is high enough in the sky, the rocket splits open, releasing the satellite (pictured below). A small booster rocket on the satellite then fires to give it the final push it needs to reach its target orbit. Hurling a satellite into space using the SpinLaunch is designed to use 7O per cent less fuel than using a conventional rocket.

Test SpinLaunch

5O metres

135 metres

1OO metres

An artist’s illustration of what the full-size SpinLaunch will look like.

17

ANIMALS

Meet the greatest athletes of the animal kingdom and find out how they would measure up against the human world record-holders in each event.

(Clue: the animals would win gold every time!) Illustrations by Mark Long

E

very four years, the best human athletes from all around the world gather to compete in the Olympic Games. At the Games, a series of thrilling athletic competitions decides who are the best women and men at running, jumping, throwing, swimming and lots of other exciting events. But what would happen if animals were allowed to enter too? You can find out here, as we celebrate the animal kingdom’s most amazing athletes – showing in each event how the animals’ athletic feats compare to the best performance by a human.

SPRINTING CHEETAH 75 mph PRONGHORN ANTELOPE 55 mph SPRINGBOK 54 mph Fastest human sprinter: 27 mph 18

Did you know? A cheetah can accelerate from O to almost 6O miles per hour in three seconds, which is quicker than many sports cars!

Meanwhile snails, which are among the slowest animals on Earth, have been measured moving at a top speed of just 3 metres per hour.

FLYING PEREGRINE FALCON 2OO mph GOLDEN EAGLE 15O mph MEXICAN FREE-TAILED BAT 1OO mph Fastest human: humans can’t fly!

Did you know? Birds such as the peregrine falcon, which is the fastest-moving animal on Earth, achieve their highest speeds while diving down vertically towards their prey, thanks to the force of gravity.

It’s thought that the record for horizontal flying – in which an animal uses only its own

muscles to generate speed – is held by the Mexican free-tailed bat, which is also the world’s fastest mammal.

The slowest recorded flying speed by a bird is just 5 mph by the American woodcock, which is only slightly faster than an adult human’s average walking speed!

MARATHON

OSTRICH

Could run a marathon* in

53 minutes CAMEL

Could run a marathon in

1 hour and 3 minutes HORSE Could run a marathon in

2 hours and 3O minutes Fastest human: ran a marathon in 1 hour and 59 minutes

Did you know? Ostriches can run for an extended period of time at speeds of up to 3O mph. They sprint over short distances even faster – at speeds of up to 43 mph. *A marathon is a longdistance race run over 26.2 miles.

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HIGH JUMP

LONG JUMP FLEA

can jump 2OO times its own body length

TREE FROG can jump 65 times its own body length

BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN can jump 7.9 metres MOUNTAIN LION 5.5 metres IMPALA 3 metres Highest jump by a human: 2.45 metres Did you know? Another champion high jumper is the froghopper, an insect that can leap 71 cm into the air, which is more than 14O times its body length. This is equivalent to a human jumping over 21O metres into the air, which is more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty!

SWIMMING

BLACK MARLIN 8O mph SAILFISH 68 mph SWORDFISH 6O mph Fastest human swimmer: 4.8 mph Did you know? A black marlin can swim more than 15 times faster than the fastest human swimmers. Swimming at just O.OO1 miles per hour, the dwarf sea horse is the world’s slowest fish. It takes a dwarf sea horse two hours to swim just three metres!

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JUMPING SPIDER can jump 5O times its own body length

Longest jump by a human: 8.95 metres, which is roughly five times a human’s body length Did you know? If, like fleas, humans could jump 2OO times their body length, they would be able to leap the length of 33 buses in a single bound!

WEIGHTLIFTING RHINOCEROS BEETLE can lift 1OO times its own weight

LEAFCUTTER ANT can lift 8.78 times its own weight

MOUNTAIN GORILLA can lift 4 times its

own weight

GYMNASTICS Strongest human: can lift 2.5 times their own weight Did you know? A rhinoceros beetle can pick up and carry objects that are 1OO times its own body weight, which is roughly equivalent to a human being able to lift up an African elephant!

GIBBONS

are apes with arms that can be one and a half times longer than their legs! They travel through the rainforest by using their long arms to swing from branch to branch. Their gymnastic feats include leaping across 9-metre gaps between the trees!

BOXING THE MANTIS SHRIMP

is a marine animal related to lobsters and crabs that has the strongest punch in the animal kingdom relative to body size. If threatened, the mantis shrimp can extend its front legs at speeds of 23 metres per second, which is roughly as fast as a bullet. A punch from a mantis shrimp can shatter the shells of other animals – and, during an experiment, even managed to break thick glass!

UNDERWATER DIVING CUVIER’S BEAKED WHALE 2,992 metres below the surface

SOUTHERN ELEPHANT SEAL 2,OOO metres below the surface

EMPEROR PENGUIN 457 metres below the surface

Deepest underwater dive by a human: 13O metres Did you know? While diving underwater, emperor penguins can hold their breath for up to 3O minutes. Even more impressive is the southern elephant seal, which can hold its breath underwater for as long as two hours at a time!

21

INFOGRAPHIC

THE OLDEST LIVING THINGS ON EARTH! We celebrate some of the longest-living plants and animals on the planet, from 2OO-year-old giant tortoises to a type of underwater sponge that can live for more than 1O,OOO years!

Lifespan or Life Expectancy?

All living things have their own lifespan, which is the maximum length of time that members of a particular species can survive. The human lifespan is 122 years but, because of illness, accidents and several other factors, most people don’t live that long. The number that measures how long a person will probably actually live is called life expectancy.

Today, the global average for a human is around 72 years.

Jeanne Calment

122 years, 164 days This record-breaking woman from France is the longest-living person. She died in 1997.

Into the Woods Some trees can be more than 5,000 years old, which is older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

General Sherman

2,5OO years

Bristlecone pine tree

A giant sequoia tree growing in California named General Sherman is believed to be the largest living tree on Earth. It’s still growing!

These ancient trees grow high up in the Rocky Mountains of southwestern USA.

4,85O years

Oak tree

1,OOO years

Old Tjikko

9,5OO years

Many common trees, including oaks, maples and pines, have lifespans of hundreds or even thousands of years.

Age increases across the scale from left to right 22

EXCERPTED FROM EARTH IS BIG, WRITTEN BY STEVE TOMECEK AND ILLUSTRATED BY MARCOS FARINA

Found in Sweden, the roots of this Norway spruce tree are almost 1O,OOO years old.

Blue whale

11O years

A Whale of a Tale Whales are the largest creatures on Earth and also the longest-living mammals.

Humpback whale

Bowhead whale

1OO years

211 years Longest-living whale.

Fish

Greenland shark

The longest-living vertebrates (animals with backbones) are fish.

Longest-living vertebrate.

4OO years Orange roughy

15O years Deep-sea predator.

Raging Reptiles

Ancient Invertebrates

Tuatara

Reptiles are a group of vertebrates that include snakes, lizards, crocodiles, turtles and tortoises. They include the longest-living animals on land.

1OO years They might look like lizards, but tuataras are a rare reptile species only found today in New Zealand.

Freshwater crocodile

14O years

Invertebrates are animals that don’t have a skeleton inside their bodies. This includes animals such as insects, clams, crabs and corals. Some of them can live for thousands of years.

George the lobster

14O years

In the wild, most crocodiles live less than 7O years, but they can live much longer in captivity.

This old lobster was caught by fishermen off the coast of Canada in 2OO8.

Giant tortoise

2OO years These tortoises, which live on the Aldabra Islands in the Indian Ocean, are the longestliving animals on land.

Red sea urchin

2OO years These marine invertebrates are covered in a hard shell and sharp spines which protect them from hungry predators. They also use their spines to move around.

Shorter Lifespans Not all animals live so long.

Some have lifespans measured in weeks or even days.

Glass sponges

11,OOO years

Worker bee

6 weeks Robin

2 years

Housefly

4 weeks

Mayfly Less than

1 day

Glass sponges are filter-feeders that live in cold, deep water.

They grow very slowly and are believed to be the oldest-living creatures on Earth.

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THE BIG READ

Absolutely Everything!

Each month we feature an amazing story from world history taken from the bestselling book

by Christopher Lloyd, with illustrations by Andy Forshaw.

This month: the ancient Egyptians!

Focus the camera of a smartphone or tablet on this QR code to listen to an audio recording of the author reading this book extract.

I

magine you are a mighty ancient king and a genie pops out of a magic lamp.

‘You can have as many wishes as you want!’ says the spirit.

How would you respond?

Would you ask for all the money in the world? To be able to boss everyone around? Or how about some all-powerful magic ring that would make you live for ever?

History is full of stories about people who have wanted

power and riches. But the first rulers who believed they could have it all came from ancient Egypt.

These all-powerful rulers were called pharaohs. More than 150 of them reigned over ancient Egypt from about 3000 BCE to 30 BCE. That’s about 3,000 years!

The Egyptian people believed pharaohs were living gods and that when they died they joined all the other gods in heaven.

Above: an illustration of a mural found on the wall of the tomb of Ramesses II in Thebes.

These divine rulers took full advantage of their power.

They had some amazing palaces, temples and tombs built for them.

Have you heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world?

Only one of them still survives today. It’s called the Great Pyramid of Giza and it was built as a tomb for one of the earliest pharaohs, called Khufu, who died in 2566 BCE. This giant construction originally towered skywards 147 metres. That’s about as high as a 50-storey building. It is made of more than 2 million blocks of stone, each one weighing as much as a large family car. Experts are still puzzled at how these ancient people could have cut, transported and hauled into place so many huge stones.

They didn’t even have wheels.

And it was all to create a grave for one man-god.

The pharaohs may have believed they were gods, but their power depended on something quite natural – a giant river. The Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world.

It flows north from central Africa into Egypt.

Along the

YOU ARE HERE

1. NOTHING TO SOMETHING 13.8 billion– 45O million years ago

2. LAND AHOY! 47O mya– 252 mya

3. DINOSAURS 252 mya– 5 mya

4. HANDS FREE 5 mya–65,OOO years ago

5. YOU AND ME 2OO,OOO years ago–5OOO BCE

6.

CIVILISATION BEGINS

5OOO BCE–15OO BCE

7. MEANWHILE, IN ASIA 3OOO–2OO BCE

Alexandria

Great Pyramid of Giza

Cairo

Giza Sphinx

MEDITERRANEAN SEA

Rosetta

FAIYUM

DEAD SEA

SINAI

GULF OF SUEZ GULF OF AQABA

LOWER EGYPT SAHARA LE

NI R VE RI

Valley of the Kings

UPPER EGYPT

RED SEA Valley of the Queens Thebes

Valley of the Nobles

Archaeological sites Cities

8. RISE AND FALL 14OO BCE– 476 CE

9. MEANWHILE, IN THE AMERICAS 15OO BCE– 153O CE

1O. INVENTION CONNECTION 57O–1279 CE

11. MEDIEVAL MISERY 476–1526 CE

way, it picks up lots of came through Nubian traders. fresh, nutrient-rich Nubians were also famous mud, which it dumps on as brave warriors who were Egypt’s fields when it floods brilliant shots with a bow every year. Mud like this is and arrow. just the right stuff for growing Nubians came from a very an almost unlimited supply old civilisation. As early as of food. And plentiful food 5000 BCE, their ancestors had made Egypt rich and the constructed a ring of stones pharaohs powerful. that may have been the very Another natural feature first structure built to study helped the pharaohs hold on to the stars and planets. This that power. The little strip of astronomical observatory dates fertile land next to the Nile from 2,000 years before was surrounded by desert.

England’s famous ancient Today we know this huge dry stone circle, Stonehenge. area as the Sahara. This giant At times, the Egyptians desert protected Egypt from conquered parts of Nubia. At invaders. The other times, pharaohs members of the More than 7O metres long, didn’t need two countries’ the Great Sphinx (left) has fancy walls, ruling families the face of a human and towers or married. And the body of a lion. Notice castles to keep once Nubia – the pyramid of Khafre in their country at that time the background? It’s the safe. Invaders called Kush second largest of the could only – conquered ancient Egyptian pyramids approach in Egypt. Their of Giza and was built for one of three leaders became Pharoah Khafre, son of ways. They Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu, whose own could cross pharaohs for pyramid is nearby. hundreds of 200 years. miles of desert. Or they had to Egypt’s relationship with come by sea and wade through its southern neighbours was the boggy, reedy marshes of made easy (and sometimes the Nile where it flows into the dangerous) by another Mediterranean. Or they could accident of nature. The come down the Nile from winds in Egypt usually blow what is now Ethiopia and from north to south, the Sudan. The first two ways opposite direction from the were well protected by nature. flow of the river.

The third less so.

That means people could float Up the river lay Egypt’s most downstream in wooden boats. regular trading partners, the Then, when they wanted to Nubians, who were sometimes return home, all they had to friends and sometimes foes. do was raise a sail and let Egypt imported gold, ivory, the wind blow them back copper, incense and animals upstream. What could be from people living in the more convenient? tropical areas of central Africa. All of those goods Continued on next page 

12. GOING GLOBAL 1415–1621

13. REVOLUTIONS ALL AROUND 1543–19O5

14. WORLD AT WAR 1845–1945

15. TO BE CONTINUED...

1945–Present

THE BIG READ

Sarcophagus lid

Death mask

place to store all the things the pharaoh would need in the next life. And that included his or her body. A rotten body wouldn’t be of much use, though, even in a fancy tomb.

So, the Egyptians invented a way to preserve dead bodies by turning them into mummies. It was a complicated process that could take as long as 70 days.

Mummification wasn’t just for pharaohs. Anybody in ancient Egypt who could possibly afford it made absolutely sure they were mummified when they died.

Some people even had their pets mummified.

The expert who performed mummifications was a special priest called an embalmer.

First, the embalmer removed the stomach, intestines, lungs and liver from the body. He then dried them out and placed each in its own container called a canopic jar.

Usually, the embalmer removed the brain, too.

Herodotus, an ancient Greek writer who saw a mummification, wrote that to get the brain out of the skull, the embalmer punched a hole from inside the nose into the brain cavity. Then he pulled the brain out with a hook. For centuries people thought this was how it was done. But now

Mummy

Sarcophagus bottom  Continued from previous page

D

o you believe in life after death? How about your friends and family? If you ask them, I expect you will find some do and some don’t.

And among those who do, there are lots of different ways to believe in an afterlife. Some people believe in heaven and hell. Others believe in reincarnation. That’s the idea that your spirit comes back to Earth in another person or even as a different living creature.

In the days of ancient Egypt, everyone believed in life after death. And they believed they were going to need to pack some things to take with them when they went to the afterlife.

A pyramid showed off how rich and powerful a pharaoh was. But it also provided a safe

Above: a sarcophagus was a metal or stone container that housed a mummy to protect it from tomb robbers and animals.

Enslaved people

Giraffe 26

Nubian princess

Leaders of Kush, middle Nubia

it looks as if Herodotus didn’t understand what he was seeing. Two American researchers, Bob Brier and Ron Wade, did an experiment in 1994 that showed brains are too soft for a hook to work. So probably what happened was this: the embalmer stuck a stick through the hole in the back of the nose into the brain

Hekanefer, a prince from northern Nubia

Bag of gold dust

Rings

Furniture

Above: the tomb of Pharoah Tutankhamun, who died at the age of 19.

His tomb was rediscovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.

Pharaoh

Huy, Egyptian governor of Nubia, shown three times

and gave it a good stir. Brains are very soft, sort of like yogurt. When the embalmer stirred hard, the brain turned to liquid and oozed out through the nostrils.

The heart was the only organ the embalmer left in the body.

The ancient Egyptians believed that it was the seat of the soul, where people did their

In the mid-192Os, before the invention of colour photography, museum artist Charles Wilkinson copied paintings on the walls of the tomb of Huy, the Egyptian governor of Nubia during the time of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (1336–1327 BCE). We are lucky he did because many of the originals have been damaged or destroyed since. This painting shows Nubian leaders bringing gifts such as gold and exotic animals for King Tut. Nubia was very ethnically diverse, as you can see from the wide range of skin colours shown here.

thinking and feeling. They thought that in the next life the gods would weigh it to judge if the person had lived a good or bad life on Earth.

Once the organs were removed, the embalmer packed the corpse with a special salt called natron to dry it out.

When it was dry, he stuffed the corpse with linen and sawdust, added fake eyes, and wrapped it in strips of cloth.

The finished mummy was packed inside a coffin called a sarcophagus and placed in a tomb.

In the case of a pharaoh, that tomb might be a pyramid.

All around the body was everything that the dead pharaoh could possibly need in the afterlife. Archaeologists have found food, drink, crowns, weapons, clothes, books, pictures and even games and toys in tombs. The tombs of important people contained teams of servants. Luckily

these weren’t real people. They were wooden or stone dolls, called shabti. Their purpose was to come to the dead souls of their masters or mistresses whenever they needed help.

Experts know a lot of this because the ancient Egyptians had writing. They used a system called hieroglyphics.

They might have got the idea of writing from the Sumerians, but nobody knows. In any case, they wrote down their burial rituals in The Book of the Dead. This collection of texts also includes magic spells, which were written and illustrated on scrolls and placed in tombs.

I

n about 2040 BCE, the capital of Egypt was moved south to a city called Thebes.

Here the burials continued.

But there was one important difference. Pharaohs no longer built grand pyramids for all to see. Instead their tombs were

carved into rock underground.

They showed off above ground by building temples.

Hundreds of underground tombs have been discovered in the Valleys of the Kings, Queens and Nobles, near Thebes. Remarkably, some have survived almost completely intact.

The most famous tomb of all is probably that of the boy-king Tutankhamun, which was rediscovered in 1922. King Tut had become pharaoh when he was only nine and died when he was 19. A huge hoard of treasure was packed inside the chamber. The most famous object of all was the boy-king’s funeral mask (pictured below), which was made out of solid gold. It was placed on Tut’s face underneath three layers of gold coffins inside a stone sarcophagus.

In the end, even the natural defences surrounding ancient Egypt weren’t enough to save it. The last true pharaoh, Cleopatra VII Philopator, is usually known simply as Cleopatra. She ruled Egypt mostly by herself even though she was supposed to be co-pharaoh with her younger brother Ptolemy. When her army was defeated by the Romans, she killed herself rather than surrender. The story is that she took her own life by letting a poisonous snake bite her. But probably she committed suicide some other way, though some think she was murdered. No one knows for sure.

Once Cleopatra was gone, ancient Egypt lost its independence and became a province of another great civilisation: the Roman Empire.

Hooked?

Then look out for the next instalment in our October Issue!

27

NICA

AN

MY AMAZING INVENTION!

THE INVENTION OF THE CENTURY

3A

GE GR

WINNER

P

1O -

1

Earlier this year, we hosted a special short story competition with our friends at the Chiddingstone Castle Literary Festival. The topic was ‘My Amazing Invention’ and we are delighted to present the two winning entries! You can start reading their stories here, then follow the links to our website to find out what happens next…

OU

SEND IT IN!

M Y B RI T

eye was that a flying car had been invented. The page was saying how the car could turn into an airplane in 2.32 minutes! Lila was astonished. ln a few minutes, Lila, Lilah, Lilly and Lilian were all walking to school. Lila excitedly conversed the headlines to her sisters and they began to squeal excitedly, saying how they should invent something like that too…

By Nadesh Zahra

Leybourne Ss Peter & Paul CEP Academy

T

he doorbell had rung.

Lila, who was sitting at the table eating her breakfast, rushed to the door to get her newspaper. She opened it eagerly before reading the headlines. The newspaper had a debate about whether cats were nocturnal or diurnal, but the article that caught Lila’s

To keep reading Nadesh’s story, go to Britannicamagazine.co.uk/ short-story

7-9

WINNER

UP

MY AMAZING INVENTION

E GR

O

AG

work and meet their friends.

I have made an artificial human body with similar properties to a real human body so it attracts viruses and germs. Inside this body I have placed an unbreakable Virus-Trap Cylinder. Then, I have placed the body inside a rainbow-coloured bubble that never pops. My no-nonsense robot, Mock-the-Virus-2022, and Elixir Spray complete my invention…

By Sofia Petersen

Dragon School, Oxford

M

y invention is revolutionary. It will rid our world of diseases that have haunted humanity since the beginning of time.

The word ‘pandemic’ will no longer be in our vocabulary.

Children all over the world will play with their friends and see their grandparents and teachers (and no, I don’t mean on Zoom!). Parents will go to

Sofia with children’s author Michael Morpurgo!

To keep reading about Sofia’s amazing invention, go to Britannicamagazine.co.uk/ short-story

Visit: chiddingstonecastle.org.uk/literary-festival-schools

28

Ask the experts

Readers ask. Experts answer. Send your questions to: experts@britannicamagazine.com

DR NATHAN SMITH

Palaeontologist

Question: When were the first dinosaurs alive?

From Robert, age 8

Answer Dinosaurs first emerged in the Late Triassic period, which began 237 million years ago. Fossils of the earliest dinosaurs to be discovered so far were found in the Ischigualasto Formation in northwestern Argentina in South America.

Some of these fossils have been dated to around

230 million years ago.

Dinosaur fossils are relatively rare at this palaeontological site, but around half a dozen dinosaur species have been described and named. They include prehistoric animals such as Herrerasaurus (see the artist’s illustration, above)

Answer

DR LAURA KALIN Linguist

Question: How many different languages are spoken around the world?

From Louisa, age 13

and Eoraptor.

We know of lots of animals closely related to dinosaurs that were alive earlier in the Triassic period, so it is very likely that even earlier dinosaurs will be discovered by future palaeontologists.

It’s actually pretty hard to count languages, but it is estimated that there are around 7,000 living languages in the world today.

A living language is a language that is currently spoken by people who grew up learning and using the language.

DID YOU KNOW? Some languages Around 12 per cent equally complex are spoken with of the world’s and capable of your voice, languages are spoken full expression. while others in Papua New Guinea And all living are signed in southeast languages are with your hands Asia. constantly and body. All changing because languages are

HERRERASAURUS Reached a length of about 3 METRES Weighed about 18O KG

TOP 5 COUNTRIES WHERE THE MOST LANGUAGES ARE USED 1.

Papua New Guinea 84O 2.

Indonesia 715 3.

Nigeria 527 4.

India 456 5.

United States 337 every time a child learns a language, they change it a little bit. That’s why the English we speak today is not quite the same as the English used by the playright and poet William Shakespeare a few hundred years ago.

Lots of languages that are very

different today developed from the same root language. Most European languages and many of the languages of South Asia and Iran in the Middle East developed from a single root language that linguists call Proto-IndoEuropean.

29

QUIZ

SHOW WHAT YOU KNOW (If you read the whole magazine, these should be a breeze!)

1

According to some experts, a play written

by William Shakespeare has been missing since 1603.

What is the play’s name? a. Love’s Labour’s Won b. Much Ado About Nothing c. Hamlet d. Matilda

2

Kermit has been one of the puppet stars of The Muppets for more than 40 years. What kind of animal is he? a. A chicken b. A frog c. A pig d. A cow

BIG Britan The

Stretch your brain power with our tricky quiz. The first 2O questions are answered in the magazine, but the final five aren’t.

Don’t worry if you don’t know them all.

Just check out the answers bottom right and test your grown-ups, too!

3

The oldest-living creatures on Earth are thought to be… a. Giant tortoises b. Blue whales c. Crocodiles d. Glass sponges

4

7

7

A didgeridoo is a type of… a. Hat b. Insect c. Musical instrument d. Motorcycle

Carrots haven’t always been orange. What colours were the first carrots eaten by people? a. Blue and pink b. Purple and yellow c. Silver and gold d. Red and green

8

What colour is the planet Neptune? a. Blue b. Yellow c. Red d. Orange

5

9

6

1O

The world’s largest species of water lily was recently discovered at Kew Gardens in the UK. Who is the new water lily named after? a. Queen Victoria b. Ariana Grande c. Lily James d. Queen Elizabeth II Mayflies often live for as short a period of time as… a. 1 month b. 1 week c. 1 day d. 1 hour

30

11

Which was the first country to grant all adult women the right to vote in elections? a. India b. UK c. New Zealand d. United States

Who was the last pharaoh, or ruler, of ancient Egypt? a. Tutankhamun b. Cleopatra c. Ramesses II d. Khufu

24

11

How long can emperor penguin hold its breath for underwater? a. 3 minutes b. 13 minutes c. 23 minutes d. 30 minutes

12

Approximately how high could the average human jump while standing on the Moon? a. 1 metre b. 3 metres c. 5 metres d. 10 metres

13

In which country are the largest number of languages spoken? a. Papua New Guinea b. United States c. Indonesia d. China

BONUS ROUND

21

(Now challenge yourself with questions NOT answered in the magazine!)

21 14

In which year was the Great Fire of London? a. 1606 b. 1666 c. 1676 d. 1966

15

Which animal can jump the longest distance relative to the size of its body? a. A grasshopper b. A jumping spider c. A flea d. A jumping frog

16

British explorers George Mallory and Andrew Irvine died in 1924 while attempting to… a. Cross the Sahara b. Reach the South Pole c. Sail around the world d. Climb Mount Everest

17

What did the famous American baseball player Babe Ruth sometimes put underneath his cap to stay cool while playing?

In which country would you find Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock? a. Australia b. South Africa c. Argentina d. Scotland

22

What is the heaviest organ in the human body? a. The heart b. The brain c. The skin d. The liver

23

Which city has the largest number of people living in it?

nnica Quiz a. Cabbage leaves b. Wet flannels c. Ice cubes d. Ice cream

a. London b. Beijing c. Tokyo d. Delhi

18

24

19

Acording to legend, how did the pirate Blackbeard scare his enemies? a. By shouting at them b. By singing at them c. By lighting fuses under his hat d. By making them walk the plank

2O

How old was Jeanne Calment, the longestliving human on record, when she died in 1997? a. 102 b. 112 c. 120 d. 122

The England women’s football team, who recently became European Champions for the first time, are also known as… a. The Springboks b. The Bluebirds c. The Leopards d. The Lionesses

25

Which is the world’s largest ocean? a. Arctic Ocean b. Pacific Ocean c. Atlantic Ocean d. Southern Ocean

Answers: 1. a, 2. b, 3. d, 4. c, 5. a, 6. c, 7. b, 8. a, 9. c, 10. b, 11. d, 12. b, 13. a, 14. b, 15. c, 16. d, 17. a, 18. b, 19. c, 20. d, 21. a, 22. c, 23. c, 24. d, 25. b.

In which year was the search engine Google created? a. 1988 b. 1998 c. 2008 d. 2018

31

Stumped? Don’t worry, you can find the answers to all the puzzles on page 34.

MUSIC WORD SEARCH Can you spot the 26 musical instruments hiding somewhere in our jumbo word search puzzle? Good luck!

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WORD WHEEL Use the word wheel to help find the answers to the five clues below. All the answers contain the middle letter, and each letter can only be used once.

Clue: an optical instrument that makes distant objects appear nearer (9 letters).

Answer: Clue: a spire on the top of a church tower (7 letters).

Answer: Clue: to choose carefully (6 letters).

Answer: Clue: a hard, strong metal (5 letters).

Answer: Clue: a person who writes poems (4 letters).

Answer: 32

E C

P L T E S O E

ACCORDION BANJO CLARINET DIDGERIDOO ELECTRIC GUITAR FLUTE GONG HARMONICA IPU* JINGLE BELLS KAZOO LUTE MARACAS NOSE FLUTE OBOE PIANO QIN** RECORDER SITAR TRUMPET UKULELE VIOLIN WHISTLE XYLOPHONE YUKA DRUM ZITHER*** *An ipu is a Hawaiian drum. **A qin is a Chinese stringed instrument. ***A zither is a stringed instrument popular in Central Europe.

WORD MORPHS Change the word LOT to BEE in 3 moves by changing one letter at a time. Each new word you create by changing a letter must be a proper word. Then try changing JOKE to PAST in 4 moves. And CLIP to PRAY in 4 moves.

LOT ——— ——— BEE

JOKE ———— ———— ———— PAST

CLIP ———— ———— ———— PRAY

NUMBER TRIANGLES! In the triangles below, the numbers inside the squares are the sum of the two numbers in the connected circles. For example:

1

3

2

Can you work out which number should appear in each of the circles? All the numbers in the circles are between 1 and 9 and a number can only be used once in each triangle.

A

11

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

6 9

Can you spot all 2O differences between these two zany illustrations?

B

9

5 12

C

5

7 6

SPACE-DOKU! Fill all the empty squares so that every row, column and 3x2 box contains a picture of a rocket, an asteroid, a space station, a crescent moon, a satellite and a space shuttle.

CONNECT THE PLANETS Draw a line to connect each pair of planets. You can’t use diagonal lines and the lines can’t cross or touch each other. You must fill the whole grid with lines but only one line is allowed in each square.

33

BRITANNICA MAGAZINE

Published by What on Earth Magazines Ltd, The Black Barn, Wickhurst Farm, Leigh, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 8PS Editor Andrew Pettie Art & Design Director Mark Hickling Designer Susanna Hickling Picture Editor Tamara Church Production Sarah Epton Contributors Mark Long (including cover), Kate Hale, Andy Smith, Andy Forshaw, Christopher Lloyd, Andrés Lozano, Steve Tomecek, Marcos Farina, May, Paige Towler, Lisa Thomas, Dr Nathan Smith, Dr Laura Kalin With thanks to Andy Forshaw, Natalie Bellos, Casey Neumann, Katy Lennon, Meg Osborne, Daisy Symes, Helen Thewlis, Helen Jones and the whole team at What on Earth Publishing Editorial Consultant Nancy Feresten Business Development David Falzani CEO, What on Earth Magazines Christopher Lloyd For Encyclopaedia Britannica Alison Eldridge, Managing Editor Printing and distribution Warners Midlands PLC, The Maltings, Manor Lane, Bourne, Lincolnshire, PE1O 9PH Digital Marketing Jamie French Editorial enquiries editor@britannicamagazine.com Subscriptions O1778 392479 britannicamagazine.co.uk Picture credits Alamy: 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, 2O, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 3O, 31. Alamy/Film Stills: 14. Getty Images: 8, 1O, 12, 13, 21, 3O. Shutterstock: 11, 29, 3O. NASA: 6, 15.

Nature Picture Library: 19, 2O, 21. Rinspeed/sQuba: 8.

SpinLaunch: 16, 17. Carlos Magdalena/Royal Botanical Gardens Kew: 11. Corrado de Pascali/Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa: 1O. AKG Images: 14.

Copyright 2O22 What on Earth Magazines Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Give a FREE COPY of Britannica Magazine to your best friend!

Puzzle Answers Music Word Search L R V V S W N N O S E F L U T E S O U F

N Y E Q L H F L J O O G N R V J I R K L

A U A C J D D P O I Z C A I A D T L U U

A K C P O N N Z N O G T O D F A A O L T

J A I N L R A P A H I L J I A B R U E E

I D N Y X K D C P U I H U D C Z W C L C

S R O N G S J E G N U E S G C Q L K E J

A U M L T Y N C R G O N G E O Y H T P U

C M R O W C I J E N S K N R R V A X E J

A R A K J R C U N T P G E I D H V P I K

Space-Doku!

R J H V T T K T O M E Q A D I K Z N U S

A P P C E L K V H W X N V O O T G Q X L

M S E W T R U M P E T D I O N L K J Q A

X L G H G V R Q O J N X V R E T I B M N

E X N I F E U X L L U T E B A R Z A G Z

L O L S H M A X Y E B J E O C L X N Y A

G F Z T B Z A N X X B L A W J R C J G S

B P I L Z N Q E G R L V M Z C E O O M B

Q Z M E H I P U J S N I Q Q I K A I L I

P I A N O J O J L H N H I B O B O E F V

Number Triangles A 4 11 9

B

1 9

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5 12

C

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3 5

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7 6

4

Connect the Planets Word Morphs 1. LOT, LET, BET, BEE 2. JOKE, POKE, POSE, POST, PAST 3. CLIP, CLAP, CLAY, PLAY, PRAY

Word Wheel 1. Telescope 2. Steeple 3. Select 4. Steel 5. Poet Spot the Difference

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We hope you are enjoying the Animal Games and the other fun-filled articles in our September Issue! If you are, here is the perfect way to share your love of Britannica Magazine with your best friend or a member of your family.

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Tickle your ribs and tease your brain with our favourite gags and riddles, chosen with help from our friends at ComedyClub4Kids.co.uk!

Q What’s the best thing about going to a mobile phone’s wedding?

A The reception!

Q When do ducks wake up?

A At the quack of dawn!

Q Why should you never argue with a decimal number?

A Because they always have a point!

Q You throw me away when you need me and bring me back when I’m no longer needed. What am I? A An anchor!

Q Which invention allows you to look straight through a brick wall?

A A window!

Q Why was the broom late for school?

A It over-swept!

What is a horse’s favourite ball game?

Stable tennis!

Because they’re shell-fish!

Q What does everyone in the world always get on their birthday?

A A year older!

Q What is a frog’s favourite fizzy drink?

A Diet Croak!

Q What kind of coat is always wet when you put it on?

A A coat of paint!

Q Where in the alphabet should you search for the Little Mermaid?

A Under the ‘c’!

Why do golfers wear two pairs of trousers?

In case they get a hole in one!

Q Say my name and I disappear. What am I? A Silence!

Q Why did the blackbird go into the library?

A It was looking for bookworms!

Q What’s big and grey and protects you from rain?

A An umbrella-phant!

Q What type of bee can’t make up its mind?

A A may-bee!

Q What has a forest but no trees, cities but no people and rivers but no water?

A A map!

Q What’s a Viking’s favourite board game?

A Connect Thor!

? ??

ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANDY FORSHAW

k es J&oriddles

Why don’t crabs share their food?

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