Who gave Earth its name and what is a blood moon? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Luca, 9, asks: who gave Earth its name?

   1. The ancient Romans

   2. The ancient Greeks

   3. The Anglo-Saxons

   4. The ancient Egyptians

2. Kurt, 10, asks: what is a blood moon?

   1. A blood moon is when the moon seems to glow red because of infrared radiation coming from its core

   2. When light from a nearby red supergiant star reflects off the moon and makes it look red

   3. When the moon is hidden from the sun by the Earth in a lunar eclipse, it will appear red

   4. The moon occasionally bleeds red liquid from its core – scientists aren’t sure what causes it

3. Aurelia, 6, asks: what do baby bees eat?

   1. Pollen

   2. Milk

   3. Royal jelly

   4. Other larvae

4. Aidan, 11, asks: if you lined up all the pieces of DNA in the human body, how long would the line be?

   1. 6 billion metres

   2. 60 trillion metres

   3. 160 metres

   4. 160,000 metres

5. Oscar, 5, asks: how fast do continents move?

   1. 1.5 centimetres a year

   2. 1.5 metres a year

   3. 1.5 millimetres a year – it’s impossible for them to move very much

   4. 1.5 kilometres a year – maps have to be redrawn all the time

Solutions

1:C - Earth’s name is from the Anglo-Saxon words “erda” and “eorthe”, meaning the ground below us., 2:C - A blood moon is another name for a lunar eclipse, the rare occasions when the sun, Earth and moon are all lined up. This means any light reaching the moon has to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere. Blue light is scattered more easily by dust in the atmosphere, so most of the light reaching the moon is at the red end of the spectrum, giving it a red glow. “Blood moon” is also used when the moon appears red from dust in the sky., 3:C - After they’ve hatched, bee larvae are fed royal jelly for a few days, a milky mix of proteins, sugars, vitamins and minerals made by worker bees. Queen bees live on the jelly their whole lives., 4:B - Each cell contains about two metres of DNA, but if we lined it all up there would be about 60 trillion metres, or 60 billion kilometres., 5:A - The US National Ocean Service estimates that Earth’s land masses move towards and away from each other at an average speed of 1.5 centimetres a year. Your toenails grow at about the same speed!

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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