Why do your fingers go wrinkly in the bath? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Leo, 6, and Rosa, 4, ask: why do your fingers go wrinkly in the bath?

   1. Your skin starts to age super quickly in the bath

   2. We evolved wrinkled fingers to help us pick things up with wet hands

   3. The wrinkles are a sign your fingers are relaxed

   4. The wrinkles help you to float in the bath

2. Nora, 7, asks: how warm is America in the summertime?

   1. Totally boiling!

   2. It depends where you are

   3. Absolutely freezing

   4. The same as in England

3. Matilda, 8, asks: who invented pavements?

   1. Mr P Avement of Aberdeen

   2. The Romans

   3. They were invented in Ancient India

   4. They are a product of human invention over time

4. Mae, 6, asks: why do men have beards and women don’t?

   1. Men usually have more beard-growing hormones

   2. Men have more blood in their faces to feed the hair

   3. Men only grow beards when they eat a lot of chocolate

   4. Men are less confident about their chins, so have beards to hide them

5. Rocco, 8, asks: when was the internet invented?

   1. The first message was sent between two computers in 1969

   2. The internet has been around since the start of time, we just didn’t notice

   3. Aliens invented it

   4. A man named Steve Jobs invented it

Solutions

1:B - Wrinkled fingers could have helped our ancestors pick up food from rivers and streams. Wrinkled toes could have helped us grip better walking barefoot., 2:B - The climate depends on where you are. Temperatures in Texas, Florida and Louisiana reach 32-35C or hotter. In parts of Alaska, the summer temperature is about 19C. , 3:D - Ancient Romans made some of the earliest roads but paved roads have been made all over the world through history, so there wasn’t one inventor., 4:A - Men and women can grow beards in theory, but men mostly have more of the hormones that trigger hair follicles (the little holes) on their jaws to make hair. These hormones are testosterone and dihydrotestosterone (DHT)., 5:A - The internet evolved over decades, but a key date was when the first message was sent – on 29 October 1969, funded by the US Department of Defense. Many people contributed to make it into the internet we use today. One of these is Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web in 1989 – the system that allows information sharing.

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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