Why did Socrates take poison? Socrates was the teacher of Plato and left no writings of his own. We know of him only through the writings of others, principally Plato. Socrates did not claim to possess great  knowledge but questioned the opinions of others, showing them often to be without any logical basis. In this way, he hoped to arrive at true knowledge. He believed that goodness comes from wisdom and...

What were Plato’s dialogues?   Plato, who lived in Athens from about 427 BC to 347 BC, was one of the most famous philosophers of ancient Greece. Like many philosophers, he presented his arguments in the form of dialogues or conversations between people presenting first one viewpoint, then another. The reader is led towards certain conclusions through a set of reasons, but the dialogues allow objections to the conclusions to be...

Captain James Cook  James Cook was born in Yorkshire in 1728. As a boy he was apprenticed to a ship-owner and spent several years in the coastal shipping trade. In 1755 he was offered the command of a ship of his own, but preferred to join the Royal Navy as an able seaman. He showed such great abilities that he received rapid promotion. His skilful surveys of the Saint Lawrence River...

How do some birds find food in winter? You have seen how many animals are specially adapted to suit the environments in which they live. Because the majority of birds can fly, however, they can travel from one area to another to take advantage of the seasons’ times of plenty. In fact, whole populations of some birds migrate north and south with the changing seasons. Birds that eat insects, for example,...

How do animals adapt to suit the weather? Unlike man most animals are unable to survive the extremes of climate around the world. They cannot build house to protect them from the heat or cold. The They cannot build fires to keep themselves warm in winter or make use of refrigerators to cool their food when the weather is hot. This is why certain animals are found in quite restricted areas...

How does the weather affect the shapes of our houses?   As you may know, the weather is not the same all over the world. If you live in Britain and visit say, Spain, for your holidays you will know that Spain is generally warmer and drier than Britain. Some parts of the world are so hot and have so little rain that they are called deserts where there may only...

How did man reach the moon?   In 1969 an American, Neil Armstrong, became the first man to set foot on the moon. Getting him there had taken years of work by thousands of people and many millions of dollars. The way the flight was made is shown in the picture. The launching rocket had three ‘stages’. When each stage had used up its fuel it dropped away to lighten the...

How does a rocket defy the force of gravity?   If you jump up as hard as you can you still fall down again very quickly. This is because of the pull of the earth’s gravity. If we want to `jump’ into space we need to push away from the earth so hard that gravity cannot pull us back. To do this we use rockets. A rocket works by shooting hot...