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...

When was the first aeroplane flown? Wilbur and Orville Wright of the USA made the first successful powered flight in 1903. They flew a two-winged ‘biplane with a petrol engine weighing 90 kg (200 lb) that they had built themselves. The first flight lasted twelve seconds and covered 36.5 m (12o ft). Aeroplanes developed quickly. In 1909 Louis Bleriot of France flew across the English Channel. The next year an American,...

How can heavier than air machines fly? For an aeroplane to fly two things were needed: specially shaped wings to give ‘lift’ when they rushed forwards through the air ; and a good enough propeller-engine to drive the plane forward. The wing shape is called an ‘aerofoil’. It is curved so that the air rushes over the top very quickly. This causes the wing to lift. The first heavy machine to...

Must man grow wings in order to fly? There were two ways man might be able to fly. One was to copy the way birds fly. That is he could use a machine which was heavier than air with some kind of wings. However, the heaviest bird is only about 16 kg (35 lb and we weigh much more. The other way was to make a machine lighter than air so...