One Plus One Equals One Sometimes Quiz

Answer: Moonlight

Moonlight is the light shed upon the earth from our moon. Its illuminating power depends greatly upon the stage of the moon each month - whether the moon is full or half, and so on. Evidence suggests that the moon was formed when a huge asteroid crashed into the earth five and a half billion years ago.

Answer: Baseball

Baseball is a sport that is going to be forever associated with the United States, because the game, as we know it, originated there. It is thought, though, that baseball grew out of an English sport known as Rounders, which has a vaguely similar format.

The first recorded game of baseball was played in Canada. That took place in 1838. A couple of years later, in 1845, the rules of the game were formalised in a club in New York City. Those rules were known then as Knickerbocker Rules. One of the top playing baseball teams today is called the New York Knickerbockers but this is usually shortened to the New York Knicks.

Answer: Fireworks

China invented the earliest fireworks known in history (they also invented the first gunpowder) and they used them to celebrate various events. There was an earlier tradition in that country to throw bamboo sticks into a fire. They went off with a bang shortly afterwards. And who could resist a nice big bang? Over the years that followed, the Chinese came up with the ingredients that produced the same big bang when lit, instead of using bamboo.

These ingredients were packed into containers a little like the wrappings you see around firecrackers today.

Answer: Railroad

Railroads transport people and goods in carriages along steel tracks. Forms of this type of transport were in use as far back as 600 BC in Ancient Greece. In those days, the carts were pulled by people or animals along limestone tracks. Centuries later, around the year 1500, railroad lines made from wood were used, but the carts were still powered by people or animals. They didn't run along in front of the carts though, but powered them by running on a treadmill that connected to the wheels of the vehicles.

Iron rails were invented in the 1760s, but these were replaced by wrought iron rails because the original iron ones tended to break if the load they carried was too heavy. Wrought iron was eventually replaced by very strong steel rails. Finally, locomotives, powered by the force of steam, were invented at the beginning of the 1800s. This power was capable of driving carriages filled with people or goods along on its own. It was a wonderful step forward.

Answer: Butterflies

Butterflies are lovely creatures from the Lepidoptera order of insects. They have been around on our earth for at least 56 million years, and go through four stages of development before they reach adulthood - egg, larva, pupa and finally adult. Their primary source of food is nectar from flowers, but other sources of food can be included in their diet as well.

A butterfly fluttering about a garden is a beautiful sight.

Answer: Earthquake

An earthquake occurs on our planet when the tectonic plates on which our continents rest grate by one another, or one slides under, or over, another. When that happens, the continents shake visibly, either drastically or only with slight tremors. It's frightening when this happens, because everything around us momentarily moves, things fall off shelves, and roads sometimes buckle. An example of a severe earthquake took place in San Francisco in 1906. Buildings toppled down everywhere, fires broke out all over the city and 3,000 people were killed.

Answer: Backbone

Another name for our spine is a backbone - the bony structure that runs down the centre of our back. There are 50,000 different species of animals in the world that have backbones. Humans are one of these species. A human's backbone has thirty three little bones, called vertebrae, branching off on either side of the centre column, so our backbones could almost be described as looking like small ladders.

Answer: Grandmother

Most children have four grandparents - two grannies and two pops. These are the parents of your own mother and father. If you keep tracing them backwards through hundreds of years, you'd find you have piles of great-great-great relatives on both sides of your family. One day when you're an adult, you may like to see how many of these you could find through history on your very own family tree chart.

Answer: Sunflower

Sunflowers are big gaudy yellow plants that belong to the daisy family of plants. Amazingly, there are 70 different kinds of this flower. This includes, of all things, the Jerusalem artichoke. Most people look on artichokes as tuber vegetables, but it's the flower on the growing tuber that looks similar to a sunflower.

Sunflowers originated in Mexico and the southern United States. They're not really a pretty looking plant growing wild, but they're interesting because the young plants keep turning to face the sun all day long until they're fully grown. Humans have made use of this plant in a number of different ways. The leaves are used to feed cattle, a yellow dye is extracted from its flower, and the large seeds it produces are used to make a healthy cooking oil. Birds absolutely love their seeds as well.

Answer: Schoolyard

You know all about schoolyards (or playgrounds), don't you - fun filled areas for kids to relax and play games in during school lunch and recess breaks.

Schoolyards, particularly those in Australia, need to have lots of shady trees and other shade areas because it gets so hot in our summer, but some school yards overseas have hardly any yard to play in at all. Just patches of cement. That's a bit sad. But the best thing of all about schoolyards is that you get time out just to talk and play with your friends.