How tall is the tallest tree and how cold is Pluto? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Persephone, 8, asks: how tall is the tallest tree in the world?

   1. 37 metres

   2. 403 metres

   3. 116.07 metres

   4. 201 metres

2. Florence, 7, asks: which was the first animal in the Tower of London (that could have been in a zoo)?

   1. An African elephant

   2. A polar bear

   3. A lion

   4. A zebra

3. Zoe, 7, asks: which animal had eight hearts?

   1. Giant octopus

   2. Prehistoric cockroach

   3. Barosaurus

   4. Hagfish

4. Nora, 7, asks: how cold is Pluto?

   1. Around zero degrees celsius

   2. It can get as cold as -20 degrees celsius

   3. Around -232 degrees celsius

   4. It’s too cold to measure in celsius!

5. Emily, 8, asks: how many active volcanoes are there in the world?

   1. There are probably 20 volcanoes erupting right now, as you read these words

   2. There are more than 485 active volcanoes right now

   3. There are 75 active volcanoes right now

   4. There are 1,343 active volcanoes right now

Solutions

1:C - The world’s tallest tree is Hyperion, at 116.07 metres. It is a coast redwood tree and it grows in California., 2:C - The first animals kept in the Tower of London were three lions, given as a gift to Henry III in 1235 by the Holy Roman Emperor. The king decided to start a zoo there; soon after came a polar bear, then in 1255 an elephant., 3:C - Scientists think a huge, 15 metre tall dinosaur called barosaurus had eight hearts, so that it could pump blood all the way up its really long neck to its brain. They think the main heart pumped blood up to the next heart, then the next and so on., 4:C - Pluto is a lot farther from the sun than we are, here on Earth. It’s VERY cold there. But, just like on Earth, the temperature changes depending on the seasons. The average temperature there is -232 degrees celsius., 5:A - … or C: it depends on what you call active. If you mean erupting right now, there are probably 20 doing so as you read these words, but 75 erupted around the world last year, so these can be considered “active”, and 1,343 volcanoes are thought to have been active in the recorded history of the world.

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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