What is fire made of and how do you know how old a tree is? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Douglas, 5, asks: what is fire made of?

   1. It’s made of light and magic

   2. It’s made of heat, light, carbon dioxide and water vapour

   3. It’s made of sunlight that’s released from wood or coal

   4. It’s made from oxygen and sparkles

2. Eleanor, 6, asks: how do you know how old a tree is?

   1. By counting the wrinkles on the bark

   2. By looking inside it and counting its rings

   3. By measuring the lengths of its branches

   4. By seeing how tall it is

3. Sam, 11, asks: what is the fastest speed anyone has ever pitched a baseball at?

   1. 105.8 miles per hour

   2. 102.3 miles per hour

   3. 80.7 miles per hour

   4. 78.4 miles per hour

4. Esther, 7, asks: how many cells does the human body have?

   1. 254 million cells

   2. 75.7 billion cells

   3. 37.2 trillion cells

   4. 3.4 quadrillion cells

5. Alex, 8, asks: why do windows sometimes have diamond shapes inside them?

   1. It’s a tradition that started centuries ago

   2. Because you can see fun shapes through them

   3. It means that the window is made out of diamonds

   4. It was a way to indicate that you were engaged in the olden days

Solutions

1:B - Fire occurs when a chemical reaction called combustion takes place. This happens when fuel (such as wood, paper, ethanol or gas) is heated up to such an extent that it ignites. The reaction produces heat and light and mostly carbon dioxide and water vapour, which is the fire we see., 2:B - If you cut a tree down and slice into its trunk, you will notice it has rings inside. Each ring represents a year of the tree’s life; they’re darker or lighter coloured depending on the weather, soil, temperature and other conditions the tree was experiencing at the time. This method of dating a tree is called dendrochronology., 3:A - The fastest anyone has ever pitched a baseball was 105.8 miles per hour! It was thrown by Aroldis Chapman on 24 September 2010, in San Diego, California., 4:C - Scientists estimate that there are about 37.2 trillion cells in our bodies., 5:A - Lattice windows are little panes set in criss-crossing strips of wood or metal. They have been around for centuries, maybe because in the past it was hard to make big windows and easier to put lots of little ones together!

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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