Why do so few people have red hair, and why do we fart? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Hebe, 9, asks: why do only a small number of people have red hair, while most people have brown, black or blond hair?

   1. Red hair makes you stand out to predators

   2. Because both parents need to carry the gene for a child to have the chance of having red hair

   3. Because lots of people with red hair dye it to be brown or black or blond

   4. Because you can only have it if your maternal grandmother had red hair

2. Romilly, 10, asks: why do people fart?

   1. Because they need to go to the loo

   2. Because it makes people laugh

   3. To get rid of gases that build up from digestion and swallowing air

   4. To scare off enemies

3. James, 7, asks: how many light years away is the moon?

   1. Four light years

   2. 720 light years

   3. 8.2 light minutes

   4. 1.25 light seconds

4. Bertie, 10, asks: how long is England from top to bottom?

   1. 847 miles

   2. 622 miles

   3. 426 miles

   4. 208 miles

5. Arlo, 7, asks: how does pencil lead print?

   1. Bits of it slide off and stick to the paper as you write

   2. The metal melts from the energy of movement and refreezes once on the paper

   3. It’s a powdery substance so it falls off the pencil quite easily

   4. It stains the paper like an ink pen does

Solutions

1:B - The gene for red hair is recessive, which means both of your parents have to carry it for you to have a chance of having red hair. Only about 1-2% of the world’s population have red hair!, 2:C - When your body digests food, it creates gases in your intestines. You also swallow air eating and drinking. These gases need to be released, so they come out in the form of a fart or a burp!, 3:D - The moon is about 384,400km away from Earth. Light takes only 1.25 seconds to travel from the moon to Earth, so it’s 1.25 light seconds away. That’s the same as 3.96 x 10-8 or 0.0000000396 light years away., 4:C - The length of a straight line between the southernmost point in England, in Cornwall, and the northernmost point in England, in Northumberland, is 426 miles (or 686km)., 5:A - The lead in pencils is not made of lead at all – it’s made of graphite. This is made of groups of carbon atoms that are all stacked on top of each other in sheets, so when you write, it’s like tiny sheets of carbon sliding off the pencil on to the paper.

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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