In Focus

Ancient Rome

1. How long did Roman power last?
2. Who attacked Rome with elephants?
3. What did Roman Centurions wear?
4. How long did Roman soldiers serve?
5. Who wanted to rule the world?

Force and gravity

1. What’s the difference between mass and weight?
2. What is gravity?
3. How does gravity hold you down?
4. How fast does a stone fall?
5. How is force measured?

Rodents

1. How many kinds of rodents exist?
2. Is a Guinea Pig a rodent?
3. Which is the smallest rodent?
4. Name the biggest rodent
5. When is a dog really a rat?

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Answers

Ancient Rome

1. The Roman Empire lasted from 31 BC to AD 476 until the last Emperor Romulus Augustulus was deposed.

2. General Hannibal, leader of the Carthaginians who lived in North Africa. He led a large army including war elephants through Spain and across the Alps to attack Rome in 218 BC.

3. Roman Centurions were army officers. They dressed for parade in a decorated metal breast plate and a helmet topped with a crest of horsehair. They also wore shin guards called graves.

4. Roman soldiers served for about 25 years and then retired. They were given a lump sum of money or a pension and a certificate recording their service.

5. The Romans. About 400 BC they set out to conquer their Italian neighbours. By 272 BC they controlled all of Italy. But, they did not stop there! After defeating their neighbours they invaded lands all around the Mediterranean Sea. In 31 BC they conquered the ancient Kingdom of Egypt. In 43 AD they invaded Britain. By AD 117, at the end of Emperor Trojan’s reign, the mighty Roman Empire stretched from Scotland to Syria and to Iraq.

Force and gravity

1. Mass is the amount of matter in an object. It is the same wherever you measure it, even on the Moon. Weight is a measure of the force of gravity on an object. It varies according to where you measure it.

2. Gravity is the invisible force of attraction between every bit of matter in the universe. Its strength depends on the mass of the objects involved and their distance apart.

3. The mutual gravitational attraction between the mass of your body and the mass of the Earth pulls them together. If you jump off a wall, the Earth pulls you towards the ground. You also pull the Earth towards you but, because you are tiny and the Earth is huge, you move a lot and the Earth barely moves at all.

4. Initially a stone falls faster and faster at a rate of 9.8 m per second. But as the stone’s speed accelerates, air resistance increases until it becomes great that the stone cannot fall any faster. It then continues to fall at the same velocity called the ‘terminal velocity’.

5. Force is measured in newtons, in honour of Sir Isaac Newton. A newton is the force needed to accelerate 1 kg by 1 m per second every second.

Rodents

1. There are more than 2,000 different species of rodents including squirrels, hamsters and beavers as well as rats and mice. Rodents live all over the world in every kind of habitat from the icy Arctic to scorching desert and humid rain forest.

2. Yes, a Guinea Pig is a rodent. Wild Guinea Pigs also known as cavies live in South America. Most cavies are about 22 cm long but the long legged, hare - like mara is up to 75 cm long.

3. The pygmy mouse of North America is considered to be one of the smallest rodents. It is only about 10 cm long including its tail. It weights just 7g. The harvest mouse of Europe and Asia is slightly bigger.

4. Capybara which lives in South America is the largest rodent. It measures up to 1.25 m long and weighs up to 64 kg.

5. When it is a Prairie dog because it is a type of rodent that lives in North America.

Win a valuable book from Books.lk

“Reading maketh a full man,” it is said and the importance of reading need not be reiterated. And, it is with the objective of promoting the habit of reading among children that the Junior Observer in collaboration with Bookazone (Pvt.) Ltd; the innovators of the country’s first web portal (www.books.lk), launched a competition in September.

We give a lucky reader an opportunity to win a valuable book priced at Rs 1000 from books.lk. All you have to do is answer a the question and mail it to the address given, on or before Friday of that week.

The name of each week’s winner will be published later.

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Winner of coupon No 8 is : Serene Palleygedera,
43/21D, Pepiliyana Mawatha,
Kohuwela.