Warbler December 2019

SCIENCE
SCIENCE NEWS
Stuff you didn’t know you didn’t know!
If you dropped a hippo off the side of a ship,
would it sink?
Despite their semi aquatic existence, hippos are actually not very
good swimmers. They don’t have streamlined bodies or flippers
and although their toes are webbed, their legs are short and fat.
They mostly move with a sort of slow-motion gallop across the
river bed. For this to happen they need to be denser than water.
Most mammals are naturally buoyant, but hippos have especially
dense bones to help them stay on the bottom. And because the
buoyancy is always equal to the weight of the water displaced, it
remains the same regardless of depth. So once the hippo starts
sinking it is doomed to make a one-way trip to the ocean floor.
If you have any questions that have been bugging you, please
pass them to any member of the science department and we will get you an answer.
Wilnecote Warbler
December 2019
Calculators - Please remember that all Y9, Y10 and Y11 students
are expected to bring a scientific calculator to all Science lessons. If
If they don’t, they will be issued with a half hour detention for lack
equipment.
Don’t Miss - this year’s Roya; Institution Christmas lectures. This
year’s lectures are given by Dr Hannah Fry, who will be revealing
hidden power of maths in everyday life. They are all on BBC 4 at 8.00
How to Get Lucky is on the 26th December and How to Bend the
Rules is on the 27th December and How Can We All Win is on
28th December.
18%
In Numbers
of
the
pm.
the
The number of vertebrates that have been
traded on wildlife markets.
30 years
The time frame in which humans will find
evidence of extra-terrestrial life, according
to Noble Prize-winning astronomer Prof.
Didier Queloz.
22 Hours
The amount of time koalas spend asleep
each day, in order to digest their diet of
eucalyptus leaves.
10