On our Bookshelf – 100 Things to Know

When I was asked to write a book review, I had to laugh because my reading repertoire of late has been mostly children’s books. My son is 7 and every night we read together.  His favorite books are the 100 Things to Know series about space, earth, science, and oceans.  We’ve read all of them at least twice and we are currently re-reading 100 Things to Know About Science.  Each page is wonderfully illustrated, and I love that we learn fun facts together.  Things I’ve learned of late are:

  • Butterflies and bees drink crocodile tears because they are rich in salt. And crocodiles cry when they eat.
  • When houseflies buzz, they always make the musical note F.
  • Light can push a spaceship through space. This is called radiation pressure.  Scientists have developed solar sails which are designed to collect the light from the sun and power spacecraft.  In 2010, a Japanese probe flew past Venus powered only by a solar sail.
  • The sky isn’t actually blue. Light is a mixture of all the colors in the rainbow and each color has a different level of energy.  Red has the least and violet has the most.  When light hits the sky, it bumps into gas molecules and scatters the light.  The lower energy colors (violet, indigo and blue) are scattered more easily and bounce to the ground, making a mix that looks pale blue.

~Jennifer Baham

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