It's a Fact About 1,300,000 planets the size of earth could be packed into the sun. Millions of miles (kilometers) out in space there is a gigantic ball of hot, glowing gas we call the sun. The...
The bridge in the sky
Long ago, people thought that rainbows were magic. Some people believed that a rainbow was a bridge that appeared in the sky when the gods wanted to leave heaven and come down to earth. People also...
What makes wind blow?
The wind moves over the land. It sways the tops of tall grass in meadows and sets leaves a-rustle in the woods. It scatters the smoke from chimneys. It lifts up limp flags and makes them flap. It...
Where the air came from
Scientists think the earth's atmosphere has changed during the billions of years since the earth was formed. At first, the atmosphere was probably very different from what it is now. It began to...
A wrapper of air
Long ago, people believed that the sky was a shiny metal roof stretched over the earth! Now, of course, we know what the sky really is. It's simply air---a covering of air around the earth. Air is...
Hot-water fountains in the earth
On a bare, rocky patch of land sits a cone-shaped hump of rock with a hole in its top. Suddenly, with a hiss, a great, silvery spray of steam shoots up out of the hole. A geyser has erupted. Geysers...
High tide, low tide
It is early in the misty morning. You are standing on a cliff that overlooks the sea. Gulls soar overhead, calling to one another with shrill cries. Below you, the gray sea crashes against the shore....
Where did the ocean come from?
Scientists tell us that billions of years ago the earth was a ball of bare, sizzling-hot rock, with no air or water on it. The outside of the earth slowly cooled, but the inside stayed fiercely hot....
The deep blue sea
The sea! the sea! the open sea! The blue, the fresh, the ever free! Without a mark, without a bound, It runneth the earth's wide regions round. From Barry Cornwall Sailors talk about "the seven...
Solid stuff
It takes a lot of things to make cookies---flour, milk, eggs, butter, sugar. But when the cookies are baked, you can't see that there are a lot of things in them. Everything is all mixed together. A...