How high can you lift something heavy, like a bowling ball? It’s hard work to lift things because gravity keeps pulling everything down. So try launching a rocket! The old space shuttle weighed “only” 165,000 pounds, but the fuel to fly it weighed over 4 million pounds! It costs $10,000 for each extra pound a rocket brings into space…hopefully the astronauts don’t need a bowling ball.
Wee ones: If you toss a bowling ball, a model rocket and a paper airplane, how many toys do you toss?
Little kids: The last 10 seconds before a launch are the most exciting! Can you count down from 10 to 1? Bonus: Which is more, 8 thousand pounds or 4 million pounds?
Big kids: Astronauts on the Space Station see a sunrise every 90 minutes! If they see one at 8:30 at “night,” when do they see the next? Bonus: It takes about 150 seconds for a rocket to break out of the Earth’s atmosphere (the layer of air around Earth), and 2 minutes to burn all its solid fuel. Which happens first? (Reminder if needed: A minute has 60 seconds.)
Answers:
Wee ones: 3 toys.
Little kids: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Bonus: 4 million pounds, because a million is a lot, lot more than a thousand.
Big kids: At 10:00. Bonus: The fuel happens first, because 2 minutes equals just 120 seconds.
