Hey there, Smarty Pants.
We're back with another episode of Smarty Q where I, your trusty narrator, answer questions from you, the Smarty Pants.
We've got some big thinkers and big questions today.
So let's get smarting.
Question one comes from Big Time Smarty Fan Britton, who asks is it possible to drill through the Earth?
Cool question, Britton.
The short answer is no, at least not with anything humans have today.
The Earth, as you can probably imagine, is incredibly thick, hot, and pressurized.
The deepest hole that humans have ever drilled is about seven and a half miles deep.
And even that got so hot that machines stopped working properly.
As you go deeper into the Earth, temperatures rise dramatically, pressure increases and rock becomes more like goo than solid stone.
Eventually you'd reach molten rock and extreme heat that would melt drills long before you got close to the center.
So while drilling through Earth sounds cool, it's entirely too hot for it to be possible.
Okay, question two comes from Giada in Worcester, Massachusetts, who asks, if a falcon is faster than a cheetah, what's faster than a falcon?
Oh, fun question.
Well, check this out.
A peregrine falcon is actually the fastest animal on Earth.
Here's the twist.
It's only that fast while diving.
As you may remember from our birds of prey episode, when a peregrine falcon dives towards its prey, it can reach speeds over 200 miles per hour.
No other animal can beat that.
If we're talking about non-living things, lots of stuff is faster.
Jet airplanes, rockets, and of course, light.
So when it comes to animals, nothing beats a diving falcon.
But in the bigger universe, the falcon has some serious competition.
All right.
Question three comes from Laura, who wants to know what is the American Taekwondo Association?
Well, the American Taekwondo Association, or ATA, is an organization that teaches and promotes taekwondo, a Korean martial art that focuses on kicks balance, discipline and respect.
The ATA helps train instructors, set rules and standards, organize classes and tournaments and teach students of all ages.
Taekwondo isn't just about self-defense.
It also emphasizes confidence, focus, and self-control.
Great question, Laura.
All right, Smarty Pants, coming up next is a big question about life itself.
Stick around.
We'll get to it right after a quick break and a word from our sponsors.
Now back to Smarty Q.
Question four comes from Baby Yoda on Spotify, who asks why can't things just become alive?
Whoa, that's a deep one.
Living things are made of incredibly complex systems.
To be alive, something needs to be made of cells, use energy, grow and change, respond to its environment and be able to make more living things.
Even the simplest living cell is more complicated than most machines that humans have built.
Scientists study how life might have begun long ago on Earth, but today we don't see rocks, water or air suddenly turning into living creatures.
Life needs very specific conditions and lots and lots of time to exist.
So while life is amazing, it's also very rare and very special.
Okay, question five comes from one of my Spotify smarty friends, DidemFam.
Who wants to know why is a knife called a knife?
Oh, that's a pretty sharp question.
The word knife comes from a family of very old words that all mean to cut, split, or pierce.
Here are the main ancestors.
Number one, the Old Norse kniffer.
This is the most direct source.
Kniffer literally meant knife or cutting blade.
Vikings brought this word to England, where it stuck.
The Proto-Germanic knibaz.
Before Old Norse there was an even older root that meant something like sharp tool or thing that cuts.
And then there's the Proto-Indo-European root gne or gne.
This ancient root meant to cut, to scrape, or to split.
Over time, as languages changed and mixed, those old words slowly turned into the word knife we use today.
Even though the K is silent now, it did not always used to be.
So the word stuck even as the pronunciation changed.
All right, smarty pants.
We've got one last question coming up, and it's something almost everyone has experienced, at least once.
We'll find out what it is right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors.
Now back to Smarty Q. Question six comes from Luke on Spotify, who asks, why do we get canker sores?
Ouch, great question.
Canker sores are small, painful spots that show up inside your mouth.
Doctors don't know exactly why everyone gets them, but they're often linked to things like small mouth injuries, like biting your cheek stress, certain foods or your immune system reacting strongly.
They're not contagious, and they're different from cold sores.
The good news?
Canker sores usually heal on their own in about a week or two, even though they can be so annoying while they're around.
And that brings us to the end of another episode of SmartyQ.
If you've got a question you've been curious about, send it to whosmarted at whosmartedcom, and I'll try to answer it on a future episode.
Until next time, keep on smarting, smarty pants.
