.-.

1.Without magnets there would be no electric motors, computers or loud speakers. Magnetism is an invisible force to do with atoms - tiny particles that make up everything. Atoms are made of even smaller

1.Laser light is a special kind of light. Like ordinary light, it is made of waves, but it has three main differences. Ordinary white light is a mixture of colors, while laser light is one pure color.

1.Almost everything you do depends on light and the science of light, which is called optics. Light is a form of energy that you see. Light waves are made of electricity and magnetism - and they are tiny.

1.Tornadoes are also called twisters. A tornado is an incredibly powerful windstorm that twists around in a swirling 'vortex' shape. It forms a narrow funnel or tube, stretching from the clouds to the

1.An ice storm isn't stormy - but it is dangerous. Cold rain falls onto freezing cold surfaces. The rain freezes solid, forming a thick layer of ice on the ground, trees, and other objects. Ice storms

1.Hail doesn't happen often - but it can be one of the scariest kinds of weather. When it hails, balls of card, heavy ice fall out of the sky. Hailstones are usually small, about the size of peas. However,

1.Lightning is a giant spark of electricity. It happens when tiny droplets of water and ice swirl around inside a storm cloud. This makes the cloud develop a strong electrical charge. Eventually, a spark

1.It may seem like bad weather, but we need rain. Rain happens because the Sun's heat makes water in the sea evaporate. It turns into a gas and rises into the air and forms clouds. The clouds then blow

The oceans cover about 361 million square kilometers and they are all connected. The average depth of the ocean is 3750 meters. Over 90 percent of the Earth's species (types) of living things live in the

1.About two percent of the water in the world is permanently frozen as ice. The ice is found at the chilly polar regions, and on high mountains where the air is freezing cold. On steep slopes, the ice

1.The Earth is round, but it has two 'ends' - the North Pole and the South Pole. The Earth is constantly spinning around an imaginary line called the axis. At the ends of this axis are the poles. Here,

1.Deserts occur in places where it's hard for rain to reach. Most rain comes from clouds that form over the sea and blow onto the land. If there's a big mountain range, the clouds never reach the other

1.A tsunami is a giant wave or series of waves. Tsunamis form when a large amount of water in a sea or lake is moved suddenly. This sets up a circular wave, a bit like the ripples you see when you throw

1.An earthquake happens when the Earth's crust moves suddenly. The crust trembles, cracks, or lurches up and down. Earthquakes can be disastrous. They make houses fall down, tear roads apart, and destroy

1.Humans have climbed the world's highest mountains - but many underground caves are unexplored. Caves are usually formed by water flowing through cracks underground. The water slowly dissolves certain

1.The Caspian Sea in central Asia is actually the world's biggest lake! It covers 378,000 square kilometers. It isn't connected to true seas and oceans, but because its so big, and is salty like the sea,

1.The Earth is laced with thousands of rivers. Rivers are channels of water that flow towards the sea. They allow the rain that falls on the land to drain away. Rivers also provide people and animals with

1.There are natural hot baths and showers all over the world. You might think water outdoors is cold, but in some places, water meets hot rock under the ground and gets heated up. It sometimes even boils.

1.A volcano is a place where hot, liquid rock (magma) bursts out of the Earth. At the Earth's surface, magma is called lava. Red-hot lava can be seen flowing or shooting out of a volcano. After a volcano