Welcome to Hay-Wire – the Planet Science newsletter that keeps all young scientists in the know. Here’s what’s coming up in this Hay-Wire Sound Special:

1. PLANET PICKS – Make some noise on the Planet Science website!
2. CRASH BANG – This sounds like an impressive experiment for you to try.
3. SCIENCE NIBBLES – Listen up for these sound facts.
4. TUMMY TICKLERS – What do you get when you cross...?
5. WINNERS – Blue Planet family ticket to visit the sharks!
   
   

How many times have you been told not to make a noise? Well, here at Hay-Wire we want you to make as much noise as possible! How else are you going to discover the science behind sound?

New to the Planet Science website is a feature in OUT THERE called SOUND CHECK. Although parts of Sound Check might be a bit too advanced for you, there’s still lots of information you can take away from it.

First you need to click on this link:

http://www.planet-science.com/outthere/sound_check/

Once you’ve done that, you might like to start in the activities section. Here you can make your dinner dance, listen to whispers or stage a ‘bottle’ of the bands! Once you’ve grasped the idea of sound perhaps try moving on to ‘What is Sound?’ to give you a better idea.

If you’re looking for the part of this section that’s the most fun then make sure you click on ‘PS100X Sound Sampler’. Here you will find Planet Science’s very own Sound Sampler. You can use it to make different sounds or create your own tunes. Because the Sound Sampler is such a genius piece of kit you may need to ask an adult to help you go through it as your computer may not have all the bits and pieces it needs to play your tunes.

Of course, it’ll keep the adult happy too because we all know THEY LOVE MAKING NOISE TOO!

Here’s another sound experiment that’s real easy to do. You’ll need to ask an adult for their permission first though!

Stuff You Need:

• Waxed paper cup
• Toothpick
• Thick wool
• Scissors
• Pencil

What To Do:

1. Ask an adult to help you cut a piece of wool 15 centimetres in length. Soak it in a cup of water for 5 minutes.
2. Ask the adult to help you poke a small hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup with a sharp pencil.
3. Drop a toothpick into the cup. It has to lie flat on the bottom of the cup. Your toothpick will probably be too long to do this so break off a little bit of the toothpick and try again.
4. Once the wool is totally wet, take a piece of it and carefully push one end through the hole in the bottom of the cup.
5. Tightly tie the end of the wool in the cup around the middle of the toothpick. You want the toothpick lying flat on the bottom of the cup.
6. Now, wet your fingers with some water and pinch the wool between your forefinger and thumb just below the cup and pull down. Hard!
7. It takes a little practice but in time you’ll be able to make the strangest of sounds. If you're having trouble getting a lot of noise then add more water to the wool and/or your fingers.

What’s Going On?

Sounds are caused by vibrations – by things shaking back and forth. When you pull your fingers down the length of the wool, it vibrates. And that's not the only thing vibrating. The vibrations travel up the wool and into the cup. They start making the cup (and the air inside the cup) vibrate too. The cup's megaphone-like shape is perfect for making all those vibrations nice and loud!

• At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.
• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat a cup of coffee!
• A whip makes a cracking sound when its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.
• Sound travels fifteen times faster through steel than through air.
• Fish can make sounds using their swim bladders. They can growl, yelp, whistle and grunt! Ganters and Kobs are well-known fish that produce sounds.

It’s a shame they can’t shout for their dinner, though!

Two weeks ago I was put in charge of the adult Planet Science newsletter. I asked the readers to come up with some jokes. The jokes were the kind that went ‘What do you get when you cross (a something) with (a something)?’ I liked to imagine a scientist in a laboratory trying to cross different animals and plants and coming up with the most hilarious results!

Okay, so adults aren’t as funny as kids, but I thought you might enjoy some of the jokes that were sent in, so here goes:

Q) What do you get when you cross a hen and a science kit?
A) An egg-speriment!

Q) What do you get when you cross a dinosaur with fireworks?
A) Dino-mite!

Q) What do you get when you cross a chicken with a cement mixer
A) A brick-layer!

Q) What do you get if you cross an elk with a cocoa bean?
A) A chocolate mousse

Q) What do you get if you cross a hyena with a crocodile?
A) I don't know, but when he laughs, you'd better join in.

Q) What do you get when you cross a skunk with a bear?
A) Winnie the Pooh!

Q) What do you get when you cross a sheep and a radiator?
A) Central bleeting!

Q) What do you get if you cross a kangaroo with a sheep?
A) A woolly jumper.

Q) What do you get if you cross a kangaroo with an elephant?
A) Holes all over Australia.

If you think you can do better than the adults then please send your jokes to Hay-Wire.Clubhouse@nesta.org.uk and the best jokes will be featured in a future issue of Hay-Wire.

Finally, there’s just enough space to mention the winners of the last week’s competition in the Hay-Wire Shark Tale Special. First prize was a family ticket to visit The Blue Planet in Cheshire, where the winner will come face-to-face with real-life sharks! The correct answer to the competition was that cartilage is the special stuff that shark’s bones are made of.

The winner of the ticket to Blue Planet was: Chris Lloyd from Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

The runner-up who won the selection of shark books was: Jan Keyser from Mansfield.

Well done to both of you and look out for your prizes in the post soon!

Planet Science can’t help it when things go Hay-Wire...

Look out for the next issue of Hay-Wire on Friday. In the meantime if any of your friends want to join the Hay-Wire Club then tell them to visit the Clubhouse at:
http://www.planet-science.com/wired/hay-wire/clubhouse

Bye for now!