Howardites

The answer sheet for the worksheet The fiery fall through the air. Each answer comes with the reason, so it can be used to mark or to go over the questions with the class.

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KS2 · Ages 7 to 11 (Years 3 to 6)Answer sheet for teachers

Answers: The fiery fall through the air

  1. C: Air resistance slows them to about the speed of a fast carAir resistance takes away almost all their space speed, so they hit the ground only about as fast as a fast car or train.
  2. B: Between about 30 and 10 km upMeteors light up at about 120 to 70 km. By about 30 to 10 km, a small rock has almost stopped racing.
  3. C: It would not heat up and glow as a meteorA meteor glows because the rock squashes the air in front of it until it is very hot. With no air, there is nothing to squash.
  4. C: AblationAblation is the melting and blowing away of the rock's surface. The fusion crust is the skin left at the very end.
  5. False: the right answer is Glowing, fusion crust forms, dark flight, landingIt glows high up, the last melted skin hardens into a crust, then it falls in the dark and lands.
  6. True (Gravity)Once the rock has slowed and stopped glowing, gravity pulls it the rest of the way down.
  7. It forms when the outside melts during the fall (accept any answer with the same meaning)A fusion crust is made by the fiery fall itself, so ordinary Earth rocks do not have one.
  8. About 40 times (accept any answer with the same meaning)Even at its slowest, about 11 km a second, a meteoroid is roughly 40 times faster than a jet.

Task

Answers will vary. The task comes from the lesson: Feel air resistance safely. Drop two identical sheets of paper from the same height at the same time, one flat and one scrunched into a ball. Which lands first? The flat sheet meets more air, so air resistance slows it more. Talk about how air slows a meteorite in the same way.

Look for work that uses the key words correctly and gives a reason for each point.

Howardites · teacher copy: keep it separate from the pupil worksheets