
The Science Quiz: On firestorms
The Hindu
The Science Quiz: On firestorms
Questions:
1. An important cause of a firestorm is the _____ ______. Here, when air heated by the fire rises in a hot column, the fire’s heat draws more air in from its surroundings. Fill in the blank.
2. One of the most intense bombing raids during World War II, comparable in strength to the atomic weapons, was the bombing of a German city named _______. On February 13-15, 1945, the U.S. Air Force destroyed 6.5 sq. km of it and killed 25,000 people by creating a firestorm. Fill in the blank.
3. What is the name for the cumulus clouds that are created by large fires, including firestorms?
4. Name the February 7, 2009, bushfire that produced the most intense firestorm in recorded history to date in Australia. It released 1,500-times as much energy as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
5. A ____ _____ is created when eddies of air spinning in the air, like a vortex, trap some combustible gas or other substances that have since caught fire. Fill in the blanks. They are a common sight in firestorms.
Visual:

On December 7, 1909, Belgian-American chemist Leo Baekeland’s process patent for making Bakelite was granted, two years after he had figured it out. Bakelite is the first fully synthetic plastic and its invention marked the beginning of the Age of Plastics. A.S.Ganesh tells you more about Baekeland and his Bakelite…












