Hey there, Smarty Pants. Trusty narrator here, back with another episode of Smarty Q, where your questions take us from the biggest thing imaginable all the way down to stinky feet. Let's get smarting. Question one comes from my smarty friend Charlie in Park City, Utah, who wants to know, how big is the universe? Oof, fantastic question, Charlie. and the answer is really, really big. Scientists believe the universe is about 93 billion light years across. What does that mean? A light year is how far light travels in one of our years. Light is the fastest thing we know. It's about 186,000 miles per second. Even at that speed, it takes billions of years to cross the universe. And here's the wild part. That's just the observable universe, the part we can see. There may be more universe well beyond that. that we can't see yet. So essentially, the universe is so big, even scientists don't know if it has an edge. Okay, question two. Nico and Willem want to know, how does a combustion engine work? Wow, what a great engineering question. A combustion engine works by using tiny explosions to make things move. Here's the simple version. First, air and fuel go into a metal tube called a cylinder. Then, a piston, a moving metal plug, sits inside the cylinder. The piston squeezes the air and fuel together. A spark plug creates a spark. Boom! A small explosion happens. That explosion pushes the piston down, the piston turns a crankshaft, and the crankshaft turns the wheels This happens hundreds or thousands of times per minute which is what makes cars move smoothly instead of jumping around Pretty cool right Okay on to question three This is an interesting one from Smarty Pants Ethan and his smarty mom Carly in Brooklyn New York. They want to know, why is paper easier to rip when it's wet? The short answer, science. You see, paper is made from tiny plant fibers called cellulose. When paper gets wet, the water soaks into the fibers, the fibers swell and loosen, and the bonds holding them together weaken. Dry paper equals tight, strong fiber bonds, while wet paper equals loose, weak fiber bonds. That's why wet paper tears easily. The fibers can slide apart instead of holding firm. Okay, Smarty Pants, three questions down, a couple more to go, including a super fun one about why your feet might stink. We'll find out all about it right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors. Spring is here, and if you're a homeschool family trying to finish the year strong, I want to tell you about IXL. It's the award-winning online learning platform that fits seamlessly into your homeschool routine, covering math, language arts, science, and social studies from pre-K through 12th grade. What I love most about IXL is how it adapts to each child's pace. Whether your kid needs to reinforce foundational skills before an assessment or push ahead into new material, IXL meets them exactly where they are with no pressure and real encouragement built right in. Kids earn rewards, see their own progress, and actually feel good about learning. And for parents, the real-time progress tracking is a game changer. You always know exactly where your child stands Plus it makes learning fun And you know I love that Over 15 million students use IXL and it proven to improve achievement in all 50 states So make an impact on your child learning Who Smarted listeners get an exclusive 20 off at IXL slash Smarted That's IXL.com slash Smarted for your 20% off. Now back to SmartyQs. Okay, the question we've all been waiting for comes from Mira in Austin, Texas. Mira wants to know, why do feet stink? Great question, smarty pants. The answer might surprise you. Feet stink because of bacteria, not sweat itself. Here's what's happening. Your feet have more sweat glands than almost anywhere else. Sweat by itself does not smell, but bacteria love warm, wet places. When bacteria eat sweat and dead skin, they produce stinky gases as waste, kind of like tiny bacteria farts. Shoes trap heat and moisture, which makes the smell stronger. That's why washing feet, changing socks, and letting shoes dry helps reduce stink. Okay, this next question comes from my smarty friend Gabriel across the sea in Romania. He would love to know, how does a fan work? Cool question, Gabriel. A fan doesn't actually cool the air. Instead, it moves air. Here's how. Electricity powers a motor. The motor spins the fan blades. The blades push air forward. Moving air flows over your skin. Sweat evaporates faster. And evaporation cools your body. Fans don't actually lower the temperature like an air conditioner does. Fans make you feel cooler by helping the heat leave your body. That's why fans feel amazing on hot days and can actually be preferable and certainly easier on your electric bill than air conditioning Okay five questions down and one more to go We be back with a cool question about tortilla chips right after this quick break and a word from our sponsors. Now back to SmartyQ. Okay, last question. Ellie, a smarty pants in Colorado, wants to know, how do they make tortilla chips and where did they come from? Yum, excellent question, Ellie. Let's start with how tortilla chips are made. Tortilla chips begin as tortillas, usually made from corn. First, corn is cooked and ground into a dough called masa. That dough is flattened into thin tortillas and cooked on a hot surface. To turn tortillas into chips, the tortillas are cut into triangles, then fried or baked until they're crunchy, a little salt is added, and voila, tortilla chips. Some are fried in oil for extra crunch, while others are baked to make them lighter. but they all start the same way as tortillas. As for where did tortilla chips come from, tortilla chips have their roots in Mexico, where corn tortillas have been made for thousands of years. People there would often cut leftover tortillas into pieces and fry them so they wouldn't go to waste. But tortilla chips became super popular in the United States in the early 1900s. One story says they were popularized in California when restaurants and factories started selling crispy tortilla pieces as crunchy, salty snacks. Perfect for scooping up salsa, queso cheese, or guacamole. And that wraps up another Q&A-packed episode of Smarty Q's. Remember, Smarty Pants, if you have something you've been wondering about, feel free to send it to me at whosmarted at whosmarted.com. Until next time, keep on smarting, Smarty Pants.
