The following, gleaned from essays, exams, and classroom discussions, are mostly from 5th and 6th graders. They illustrate Mark Twain's contention that... "the most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop."

Q: What is one horsepower?

A: One horespower is the amount of energy it takes to drag a horse 500 feet in one second.

You can listen to thunder after lightening and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don't hear it, you got hit, so never mind.

Talc is found on rocks and babies.

The law of gravity says no fair jumping up without coming back down.

When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when the broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions.

When people run around and around in circles we say they are crazy. When planets do it we say they are orbiting.

Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.

Someday we may discover how to make magnets that can point in any direction.

South America has cold summers and hot winters, but somehow they still manage.

Most books now say our sun is a star. But it still knows how to change back into a sun in the daytime.

Water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. There are 180 degrees between freezing and boiling because there are 180 degrees between north and south.

A vibration is a motion that cannot make up its mind which way it wants to go.

There are 26 vitamins in all, but some of the letters are yet to be discovered. Finding them all means living forever.

There is a tremendous weight pushing down on the center of the earth because of so much population stomping around up here these days.

Lime is a green-tasting rock.

Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils while others preferred to be oil.

Genetics explain why you look like your father and if you don't why you should.

Vacuums are nothing. We only mention them to let them know they're there.

Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it's brother against brother.

Some people can tell what time it is by looking at the subn. But I have never been able to make out the numbers.

We say the cause of perfume diappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.

In looking at a drop of water under the microscope, we find there are twice as many H's as O's.

Clouds are high flying fogs.

I am not sure how clouds are formed, but the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.

Clouds just keep circling the earth around and around. And around. There is not much else to do.

Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dog's tongue will kill the strongest man.

A blizzard is when it snows sideways.

A monsoon is a French gentlemen.

Thunder is a rich source of loudness.

Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.

It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.

Dear God,

In school they told us what You do. Who does it when You are on vacation?

Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?

Is it true that my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house?

Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?

Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don't You just keep the ones You have now?

Who draws the lines around the countries?

I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay?

What does it mean You are a Jealous God? I thought you had everything.

Did you really mean "do unto others as they do unto you?" Because if You did, then I'm going to fix my brother!

Thank You for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.

It rained for our whole vacation and is my father mad! He said some things about You that people are not supposed to say, but I hope You will not hurt him anyway. Your friend (but I am not going to tell You who I am.)

Why is Sunday school on Sunday? I thought it was supposed to be our day of rest.

Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.

Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.

I want to be just like my daddy when I get big but not with so much hair all over.

I think the stapler is one of your greatest inventions.

I bet it is very hard for You to love all of everybody in the whole world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it.