Hi there! Have you ever spun a globe and wondered about the places on it? One of the most interesting spots is the North Pole. Let’s explore this chilly place together!
Someone named Elizabeth asked a fun question: Is there an actual pole at the North Pole? If you look at pictures from the North Pole, you’ll see lots of snow and ice. It’s super cold there, but guess what? There’s no actual pole sticking out of the ground. It’s just snow and ice!
So, why do we call it the North Pole if there’s no pole? Well, there are two special places on Earth called poles: the North Pole and the South Pole. If you have a globe, take a look. These poles are the points where the Earth spins around, like a spinning top. Imagine there’s an invisible stick, or pole, going through the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole. This is called the Earth’s axis.
Long ago, people figured out there must be a North and South Pole, even before anyone visited them. It became a race to see who could get there first because both places are extremely cold and hard to reach. Eventually, explorers made it to both poles. At the South Pole, scientists even built buildings to study the area. They put up a funny pole there just for fun!
Why didn’t they put a pole at the North Pole too? The North Pole is in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, not on land. The ice there floats on water, and in summer, it can melt a bit. If they put a pole there, it might fall into the ocean when the ice melts!
Both the North and South Poles are real and very cold, but they’re different. In summer, the North Pole can get a little warmer than the South Pole. And did you know they have different animals? Penguins live at the South Pole, but you’ll never find them at the North Pole. Polar bears live at the North Pole, but not at the South Pole. Some people mix this up, but now you know the truth!
Thanks to Elizabeth for the great question! There are so many mysteries in the world. Keep asking questions and stay curious. Who knows what amazing things you’ll discover next!
Make Your Own Globe: Find a small ball, like a tennis ball, and some markers. Draw the equator around the middle of the ball. Then, mark the top as the North Pole and the bottom as the South Pole. Spin your globe and watch how it turns around the axis. Discuss with a friend or family member why the Earth spins and how this affects day and night.
Polar Animal Match-Up: Create a simple matching game using pictures of animals. On one side, have images of polar bears and other Arctic animals, and on the other, penguins and Antarctic animals. Mix them up and try to match each animal to its correct pole. Talk about why these animals live where they do and what makes their homes special.
Weather Watch: Keep a weather diary for a week. Each day, note the temperature and weather conditions where you live. Then, look up the weather at the North Pole and the South Pole for the same days. Compare the temperatures and discuss why they might be different. Think about how the weather affects the animals and people living in these places.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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[CALL ACCEPTED] Hi, it’s Doug. You’ve probably noticed that one of the most fun things you can do with a globe is spin it, right? Well, someone named Elizabeth has a question for us this week about a very special place on the globe—this place right there. Do you know it? It’s the North Pole. Let’s give her a call now.
[CALL ACCEPTED] Hi, Doug. Hi, Elizabeth. I was wondering, is there an actual pole at the North Pole? That’s a great question. We can figure this out by looking at a picture from the real North Pole. People have actually traveled there. Let’s see what it looks like. Are you ready? Here it is. Now, you can see there’s a lot of snow and ice. The North Pole, as you probably knew, is a very cold place. But there’s no pole anywhere to be seen. It’s just snow and ice. There’s not an actual pole there.
But that leaves us with another question. Why call the North Pole a pole at all if there is no pole there? You might know we actually have two places on Earth with the name pole in them—the North Pole and the South Pole. So why is that? What’s special about these places such that we call them both poles? Take a minute to look at a globe if you have one. If not, you can look at this globe on the video. What do you notice about the poles? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
OK, you ready? If you’ve heard that the Earth spins once each day, you might have noticed the poles are the two points that the Earth spins around on. You see, the Earth doesn’t spin any which way. It only spins like this. It’s kind of like a spinning top that can only spin on this little point. It’s as if there’s a pole that goes through the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole.
I can demonstrate this with this squishy Earth ball. If this is the Earth, then it’s almost like there’s a pole through the Earth, like this. The Earth spins as if there’s a pole or stick being turned like this. You may have heard some people call this the Earth’s axis. Now this pole isn’t something you can touch or see in real life. But if we imagine a pole here, then the places where the imaginary pole comes through the surface of the Earth are what we call the North Pole and the South Pole.
People figured out that there must be a north and south pole long before anyone had ever actually visited these places. In fact, it became a contest to see who could get there first, because both places are extremely cold and really difficult to get to. After lots of trying, some explorers finally made it to both the North Pole and the South Pole. Eventually, at the South Pole, people even built a few buildings where scientists could live and study what it’s like there.
Now just to be funny, some of those scientists set up an actual pole, so today, there is a pole at the South Pole. That might make you wonder, have they done this at the North Pole too? Well, it turns out that’s hard to do. At the South Pole, scientists could put a pole there and build buildings because there’s land underneath. The South Pole is located near the middle of Antarctica, one of the seven continents.
The North Pole isn’t like that. It’s up here where there’s no land underneath it. Rather than being on top of land, the North Pole is actually in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. When you see a real photo from the North Pole, it might look like land, but it’s actually just ice floating on top of ocean water. In the summertime, every once in a while, the North Pole gets just warm enough that the very top layer of ice melts a little bit. That means it’s tricky to put a pole there because when the ice melts, a pole would fall over into the water.
So in summary, the North and South Poles are real places. They’re called poles because it’s as if there’s an imaginary pole that goes through the Earth at these two points. But there were never real poles there. The North and South Poles are both very cold places, but they’re not exactly the same. In summertime, the North Pole gets a little warmer than the South Pole.
And here’s something else you might not know. They have totally different animals. Penguins can be found at the South Pole, but never at the North Pole, while polar bears can only be found at the North Pole, but never at the South Pole. People get this wrong all the time—like this commercial has a cartoon showing polar bears meeting up with penguins. That would never happen in real life since they’re at opposite poles from each other.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Elizabeth, for asking it. Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and found three questions submitted to me that I’m thinking about answering. When this video’s done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from—why does the moon change shapes, why do zebras have stripes, or how do bones keep you standing up? So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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