Q & A

Do you kow what the hottest place on Earth is? Can rocks grow? How far does dust blow in the wind? How long is a martian year?
Test your knowledge of scientific facts and figures with these 101 questions from Live Science.

If you'd prefer the more ethereal, philosophical, or just bizarre, unexpected, trivial and perverse kind of questions (Who invented buttons? How do you mend a broken heart? Do I need a mobile phone?) try The Guardian's Notes and Queries, an old favourite. This is a very popular site in which for more than 15 years readers have been posting questions and answers to what you always wanted to know and were too afraid to ask. It comes in different categories depending on your field of interest.

And if you want to go really deep into the core of philosophy the 10 big questions will probably give you food for thought and leave you wondering.

**Browse through the questions, play with the answers, and make sure you perfectly understand word order in the different types of questions (direct, indirect, subject, object, etc)

OK then, any questions (or answers) anybody?

Chunking and gridding

Those of you who have kids at primary school level should start brushing up on your maybe long forgotten maths skills. This year British kids will be learning an apparently better method for long divisions and multiplications. Except for those of us who have always had problems with numbers, it's easy to do 3 times 4 (4 x 3), but try "twenty-three times three hundred and five" (305 x 23)!
- Not clear enough ? In this BBC article " Why parents can't do Maths today" you'll find more step by step explanations, instructions and also, quite interesting, parents' opinions.
- And Here you can test your skills at basic addition, subtraction, times tables, etc. and also learn some maths vocabulary.

Don't ask me. It's all Greek to me .