Brenda Leise, age 10, of Hartington, Nebraska, for her question:

How can a grasshopper jump so high?

The grasshopper has six sprightly legs. The two at the back are extra long and their thick thighs bulge with muscles. These are his mighty jumping muscles. Before he leaps, he squats with his back legs bent. He unbends them with a sudden jerk—and the strength of his leaping muscles sends him sailing through the air.

When he wishes or just for fun, a grasshopper can leap a distance of 30 inches. If he were as big as a man, he could jump right over two football fields, placed end to end. Sometimes he uses his wings to make even longer leaps. But his initial jump is made possible because of those bulging thigh muscles in his back legs