Mark Puhalla, age 10, of Youngstown,Ohio, for his question:

HOW COLD IS ANTARCTICA?

Antarctica is the coldest part of the world  without a doubt. True, while we are in the midst of winter, it has a sort of summer season. But even then the warmest temperatures are almost freezing. At Christmas time, the regions around the edges of the great ice cap may have a few warm spells when the thermometer rises just above 32 degrees.  But farther inland, things never get this warm, even during the Antarctic summer season.

In winter the coastal regions drop to minus 40 and minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Farther inland the winter weather is around minus 100 degrees. In August, 1960, one of the south polar stations dropped to minus 126.9 degrees. This is the coldest cold spell ever recorded on the planet earth.