19 Fast The Need for Speed

CHAPTER 1 What's Fast? THINK ABOUT THE WORD "FAST." WHAT DO YOU SEE? WHAT ARE THE FASTEST THINGS IN THE WORLD? Think about a group of horses running across green grass. Then think about a bird soaring through a blue sky. Now think about racecars speeding around a track. What is the same about these things? It's speed. They all move very, very fast. When you think about the horses, the bird, or the racecars, how do you feel? Maybe you feel excited. Maybe you feel happy. We love to watch things that move fast. We also love to run fast, drive fast, and swim fast. It is exciting and fun. What do you know about the fastest things in the world? Take the quiz! 1. The fastest animal in the world is a fish. True False 2. The fastest train in the world is in China. True False 3. The fastest insect can fly at 15 km/hour 35 km/hour 55 km/hour 4. In the world's fastest car, you can drive at 330 km/hour 430 km/hour 500 km/hour

CHAPTER 2 Fast in the Water IT IS DIFFICULT TO RUN IN WATER. YOUR LEGS FEEL SLOW AND HEAVY. BUT SOME PEOPLE, FISH, AND THINGS CAN MOVE VERY QUICKLY IN THE WATER. The fastest animal in the water is the sailfish. It swims at 110 kilometers an hour. It is called a sailfish because it has a long fin along its back. This fin looks like a sail on a boat. But the sailfish doesn't use its "sail" to swim fast. When the sailfish wants to go fast, it puts its fin flat on its back. Then it can move easily and quickly through the water. The fastest sea mammal is the orca, or killer whale. Orcas can swim at a speed of 48 kilometers an hour. Their speed helps them catch their food. Another fast animal in the water is not a fish— it's a person! In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, US swimmer Michael Phelps won six gold medals. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Phelps was the fastest man in the water. He won eight gold medals. And in the 2012 Olympics, Phelps won four more gold medals. He has more Olympic gold medals than anyone in the world— 18 in all! Why is he so fast? He has unusually long arms. From the fingertip on one hand to the fingertip on his other hand is 203 centimeters. This long wingspan helps him swim faster. His feet are very big, and his legs are very long and strong. He can get more power with every kick than most swimmers. Also, his heart is two times stronger than most other men's hearts.

Most people can't swim like a sailfish, like a killer whale, or like Michael Phelps. But, we can all move very fast in or on the water. How? We can move fast on the water by hydrofoiling. Hydrofoiling is a sport like water skiing. A person sits on a kind of ski behind a very fast boat. The person on the hydrofoil jumps and flips. F1 powerboats move very fast on the water, too. F1 powerboats are like Formula One cars. They go around a 350-meter course in the water. The powerboats speed around this course for about 45 minutes. They can go 240 kilometers an hour. Some people don't want to race. They just want to move fast on the water and have some fun. That's why many people enjoy riding on a jetski. They can speed across the water at about 100 kilometers an hour. Other people want to move fast across the water, but they don't want to get wet For these people, there is the Queen Mary 2, the fastest cruise ship in the world. It moves at a speed of about 55 kilometers an hour. That's not as fast as a jetski, but it has restaurants, stores, and lots more!

CHAPTER 3 Fast on Land ARE YOU FAST ON YOUR FEET? OR DO YOU LIKE FAST CARS? LIKE MANY ANIMALS, PEOPLE CAN ALSO MOVE FAST ON LAND. One of the fastest runners in the world is Jamaica's Usain Bolt. When he was a young boy, he loved playing football. When he played, Usain's teachers saw that he was very fast. They wanted him to run in races. He came in second in his first school race in 2001, and in 2002 he became the world champion in his age group. In the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Usain won gold medals in the 100-meter race, the 200-meter race, and the 4x100-meter race. And he set a world record in all three races! Four years later, in the 2012 Olympics in London, he won all three races again. He is the first man in the world to win all three races in two Olympics. How fast is Bolt? Very. He can run the 100 meters at a speed of 44.72 kilometers an hour. That's why he is called "Lightning Bolt"! Usain Bolt is fast, but there are land animals that are much faster. The cheetah is the fastest land animal. It can run 112 kilometers an hour. But that's not all. The cheetah can accelerate faster than any other animal. It can accelerate from 0 to about 100 kilometers an hour in only three seconds. That is faster than the fastest cars. The cheetah is really fast, but only for very short distances. For long distances, the pronghorn antelope is the champion of the animal world. It can run at more than 86 kilometers an hour for short distances and at about half that speed for many miles. In a marathon, the pronghorn antelope will finish the 42 kilometers in less than an hour.

It doesn't take legs or feet to be fast. The death adder snake does not have legs or feet to run. It hides and waits for its food. When a bird or other animal comes close, the snake moves its head really fast. The death adder can move its head and bite an animal in less than 0.15 seconds. That's lightning fast. It's so fast that people can't see it bite! The death adder is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, snake in the world. Do you need to go somewhere really fast? For $2,400,000, you can have the fastest car in the world. It's the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, and its fastest speed is 430 kilometers an hour. Or maybe you don't want to drive. There are many super fast trains in the world. The fastest one is in China. It takes only 3 hours and 58 minutes to travel between Shanghai and Beijing— a trip of 1,305 kilometers. The average speed of this train is 329 kilometers an hour. If you take this train, don't bring a long book!

CHAPTER 4 Fast in the Air PEOPLE TRY DIFFERENT WAYS TO SOAR LIKE BIRDS IN THE SKY. Many people fly in airplanes every day. What other ways do people fly? One way is called speed flying. What is speed flying? It's a cool new sport that people around the world are doing. You need skis, a type of parachute called a "wing," and a snowy mountain. Speed fliers begin skiing down a mountain. When they are going fast enough, they can use the wing to fly over parts of the mountain. Speed flying is an exciting sport that lets youski and fly. You can go fast on land and in the air! Speed fliers fly very, very fast. A speed flyer can fly down a mountain at up to 145 kilometers an hour. Speed fliers can go very fast, but they are much slower than the fastest bird in the world— the peregrine falcon. The peregrine falcon lives in many places on Earth. It hunts and eats other smaller birds. It can catch these birds at a speed of 322 kilometers an hour. That's three times faster than the cheetah! How can they go so fast? They have very, very strong wings. They also have really strong hearts and lungs.