Marie Headrick, age 11, of Calabogie, Ontario for her question:

Why is every direction south from the north pole

Take a look at your gift globe and chances are you can figure out this one for yourself. The north pole is as far north as you can get on this earth of ours. It is the small spot at the top of the globe. There all the lines of longitude meet. They are the lines which run from north to south. The lines of latitude run from east to west in circles around the globe.

The biggest line of latitude is at the equator, around the wide waist of the world. Further north and south, the circles get smaller and smaller. Latitude 90 degrees north, which is at the North Poles is a mere dot. You could not walk around it from east to west or from west to east. As you stand there, every direction in which you look is south.