Carole Fruman, age 11, of Lansing, Mich., for her question:

Why is the South Pole colder than the North Pole?

As the seasons change, the watery seas tend to warm up and cool off faster than the land beside them. In the winter the oceans tend to be warmer than the neighboring continents, and in summer they are cooler. They also avoid extremes of heat and cold because their liquid waters are always mixing warmer and Cooler currents from thf tropics and the polar regions.

The north and south polar regions get the same amount of sunshine during the year. But the North Pole is under the Arctic Ocean, and the South Pole is in the middle of the continent of Antarctica. Like all oceans, the Arctic Ocean is somewhat warmer than the land around it. Like all land masses, the Antarctic tends to be somewhat colder than the ocean waters around it.