Chuck Babbin, age 13, of Billings, Mont., for his question:

WHO INVENTED SKIING?

We don't know exactly who invented skiing, but we know that there is a pair of skiis in a Stockholm, Sweden museum that is about 5,000 years old. Historians tell us that the Scandinavians came up with the idea of skiing to solve the transportation problem in regions with heavy snowfalls.

Skis were used for military purposes during a battle between Norway and Sweden in 1200 and later between the Swedes against Denmark.

Skiing as a sport probably started in the early 1800s. Norwegian immigrants brought it to the United States in the mid 1800s.

Skis made many hundreds of years ago were made of the bones of large animals. Now skis are made of wood, metal or fiberglass that is reinforced with epoxy, which is a strong plastic.

The first winter Olympic games which featured skiing took place in France in 1924.