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Try It Yourself!
Years ago, a book called
The Farmers’ Almanac
published an equation
which can be used to find the approximate temperature based on the num-
ber of cricket chirps. To find the approximate temperature in degrees Fahr-
enheit, count the number of chirps for 14 seconds and then add 40 to that
number. This will give you approximately the correct temperature.
Is this accurate? Try it yourself and see.
Materials
• Stopwatch
• Outdoor thermometer
• Outdoor crickets or purchased from pet store
• Evening between 55 and 100 degrees F
Summer Buzzin’
Have you ever heard a
cicada? If you have, you probably
wouldn’t forget it. These insects
are the noisiest insects anywhere.
One male can make a noise of
over 100 decibels. A jet airplane
traveling 1000 feet in the air only
makes a noise of 90 decibels! Now
imagine thousands of male cicadas
making that same noise. Every 13
to 17 years, some species emerge from underground, make a huge racket,
mate, and then lay eggs in the ground. That is the entire life cycle. But they sure
make a lot of noise while they are here.