Mystery of the Lost Ball
Are you observant, curious, and ready to solve clues? What makes a ball move? Why do things roll, bounce, or stop? How do forces work? What is speed, and how can we measure movement? The Lucas Detective Agency series promotes and encourages critical thinking, incorporating STEM subjects into the storytelling in a fun and adventurous way.
Transcription for Mystery of the Lost Ball
Please note this transcript is generated automatically and may contain errors.
Hi, Poppy. Hello, Lu. What seems to be the matter? We have lost Lu’s favorite ball in Marple Forest. Oh, dear. He does look very sad. Yes. He has been sad all day. We were playing in the clearing in the forest, and I threw Lu’s ball maybe a little harder than I planned. He ran to get it and was away for ages, but he came back without it. Did you try to look for it? Yes, but I couldn’t remember which direction it went in, and even after looking for a while, I couldn’t see it anywhere.
It was just like it had disappeared. Hmm. Seems like a problem for Detective Lucas. Lucas, Lu is quite dirty. Do you think we could work out which section of Marple Forest the ball might be in based on the dirt on Lu’s feet? Great idea, Yoby. Let’s get the testing kit out. Detective Lucas top tip: soil samples are used by detectives to find the location the soil may have come from. When soil is analyzed, we can see the different makeup of chemicals, nutrients, and its composition, and we can match it to other soil samples.
I will get the samples we keep from the forest. Each sample is from a different section of Marple Forest. When we test the dirt from Lu’s foot, we should be able to work out which section of the forest he ran into to find his ball. Great idea. Then we can narrow down where to look. Oh, I can see that these samples all feel quite different. A great observation, Poppy. We have three different types of soil. Sandy, silt, and clay. Sandy will feel grainy like sand. Silt is smoother, more like talcum powder.
And I bet this one is clay. It seems a bit stickier. Correct, Poppy. You are becoming a soil expert. These samples are from the east and south sections of Marple Forest. So, we need to test the soil from Lu’s fur and see if any of them match. Exactly. And I know just the sample. This soil in Lu’s fur is clay. See how it is wet and sticky? Great. That narrows it down. We need to look in the east and south. But that is still quite a lot of searching to do.
Can we use the leaves stuck in his fur? Great idea, Poppy. We can check our records to see which leaves are on Lu and where they grow in Marple Forest. I will collect a sample. I think we have a chart for this. Yoby, call up our digital database. Wow, that’s really cool. We can use this chart to see which trees match the leaves we have found on Lu’s fur. Well, we know it won’t be any of the leaves from the north or the west, so we can ignore those.
Yoby, can you scan the trees in the south part of the forest, please? Of course. Looks like it isn’t the south side of the forest. Time to check the east side. Certainly. Looks like we are going to the east section of Marple Forest. Looks like he knows where he is going. Let’s go. Hmm, that’s very high up. I’ll get it. I thought he couldn’t find his ball, but he must just not have been able to reach it. Maybe I won’t throw it as hard next time. Another mystery solved by Detective Lucas.