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(phone rings)

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- Hi, it's Jay.

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I grew up in Wisconsin,
and in the wintertime,

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it would get really cold,

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but me and my friends didn't
mind because winter meant snow.

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We'd build snow forts
and have snowball fights.

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We'd sled down the hill across
the street from my house.

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There's just so many fun things
you can do in the winter.

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Someone named Ray is curious

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about another fun thing
to do in the winter.

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Let's give Ray a call now.

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(phone rings)

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- Hi, Jay.

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- Hi, Ray.

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- I have a question for you.
Who invented ice skates?

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- Ooh, that's a great question.

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Ice skating is so much fun.

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You put on your skates,
head to an ice rink or pond,

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and off you go, zooming across the ice.

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But you can do a lot more than just zoom.

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You can jump and twist
and do all sorts of tricks

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like Starr Andrews.

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She's one of the best
figure skaters in the world.

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Doing jumps and tricks on ice skates

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is a sport called figure skating,

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but figure skating isn't the only thing

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you can do on skates.

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You can do a lot more.

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Before I go on, I'm curious.

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What are some other things
you can do on ice skates?

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Now would be a good time to
pause the video and discuss.

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Okay. Are you ready?

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I'm not sure what you
answered, but some of you

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may have said you can play sports

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like hockey or speed skating.

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And you're right. A lot of
people play sports on skates.

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But do you know what?

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Ice skates weren't
invented to play sports.

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They were invented to solve a problem.

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You're looking at a
country called Finland,

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and though we're not totally sure,

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we think that this is the area

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where some of the first
ice skates were invented.

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See all the lakes? Finland
has over 187,000 lakes.

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Whoa, that's a lot.

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People use lakes for all
sorts of different things.

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You can fish in them and
you can get water from them.

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But thousands of years ago,
lakes could also be a problem,

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especially in the winter
when the water would freeze.

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See, in the summer, you could take a boat

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across the lake to go hunting

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or visit other villages
or meet with friends.

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But in the winter, that
was kind of hard to do.

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Sure, you could try to walk
across the frozen lakes,

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but have you ever tried to walk on ice?

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It's really slippery and
really difficult to walk on.

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You could slip and hurt yourself.

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So instead, people had to
walk all the way around

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frozen lakes to get to the other side,

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and that could take a really long time,

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longer than going across.

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We're not sure exactly who it was,

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but the people around this
area decided to try something.

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What if they put something
on the bottom of their shoes

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so that they could slide across the ice?

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They probably tried a lot of things,

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but one thing that worked
pretty well was bones.

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That's right, bones.

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They drilled holes into animal bones

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and tied them to the bottom of their shoes

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with leather straps, kind
of like what you see here.

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The bones they used were flat and oily,

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which meant they were really slippery

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so they could slide across
the ice really well.

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In fact, they slid too well
in all different directions,

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which made it kind of hard to move forward

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or turn without falling down.

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(skater groans)

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So skaters had to use a stick
to push forward and turn.

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Skates like these helped people who lived

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in the area Finland a long time ago

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take shortcuts across lakes

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instead of going all the way around them.

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This saved a lot of time
and energy, and over time,

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people in cold places all over
the world started using them,

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places like the Netherlands.

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See all the canals?

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The Netherlands has a lot of them,

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and guess what happens in the winter?

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That's right. They freeze.

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The people who lived here a long time ago

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started ice skating on those
frozen canals to get around,

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kind of like we used freeways,

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but instead of cars,
they would use skates.

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Pretty cool.

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Now, bone skates were good,

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and people used them
for thousands of years,

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but you may have noticed
that our skates today

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aren't made out of bones anymore,

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and there's a good reason for that.

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Remember how it was hard
to go forward or turn

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with bone skates, so
you had to use a stick

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to push off and keep your balance?

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Well, we're not sure exactly when,

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but after thousands of years,

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the people thought of a way

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to make their ice skates
easier to control.

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Instead of using bones for the blades,

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they started making the
blades out of metal.

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They'd attach the metal to
wooden blocks like this.

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The metal skates were a
lot easier to control,

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but they didn't stop there.

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After a while, some skaters
started sharpening their blades

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so they could slide
more easily over the ice

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than bone skates did.

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These sharp metal blades worked great,

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so great you didn't need a stick

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to push off and turn anymore.

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Like the ice skates we're used to today,

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you could just push off with your legs.

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So cool.

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Over hundreds of years, people figured out

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more and more ways to
make ice skates better.

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They figured out how to
attach the blades to a boot

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with screws so you
didn't have to strap them

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onto your shoes anymore.

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And have you ever seen one of these?

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It's called a toe pick.

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Toe picks were added to
the tip of some ice skates

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to help skaters stop
and do tricks like this.

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Who knows what ice skates
will look like in the future?

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Will they have motors like these?

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I hope so.

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So in summary, the first
ice skates were invented

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thousands of years ago when
people started strapping

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animal bones to their shoes
to help them get around

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in the winter.

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But ice skates have come
a long way since then,

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from sharp metal blades that
slide easily over the ice

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to skates with toe picks
that let you do tricks.

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That's all for this week's question.

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Thanks, Ray, for asking it.

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Now, we'll be back with a new
episode in a couple of weeks,

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but in the meantime,

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here's some older questions
from the question jar.

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You can vote on which one

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you think we should send out next week.

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You can choose from,
how do batteries work?

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Why do cats purr, or how are books made?

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So, submit your vote
when the video's over.

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We want to hear from all of you watching.

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There are mysteries all around us.

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Stay curious and see you next week.