Page 37 - Bellfort Issue 3 2014

The ‘Flappy Bird’ phenomenon ‘Flappy Bird’ was a typical game available in most app stores. There was a real buzz about the game as soon as it was released because teenagers and children around the world were playing it fanatically. People said that the game was very addictive and that they couldn’t set their device down as they loved the game so much. After playing the game myself I also found it to be tremendously addictive and very fun to play. Everyone who played ‘Flappy Bird’ was trying to beat his or her highest score. People were also trying to beat the highest scores of their friends and family too. People started using cheats to beat their highest score and make their friends think they are very good at it. I personally think using cheats is a silly idea because it takes away the fun of playing the game and you would basically be lying to everyone you told about your score. th On 10 February, ‘Flappy Bird’ was removed from the market leaving fans very disap- pointed. If you had already downloaded the game you were safe and the game would still be installed. Although if you had not already downloaded it, you could no longer do SUMMER 2014 so. People started to sell their phones for huge amounts of money because they had ‘Flappy Bird’ installed on it and some people were foolish enough to actually buy these phones!! One person had advertised their phone on eBay with the descrip- tion, “iPhone 5 with rare ‘Flappy Bird’ installed” and the price was a ridiculous amount of £950. Could any game really be worth this price? Reported by John for BBC School News Report New Dwarf Planet Found! Recently, professional astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet in the outer parts of the solar system. It currently does not have a proper name but for now it will be known as 2012 VP113. This name was thought up as it was found in 2012. Until now it was thought to be a star just inside the solar system. Astronomer Chad Trujillo, head of Gemini Observatory in Hawaii discovered the object and confirmed it was a planet th on the 26 March 2014. It was officially published in the journal Nature. The question on every astronomers mind is how this planet was formed. How can such an object get out there? These questions were asked to head astronomer Chad Trujillo. He replied by saying that he didn’t have a clue. ‘This planet is far from nor- mal’, says Chad Trujillo. Its path of orbit is billions of miles away from the sun meaning it circles the sun from millions of miles. Its full orbit (the time it takes to complete a full circle of the sun) is farther than the or- bit of any other object we know of in the solar sys- tem. Reported by James, Lewis and Scott for BBC School Report 37