Ask Marilyn

Here’s a puzzle. What do these words have in common: bother, favorite, mistake, pastry, portable, product?

— Bill Shaw, Burke, Va.

If you want to ponder this on your own, readers, stop here. The answer appears in the next paragraph.

Each term contains two adjacent words if you allow the last letter of the first word to be the first letter of the last word. Confused? These are the words: bother = both + her; favorite = favor + rite; mistake = mist + take; pastry = past + try; portable = port + table; product = prod + duct. For good brain exercise, try thinking of more, such as threshold = thresh + hold and pastime = past + time.

A spinning top always stops. Why does the Earth keep spinning?

— R. W., St. Louis, Mo.

A child's top is soon stopped by friction and gravity. The spinning Earth, however, is immense compared to the frictional and gravitational forces that act upon it, so it continues to spin. Not that the planet is entirely unaffected. For example, the tidal pull of the moon is gradually slowing the Earth’s axial rotation. Back when dinosaurs were in charge, a day lasted about 22 hours; millions of years in the future, a day may last 26 hours. In addition, major earthquakes can slightly alter the Earth's mass, causing a minute change in the length of the day, making it either shorter or longer.

Send questions to marilyn@parade.com