One Race, Many Rules: teacher key

The Fastest Animals, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Fastest at what, measured how, and by whom? The record books depend on the questions we ask.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did the Botswana cheetah collars record?
   • Only heartbeats
   • Position, speed and movement (answer)
   • Only temperature
2. What did the cheetah study conclude about the cats?
   • They are slow
   • They never hunt
   • They rely on power, acceleration and agility, not top speed alone (answer)
3. Why is the 242 mph dive hard to compare with a wild falcon's dive?
   • The trained falcon started from a higher altitude than usual (answer)
   • The falcon was blind
   • It was measured underwater
4. What limits fish speed, according to the sailfish studies?
   • Cold water only
   • The color of the fish
   • Bubble damage and muscle twitch speed (answer)
5. Which animal is fastest relative to size, as of November 2026?
   • A cheetah
   • A southern California mite (answer)
   • A peregrine falcon

Words

• altimeter: height gauge
• biomechanist: motion scientist
• acceleration: speeding up
• ornithologists: bird scientists
• caveats: warnings