Science Quiz

Question: What is the name of the first human ancestral fossil found in the year 1974?

Answer: Lucy is the nickname for a remarkably complete (40 percent intact) hominin skeleton found by Donald Johanson at Hadar, Ethiopia on Nov. 24, 1974, and dated to 3.2 million years ago. The specimen is usually classified as Australopithecus afarensis. It suggests having long arms, short legs, an apelike chest, and jaw, a small brain but a relatively human-like pelvis. Lucy stood about 3 feet 7 inches (109 cm) tall and weighed about 60 pounds (27 kg).

Question: What causes dew?

Answer: Dew is the deposit of waterdrops formed at night by the condensation of water vapour from the air onto the surfaces of objects freely exposed to the sky. It forms on clear nights when the air is calm or, preferably, when the wind is light.

Question: Who invented the World Wide Web?

Answer: In the early 1990s, a group of computer scientists at CERN in Switzerland devised a way to send digital information over the Internet so that it could be accessed on a graphic user interface.

Question: Which of the following technological developments came first?

Answer: The first telescope is thought to have been built in the Netherlands in the early 1600s, but Italian mathematician Galileo Galilei almost immediately popularized use of the "far seeing" device for scientific purposes.

Question: Who developed the theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen?

Answer: Antoine Lavoisier developed an experimentally based theory of the chemical reactivity of oxygen and coauthored the modern system for naming chemical substances.

Question: The scientific study of fishes is known as:

Answer: Ichthyology is the scientific study of fishes, including, as is usual with a science that is concerned with a large group of organisms, a number of specialized subdisciplines: e.g., taxonomy, anatomy (or morphology), behavioral science (ethology), ecology, and physiology.

Question: Who developed the carbon-14 dating technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens?

Answer: The carbon-14 method was developed by Willard F. Libby about 1946. It has proved to be a versatile technique of dating fossils and archaeological specimens from 500 to 50,000 years old. For this development, he was honored with the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1960.

Question: The unit of measuring the depth of water is called:

Answer: Fathom is the nautical unit for measuring the depth of water. It is equal to six feet (1.83 meters), which has long been used as a nautical unit of depth.

Question: The “hole” in the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere above Antarctica was discovered by:

Answer: The ozone layer is the region of the upper atmosphere, between roughly 15 and 35 km (9 and 22 miles) above Earth’s surface, containing relatively high concentrations of ozone molecules (O₃). Joseph Charles Farman a British atmospheric scientist discovered the “hole” in the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere above Antarctica. Farman’s observations provided evidence that rising levels of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were contributing to ozone depletion in the stratosphere.

Question: Faraday is a unit of measurement for:

Answer: Faraday is the unit of electricity used in the study of electrochemical reactions and equal to the amount of electric charge that liberates one gram equivalent of an ion from an electrolytic solution. It was named after the 19th-century English scientist Michael Faraday.

Question: Which of these chemical elements is heavier than iron?

Answer: The atomic weight of gold is 196.967, which makes it heavier than iron, which has an atomic weight of 55.845.

Question: Which of these gases solidifies to form dry ice?

Answer: Dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid form, a dense, snowlike substance that sublimes at −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F), used as a refrigerant, especially during the shipping of perishable products such as meats or ice cream.

Question: Which of these laws states that the pressure (p) of a given quantity of gas varies inversely with its volume (v) at a constant temperature?

Answer: Boyle’s law also called Mariotte’s law, establishes a relation concerning the compression and expansion of a gas at a constant temperature. This empirical relation, formulated by the physicist Robert Boyle in 1662, states that the pressure (p) of a given quantity of gas varies inversely with its volume (v) at constant temperature; i.e., in equation form, pv = k, a constant.

Question: In physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite what?

Answer: Newton’s third law of motion states that when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. In other words: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Question: Who was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa using a primitive microscope?

Answer: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was the first to observe bacteria and protozoa. His observations helped lay the foundations for the sciences of bacteriology and protozoology.

Question: What is the study of fungi called?

Answer: Mycology is the study of fungi, a group that includes the mushrooms and yeasts. Many fungi are useful in medicine and industry. Mycology also has important applications in the dairy, wine, and baking industries and in the production of dyes and inks.

Question: When was the first plastic made of artificial materials patented?

Answer: In 1909 a chemist named Leo H. Baekeland developed the first plastic made completely from synthetic (human-made) materials. Baekeland named the new material Bakelite.

Question: The capacity of a material to deform permanently in response to stress is called:

Answer: Ductility is the capacity of a material to deform permanently in response to stress. Most common steels, for example, are quite ductile and hence can accommodate local stress concentrations. Brittle materials, such as glass, cannot accommodate concentrations of stress because they lack ductility, and therefore fracture easily.

Question: What airplane has not been flown commercially since 2003?

Answer: The first commercial jet to travel faster than the speed of sound was the Concorde. Developed by Great Britain and France, it flew from 1976 until 2003.

Question: The Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods belong to the:

Answer: The major divisions of the Mesozoic Era are, from oldest to youngest, the Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period, and the Cretaceous Period. It is the second of Earth’s three major geologic eras of Phanerozoic time. The Mesozoic Era began 252.2 million years ago, following the conclusion of the Paleozoic Era.

Question: The process by which some animals locate distant or not visible objects through sound waves is known as:

Answer: Echolocation is a physiological process used by animals for detecting remote or unseen objects through sound waves that reflect back to the emitter by the objects. Echolocation is known to be employed by most bats (all members of the suborder Microchiroptera and one genus, Rousettus, of the Megachiroptera).

Question: How many laws are there in Kepler''s planetary motion?

Answer: Johannes Kepler, a German astronomer discovered three major laws of planetary motion. Kepler’s laws of planetary motion can be stated as follows: (1) All planets move about the Sun in elliptical orbits, having the Sun as one of the foci. (2) A radius vector joining any planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal lengths of time. (3) The squares of the sidereal periods (of revolution) of the planets are directly proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the Sun.

Question: Who invented the geodesic dome?

Answer: R. Buckminster Fuller, an American architect and designer, invented the geodesic dome in the 1940s. Many thousands of domes have been built according to his plans.

Question: The study of pollen and spores is known as:

Answer: Palynology is a scientific discipline concerned with the study of plant pollen, spores in both living and fossil form. The field is associated with the plant sciences as well as with the geologic sciences.

Question: This isotope of hydrogen is also known as heavy hydrogen:

Answer: Deuterium (D, or 2H), also called heavy hydrogen, is an isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus consisting of one proton and one neutron, which is double the mass of the nucleus of ordinary hydrogen (one proton). Deuterium has an atomic weight of 2.014. It is a stable atomic species found in natural hydrogen compounds to the extent of about 0.0156 percent.

Question: E = mc² is an equation which deals with:

Answer: E = mc² is Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity that expresses the fact that mass and energy are the same physical entity and can be changed into each other. In the equation, the increased relativistic mass (m) of body times the speed of light squared (c²) is equal to the kinetic energy (E) of that body.

Question: Who won the Nobel Prize for cultivating the poliomyelitis virus in tissue culture in 1954?

Answer: Frederick Chapman Robbins an American pediatrician and virologist who along with John Enders and Thomas Wellers, received the Nobel Prize for successfully cultivating the poliomyelitis virus in tissue culture in 1954.

Question: The only living reptiles that use a vertical limb posture in walking is:

Answer: The only living reptiles that use a vertical limb posture in walking are the crocodiles. When walking on land, crocodiles hold themselves high on all four legs. The characteristic sinusoidal (side-to-side) flexure of the body is caused by the movement of a front leg in concert with the opposing hind leg during each step. A cantilevered tail also balances the body. When moving quickly into the water from a bank, crocodiles slide on their bellies and push themselves forward with the feet. Crocodiles are also capable of galloping short distances.

Question: Fossilized tree resin is known as:

Answer: Amber is a fossil tree resin that has achieved a stable state through the loss of volatile constituents and chemical change after burial in the ground. Amber has been found throughout the world, but the largest and most significant deposits occur along the shores of the Baltic Sea.

Question: Who discovered X-rays?

Answer: X-rays were discovered in the year 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen while investigating the effects of electron beams (then called cathode rays) in electrical discharges through low-pressure gases.

Question: Who is the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes in two different fields?

Answer: Marie Curie was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and she is the only woman to win the award in two different fields.

Question: What kind of substance makes litmus paper turn blue?

Answer: Alkalies are any of the soluble hydroxides of the alkali metals—i.e., lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. Alkalies are strong bases that turn litmus paper from red to blue

Question: Who is the author of the book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes?

Answer: Stephen Hawking authored the book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes in the year 1988.

Question: Which of these laws establishes the relationship between the current and the voltage as directly proportional?

Answer: Ohm’s law describes the relationship between current, voltage, and resistance. The amount of steady current through a large number of materials is directly proportional to the potential difference, or voltage, across the materials. Ohm’s law mathematically expressed as V/I = R.

Question: Which of these trees is known as a living fossil?

Answer: Gingko is also called the maidenhair tree. It is the only living representative of the order Ginkgoales and is termed as the living fossil because it was once unclear that uncultivated ginkgo could grow in the wild.

Question: Two types of organisms deriving benefit from each other is known as:

Answer: Mutualism is an association between organisms of two different species in which each benefit. Mutualistic arrangements are most likely to develop between organisms with widely different living requirements. The partnership between nitrogen-fixing bacteria and leguminous plants is one example.

Question: Which of these chemicals help fruit to ripen?

Answer: Ethylene is a colorless and flammable gas. It is also a naturally occurring hormone in plants responsible for inhibiting growth, promotes leaf fall, and promotes the ripening of fruits.

Question: The male reproductive part of a flower is called the:

Answer: Stamen is the male reproductive part of a flower. The stamen consists of a long slender stalk, the filament, with a two-lobed anther at the tip. The anther consists of four saclike structures (microsporangia) that produce pollen for pollination.

Question: Who was the recipient of the first Nobel Prize for Physics?

Answer: Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was a recipient of the first Nobel Prize for Physics, in 1901, for his discovery of X-rays, which heralded the age of modern physics and revolutionized diagnostic medicine.

Question: The cultivation of plants in nutrient solutions without soil is known as:

Answer: Hydroponics, also known as aquaculture, or soilless culture, is the cultivation of plants in nutrient-enriched water without any mechanical support. The solution is composed of different fertilizer-grade chemical compounds containing varying amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—the major elements necessary for plant growth—and various trace, or minor, elements such as sulfur, magnesium, and calcium.

Question: Who among the following coined the term Dinosauria?

Answer: Richard Owen, British anatomist and paleontologist is known for his contribution to the study of fossil animals, especially dinosaurs. He was the first to recognize them as different from today’s reptiles and classified them in a group he called Dinosauria in 1842.

Question: Who is known as the father of the Green Revolution?

Answer: Norman Ernest Borlaug was an American agricultural scientist, a plant pathologist who was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. Known as the Father of the Green Revolution, Borlaug helped lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger.

Question: The layer of the atmosphere in which weather occurs is called the:

Answer: Weather occurs in the troposphere, which is the lowest region of the atmosphere. Most of the clouds and weather systems are contained within the troposphere.

Question: Which era is known as the age of mammals?

Answer: Cenozoic Era, the third of the major eras of Earth’s history, beginning about 66 million years ago and extending to the present. It was the interval of time during which the continents assumed their present-day configuration and geographic positions and during which Earth’s flora and fauna evolved toward those of the present

Question: Moths are a member of what order?

Answer: Moths are of the same order as butterflies, the lepidoptera. The name means "with scaly wings."

Question: What is the International System of Units (SI) name for a unit of magnetic flux?

Answer: Weber is the unit of magnetic flux in the International System of Units (SI). It is named after the German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber.

Question: Which of these is a form of energy which is due to an object or a particle''s motion?

Answer: Kinetic energy a form of energy that an object or a particle has because of its motion. If work, which transfers energy, is done on an object by applying a net force, the object speeds up and thereby gains kinetic energy.

Question: Cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus are types of:

Answer: Cloud, any visible mass of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of both that is suspended in the air, usually at a considerable height. Meteorologists classify clouds by their appearance. There are eight cloud families divided into three groups based on altitude. High clouds, found at mean heights above the ground of 13 to 5 km are cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus

Question: Who is known for creating the binomial nomenclature of plants?

Answer: Carolus Linnaeus Swedish naturalist and explorer is known for creating the binomial nomenclature of plant species.

Question: For what is the Jurassic period named?

Answer: The Jurassic period is named for the Jura Mountains, where many fossils have been found.

Question: Who discovered the four main moons of Jupiter in 1610?

Answer: The four main moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei in the year 1610. They were the four brightest moons of Jupiter, now called the Galilean satellites. In order of increasing distance from the planet, these satellites are called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Question: Who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018 for the invention of optical tweezers?

Answer: Arthur Ashkin is an American physicist who won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of optical tweezers, which use laser beams to capture and manipulate microscopic objects. He shared the prize with Canadian physicist Donna Strickland and French physicist Gérard Mourou.

Question: Which is the first private spacecraft to carry astronauts into orbit?

Answer: Dragon is a privately developed spacecraft built by the American corporation SpaceX and the first private spacecraft to carry astronauts to orbit. The first crewed flight launched on May 30, 2020, and carried astronauts Doug Hurley and Robert Behnken to the ISS.

Question: The plant tissue responsible for the transportation of water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant is:

Answer: Xylem is a plant vascular tissue that transports water and dissolved minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant and also provides physical support. Together with phloem (tissue that conducts sugars from the leaves to the rest of the plant), xylem is found in all vascular plants, including the seedless club mosses, ferns, horsetails, as well as all angiosperms (flowering plants) and gymnosperms (plants with seeds unenclosed in an ovary).

Question: The sea anemone is a member of what order?

Answer: Sea anemone is any member of the invertebrate order Actiniaria (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria), soft-bodied, primarily sedentary marine animals resembling flowers. They are found from the tidal zone of all oceans to depths of more than 10,000 meters (about 33,000 feet).

Question: Hafnium belongs to which group in the periodic table?

Answer: Hafnium belong to group 4(IVb) of the periodic table. Dirk Coster and George Charles discovered hafnium in 1923 by analyzing the X-ray spectra of Norwegian and Greenland zircons.

Question: Which of these particles was discovered by J.J. Thompson?

Answer: The electron was discovered in the year 1897 by the English physicist J.J. Thomson during investigations of cathode rays. His discovery of electrons, which he initially called corpuscles, played a pivotal role in revolutionizing knowledge of the atomic structure.

Question: Group 18 of the periodic table is made up of which elements?

Answer: Noble gas are any of the seven chemical elements that make up Group 18 (VIIIa) of the periodic table. The elements are helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), radon (Rn), and oganesson (Og). The noble gases are colorless, odorless, tasteless, nonflammable gases.

Question: A baby blue whale drinks this many liters of milk per day:

Answer: A baby blue whale drinks approximately 190 liters of milk each day. By contrast, a baby tiger drinks only about a liter of milk per day.

Question: Who discovered the composition of white light?

Answer: Sir Isaac Newton discovered the composition of white light, integrated the phenomena of colors into the science of light, and laid the foundation for modern physical optics.