40 science quiz questions and answers

Four rounds of ten science questions: space, the human body, chemistry and physics, and science you meet every day. Tap Show answer to check each one.

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Round 1: Space

Which planet is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty?
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Venus
What is the lunar phase called when the Moon lies between Earth and the Sun, with its sunlit side facing away from us?
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New moon
How many moons does Mars have?
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2
Which English astronomer predicted that the comet seen in 1682 would return in 1758?
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Edmond Halley
On which lunar plain did the first crewed Moon landing take place?
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Sea of Tranquillity
Which American astronomer showed in the 1920s that the Andromeda 'nebula' was a separate galaxy far beyond the Milky Way?
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Edwin Hubble
What was the name of the Soviet space station whose first module was launched in 1986?
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Mir
Who became the first American in space, in May 1961?
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Alan Shepard
What name is given to the faint afterglow radiation from the early universe, whose discovery Penzias and Wilson reported in 1965?
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Cosmic microwave background
What is the name of the visible surface layer of the Sun?
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Photosphere

Round 2: The human body

Which part of a human cell contains the chromosomes?
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Nucleus
What shape is a DNA molecule, as described in 1953?
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Double helix
In which year was Louise Brown, the world's first 'test-tube baby', born in England?
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1978
How many milk teeth does a child normally have?
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20
What is the snail-shaped part of the inner ear that turns sound into nerve signals?
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Cochlea
What is the medical name for the gullet, the tube from the mouth to the stomach?
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Oesophagus
Which small organ stores bile until it is needed?
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Gallbladder
Which burning feeling in the chest, despite its name, is caused by stomach acid rising into the oesophagus?
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Heartburn
Which doctor traced an 1854 London cholera outbreak to a water pump in Broad Street?
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John Snow
Which Scottish doctor pioneered the use of chloroform as an anaesthetic in 1847?
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James Young Simpson

Round 3: Chemistry and physics

What is the name for the temperature at which a solid turns into a liquid?
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Melting point
According to Newton's second law of motion, force equals mass multiplied by what?
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Acceleration
What name is given to the flow of electric charge?
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Current
What word describes a reaction that gives out heat to its surroundings?
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Exothermic
Which technique separates the different coloured dyes in an ink using paper and a solvent?
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Chromatography
Which branch of physics, with laws numbered from zero to three, deals with heat, work and temperature?
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Thermodynamics
What name is given to a metal enclosure that shields its inside from external electric fields, helping protect people in a car struck by lightning?
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Faraday cage
What is the chemical symbol for tin?
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Sn
Which strong synthetic fibre, used in bulletproof vests, was invented by Stephanie Kwolek at DuPont?
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Kevlar
What name is given to a variable resistor used to control the current in a circuit, as in older light dimmers?
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Rheostat

Round 4: Everyday science

In his famous experiments of the 1660s, Isaac Newton split sunlight into a spectrum of colours using which triangular block of glass?
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A prism
Which is the largest muscle in the human body?
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Gluteus maximus
Why does a hot-air balloon rise?
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Hot air is less dense than the cold air around it
On a gas hob, what colour should the flame be when the gas is burning properly?
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Blue
In a double rainbow, what is unusual about the colours in the fainter outer bow?
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They are in reverse order
What name is given to a ring of light seen around the Sun or Moon, caused by ice crystals in high cloud?
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Halo
Archimedes' principle says the upthrust on an object in water equals the weight of what?
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The water it displaces
When you bang your 'funny bone', which nerve are you actually knocking?
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Ulnar nerve
What name is given to the slow glow given off by glow-in-the-dark stickers after the lights are switched off?
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Phosphorescence
Bubble wrap was originally invented in 1957 as what?
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Textured wallpaper

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