Science Trivia Questions VI

Position your cursor over the question mark found beside each question for the answer.


Whose 1988 book, "A Brief History of Time", sold 729,000 copies, about 728,000 of which were probably never read?

       a. Richard Feynman
       b. Carl Sagan
       c. Stephen Hawking
       d. Albert Einstein


What is the only even prime number?

       a. One
       b. Zero
       c. Two
       d. Ten


In 1989, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann claimed to have produced what frigid phenomenon?

       a. A solution to Fermat's Theorem
       b. Superconductivity
       c. Cold fusion
       d. Cloning


Although the Askesian Society was best known for sniffing laughing gas, it was here that English pharmacist Luke Howard presented his scheme for dividing what meteorological phenomenon into stratus, cumulus and cirrus?

       a. Rainbows
       b. Raindrops
       c. Clouds
       d. Hurricanes


What letters do you add to the name of an Austrian geneticist to get the name of the Russian chemist who designed the periodic table?

       a. EYEV
       b. OSKY
       c. IMOV
       d. CHEV


You know astronauts and cosmonauts. But what country was the third in space when it launched its taikonauts?

       a. India
       b. China
       c. Japan
       d. Taikoland


Sagittarius is aiming at the constellation that killed Orion. That constellation's brightest star is a red supergiant called Antares. What is it?

       a. Scorpius
       b. Ursa Major
       c. Perseus
       d. Taurus


Alchemist Henning Brandt is the first person known to have discovered an element. And he found it because he was fascinated with human urine. What is it?

       a. Phosphorus
       b. Sulfur
       c. Arsenic
       d. Methane


If you were being electrocuted, what exactly would kill you?

       a. The amperes
       b. The coulombs
       c. The ohms
       d. The volts


Imagine that it's midnight on December 31 and that the entire Earth was created just one year ago. On this time scale, how long have humans been on earth?

       a. 2 weeks
       b. 3 days
       c. 11 minutes
       d. Four months


What French mathematician and amateur theologian is said to have invented the roulette wheel en route to the perpetual motion machine?

       a. Blaise Pascal
       b. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
       c. Voltaire
       d. Antoine Lavoisier


Which of the following isn't true of organic sulfur compounds called thiols or mercaptans?

       a. Responsible for the smell of skunk spray
       b. Part of the aroma of garlic and coffee
       c. Active ingredient in marijuana
       d. Used so you can smell natural gas


Who says astronomers can't have a sense of humor? Massive astrophysical compact halo objects and weakly interacting massive particles may sound dull, but MACHOs and WIMPs may explain which intergalactic mystery?

       a. The source of dark matter
       b. The fate of black holes
       c. The edge of the universe
       d. Whether particle physicists or astrophysicists are more manly


Two people filed patents for the same invention on the same Valentine's Day in 1876. Who beat Elisha Gray by just hours?

       a. George Westinghouse
       b. Alexander Graham Bell
       c. Thomas Edison
       d. Robert Fulton


The constellation Sagittarius might have use for a constellation called Sagitta. What is Sagitta?

       a. An arrow
       b. A chariot
       c. A target
       d. A shield




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