Science Trivia Questions VIII

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


In 2001, a physicist named John Keogh used a loophole in Australian law to patent a "circular transportation facilitation device". By what name is this device usually known?

       a. Perpetual motion machine
       b. Wheel
       c. Bicycle
       d. Running shoes


Which Wright brother was actually at the controls when their plane first flew?

       a. Wilbur
       b. Orville
       c. Cecil
       d. Douglas


Who reportedly shouted "Eureka!" when his bath revealed the secret to finding an object's density?

       a. Pythagoras
       b. Euclid
       c. Archimedes
       d. Socrates


Which American became famous for conducting an insane 1752 experiment with a kite and a key in a thunderstorm to prove that atmospheric electricity causes lightning?

       a. Thomas Edison
       b. John James Audubon
       c. Benjamin Franklin
       d. James Whistler


All 12 people who walked on the Moon did so in whose presidency?

       a. Lyndon Johnson
       b. John Kennedy
       c. Richard Nixon
       d. Gerald Ford


By applying electric current to dead frogs' legs, I got the legs to twitch, and became convinced that this "animal electricity" was its life force. Who am I?

       a. Antoine Lavoissier
       b. Alessandro Volta
       c. Luigi Galvani
       d. Benjamin Franklin


This bookbinder's apprentice had no formal education, but picked up enough science to get a job as Humphry Davy's assistant and then went on to revolutionize electromagnetic theory. Who was he?

       a. Michael Faraday
       b. Isaac Newton
       c. William Gilbert
       d. James Clerk Maxwell


Mathematician Bertrand Russell won a Nobel Prize, even though there is no Nobel Prize for Mathematics. In what field?

       a. Peace
       b. Literature
       c. Economics
       d. Square Dancing


To a meteorologist, March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. But if you're an astrologer, March comes in like a Pisces and out like what sign?

       a. Aries
       b. Aquarius
       c. Taurus
       d. Gemini


If Ralph Kramden even did manage to send Alice "to the Moon", how far would she have had to travel?

       a. 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles)
       b. 3,844 kilometers (238,857 miles)
       c. 38,440 kilometers (238,857 miles)
       d. 3,843,033 kilometers (238,857 miles)


The first astronauts were military test pilots. Who was the first US civilian in space?

       a. Neil Armstrong
       b. Jake Garn
       c. Christa McAuliffe
       d. Harrison Schmitt


Aside from the fact that it's a flying saucer, what else is unusual about a spy plane called the DarkStar?

       a. It is used exclusively by civilians
       b. It can become invisible at night
       c. It has no pilot
       d. It can reach the Moon and back


When the Montgolfier brothers launched their first balloon, whom or what was it carrying?

       a. A duck, rooster and sheep
       b. France's crown prince
       c. The brothers themselves
       d. Weather instruments


Shortly after winning the Nobel Prize, Pierre Curie died. What killed him?

       a. Radiation poisoning
       b. A bad egg
       c. A horse-drawn carriage
       d. Marie Curie's gun


Arguably, Germany's Heinrich Gobel, Britain's Joseph Swan and Canada's Henry Woodward all beat Thomas Edison to which of his inventions?

       a. Light bulb
       b. Motion pictures
       c. Phonograph
       d. Radio




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