Spending more time at home and looking for fun things to do? How about challenging a friend or family member to our trivia quiz? You can get together with them over Zoom or Google Hangouts and find out just how much you know about science! Who will get the most questions right?
#1 Name six human body parts that have only three letters. (There are at least ten.)
#2 Which is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature?
#3 The name of which common disease comes from the Italian words for “bad air”?
#4 In a popular “home experiment”, adding confectionary A to carbonated beverage B in a bottle catalyses the release of gas from the beverage, creating an eruption (or “geyser”) that quickly pushes the liquid out of the bottle. What are A and B?
#5 What do you call the muscles found at the front of the thighs?
#6 Which planet is orbited by 27 known moons (most of them named after characters from Shakespeare)?
#7 What type of rock floats in water?
#8 What “wonder drug” was discovered in 1928?
#9 What is the second most common eye colour in the world? (It’s estimated that 8 to 10 percent of people have this eye colour.)
#10 Place these five scientists in chronological order of their birth: Einstein, Copernicus, Hawking, Darwin, Aristotle
#11 What do you call a meteor after it has hit the ground?
#12 Does sound move faster or slower in water?
#13 One type of adult human tooth is the premolar. What are the other three types?
#14 Nimbostratus is a type of what?
#15 Produced between 1982 and 1994, what is considered the best selling personal computer of all time?
#16 What, starting with “T”, do you call a treeless plain of frozen soil found in polar regions?
#17 Approximately how many kilometres would you need to travel upwards from sea level to reach space: 100, 280, 1010?
#18 What famous structure in Europe is estimated to be around 15cm taller in summer on account of the thermal expansion of its metal?
#19 The Beaufort scale is used to measure what?
#20 What word do you get when you run the chemical symbols for Germanium, Nickel, Uranium and Sulphur together?
BONUS: What science-fiction film am I?
(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)
I was released in 2015. (10)
I’m based on a book by Andy Weir. (9)
I grossed almost US$600 million worldwide. (8)
I was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but didn’t win any. (7)
My main character is an astronaut. (6)
My cast includes Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Kristen Wiig. (5)
I was directed by Ridley Scott. (4)
My main character, Mark Watney, is played by Matt Damon. (3)
I am set on Mars. (2)
I am The _____? (1)
All the answers (no cheating!)
#1 Eye, Hip, Leg, Jaw, Lip, Rib, Ear, Toe, Gum, Arm
#2 Mercury
#3 Malaria
#4 Mentos and Diet Coke (it works with variations on these, but they are the best known)
#5 Quadriceps
#6 Uranus
#7 Pumice
#8 Penicillin
#9 Blue
#10 Aristotle, Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein, Hawking
#11 Meteorite
#12 Faster
#13 Molar, incisor and canine
#14 Cloud
#15 Commodore 64
#16 Tundra
#17 100
#18 Eiffel Tower
#19 Wind speed
#20 Genius
BONUS: The Martian
Looking for more fun ideas? Head to our Things To Do section!
