100 Top Science Trivia Questions and Answers

1. What is the unit measurement for the activity of a radioactive source? The Becqueral
(Bq). 1 Bq = 1 disintegration per second
2. If you mix all light colours, do you get black, white or a rainbow? White. Technically
adding all colours of light together is called colour addition.
3. How many separate patents did Thomas Edison file? 1093!
4. Is a white gold ring pure gold? White gold is usually an alloy of gold and a white metal
such as silver and palladium. Nickel is no longer used due to skin allergies. What is ‘fools
gold’? Iron pyrite crystals.
5. What is the symbol for Silver? Ag
6. What does ATP stand for? Adenosine triphosphate, the molecule that is used for energy
by all cells
7. What survives impacting Earth’s surface; a meteor, a meteorite or an asteroid?
Meteorite.
8. What is the strongest known magnet in the Universe? A Neutron Star
9. Which is the hottest planet in the solar system? Venus, surface temperature 460oC
10. How far is the moon away from Earth? Around 376 600 km away.
11. Where does sound travel faster; water or air? Water.
12. What is opposite to matter? Antimatter.
13. Do have the same number of neck vertebrae as giraffe’s? Yes.
14. How much salt does the average human body contain? Around 250 grams.
15. If I kept walking in a straight line on a flat surface with no visible features, is it
possible to walk in circles eventually? People often favor one leg over the other. It is
possible that over time the discrepancy between the two leg strides may indeed cause
you to walk in circles.
16. Why do bubbles pop? They get too dry from the surrounding air.
17. What is the Law of Conservation of Energy? The energy of the Universe is constant; it
can neither be created or destroyed but only transferred and transformed.
18. True or false – there are 206 bones in an adult human body and 300 bones in an
infants body? True. Some bones in infants skulls have not yet fused together.
19. True or false- most of the dust in your home is made of human skin? True – up to
70%!
20. Can you lick your elbow? No. Now be honest, did you try?
21. If you go into space, do you get taller? Yes, the cartilage disks in your spine expand
under zero gravity.
22. What does a manometer measure? The pressure of a closed system.
23. What is the unit measurement for the activity of a radioactive source? The Becqueral
(Bq). 1 Bq = 1 disintegration per second
24. If you mix all light colours, do you get black, white or a rainbow? White. Technically
adding all colours of light together is called colour addition.
25. How many separate patents did Thomas Edison file? 1093!
See also: 100 Hard Trivia Questions and Answers
26. What type of organism makes up the oldest known fossil?Blue-green algae from
South Africa at 3.2 billion years old.
27. What does the Scoville Heat Unit Scale measure?The heat of chilies
28. Is a tomato a fruit or vegetable?A fruit.
29. Why do bubbles pop? They get too dry from the surrounding air.
30. What is the Law of Conservation of Energy? The energy of the Universe is constant; it
can neither be created or destroyed but only transferred and transformed.
31. What is the name given to planets outside our solar system? Extrasolar planets
32. Which is the rarest blood type in humans? AB negative. <1% of the population
33. Why does eyesight change as you get older? The eye’s lens continues to grow
throughout life, becoming thicker and less transparent.
34. True or false; nitroglycerine can be used to treat heart attacks? True. It dilates blood
vessels.
35. What Australian timber made the London docks?Turpentine; Syncarpia glomulifera
36. What is Xylem?The hollow woody tissue in plants that carries water and minerals
from the roots to throughout the entire plant
37. What is the scientific name of a Sydney Blue Gum?Eucalyptus saligna
38. Where is the largest known meteorite crater on Earth? Vredefort Ring in South Africa,
299km diameter!
39. What causes an Aurora? Charged particles from solar wind
40. What temperature and pressure is needed to convert graphite into a diamond? 3000
degrees celsius and 100,000 atmospheres. That’s 10132500 kPA, at least 20,000 times
more pressure than the pressure inside the average bike tire!
41. What is a buret? A long tube of glass usually marked in 0.1mL units that’s equipped
with a stopcock for the controlled addition of a liquid to a receiving flask
42. What is the hardest substance in the human body? Tooth enamel.
43. What is trepanning? An ancient form of medicine which involved making holes in
human skull to relieve pressure; don’t try at home!
44. What is the longest type of cell in the body? The nerve cell (neuron).
45. What does bile do in you body? Emulsify fats in the small intestine
46. Which is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature? Mercury (melting point of
-38.87 deg Celsius). Room temperature is usually defined as 25 deg. Celsius. Gallium
gets close to also melting at room temperature > it’s melting temperature is 29.78 deg.
Celsius… almost made it!
47. Who invented the first battery? Count Alessandro Volta
48. What is a Pyrogen? A substance that causes fever.
49. Where would you find your pinna? It’s your outer ear (the bit you see made out of
cartilage)
50. Who has more hair follicles, blondes or brunettes? Blondes.
See Also: 100 Free Trivia Questions and Answers

50 More Science Trivia Questions and Answers

51. Which is the only Australian mammal restricted to alpine environments?The Mountain
Pygmy Possum
52. How old is our Sun? 5 billion years… we think…
53. True or false; when lighting hits a tree the water inside the tree boils and expands,
blowing the tree apart? True
54. What is the world’s tallest grass?Bamboo. Some species reach up to 39 metres in
height.
55. Is Obsidian an igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic rock? Igneous.
56. Which country has the longest coastline? Canada, due to the number of northern
islands.
57. Is a Tsunami and a tidal wave the same thing? No. Tsunamis are caused by water
displacement as a result of an undersea earthquake or a landslide. Tidal waves are
caused by the moon & Sun’s gravitational pull combined with prevailing winds and water
currents.
58. What is the definition of dust? A particle small enough to be carried by air currents.
59. When was the first seismograph invented? Approximately A.D. 200 in China
60. Is the stratosphere above or below the troposphere? Extending 50km above the
troposphere

61. Where does sound travel faster; water or air? Water.

62. What is opposite to matter? Antimatter.
63. True or false; your body’s temperature rises slightly during digestion? True
64. Where are the three smallest bones in the human body? What are they called? In the
middle ear. Collectively called ossicles, the 3 bones are the Malleus (hammer), Incus
(anvil) & Stapes (stirrup).
65. What’s the lifespan of a human red blood cell? Around 120 days.
66. True or false; A modern human’s brain is smaller than a Neanderthal’s brain?
67. What is the collective name of animals and plants that live on a lake bottom?Benthos
68. What is the largest living structure on Earth?The Great Barrier Reef, Australia
69. What is oldest living thing known on Earth?A bristlecone pine in California… it’s about
4600 years old!
71. What’s the highest recorded surface wind speed? 372km/h! Over Mt Washington, New
Hampshire on April 12, 1934.
72. What is the name of the layer of air closest to us in the atmosphere? Troposphere
73. True or false – is lightning 3 times hotter than the Sun? True
74. What formation on Earth can have the names tabular, blocky, wedge, dome,
pinnacle, dry dock, growler or bergy bit? Icebergs
75. Which crystalline formations are on cave ceilings; stalagmites or stalactites?
Stalactites.

76. What does a manometer measure? The pressure of a closed system.

77. True or false – sterling silver is pure silver? False. It contains up to 7.5% copper
78. Which chemical causes the burning taste sensation when eating chilies? Capcaicin
79. Which planet is closest to the sun? – Mercury.
80. What is the sun made out of? – The Sun is at present, about 70% hydrogen and 28%
helium by mass everything else amounts to less than 2%
81. Where is the Suez Canal? – Egypt
82. What’s the Symbol to iron? – Fe
83. Does the sun rotate? – The movements of the sunspots indicate that the Sun rotates
once every 27 days at the equator, but only once in 31 days at the poles.
84. How big is the Milky Way? – The Milky Way is actually a giant, as its mass is probably
between 750 billion and one trillion solar masses, and its diameter is about 100,000 light
years.
85. Who was the last president of the Soviet Union? – Mikhail Gorbachev.
86. What political system was gradually dismantled in South Africa, starting in 1989? –
Apartheid.
87. What’s the first name of Shakespeare? – William
88. Where is the Leaning Tower of Pisa? – Pisa, Italy.
89. How much bigger is the sun than the earth? A: The Earth is about 13 thousand
kilometers (8000 miles) wide, whereas the Sun is roughly 1.4 million kilometers (900,000
miles) across. If the Sun were a hollow ball, you could fit about one million Earths inside
of it!
90. How old is the earth? -The earth is about 4.5 billion years old.
91. How old is the universe? – The Universe is at least 15 billion years old, but probably
not more than 20 billion years old.
92. Which planet spins the fastest? – Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in our solar
system rotating on average once in just under 10 hours.
93. Where is Notre Dame? – Paris
94. Where is the Pyrenees? – Between Spain and France.
95. What bird was domesticated first? The first bird domesticated by man was the goose.
96. Why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo? – No one knows.
97. What is the Milky Way? – The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy.
98. What star other than the sun is closest to the earth? – It is Proxima Centauri, the
nearest member of the Alpha Centauri triple star system.
99. The Golden Gate Bridge? – San Francisco, California, USA.
100. Where is Broadway? – New York City, USA.