50/50 in Science V Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Because sound requires a medium to travel through, like air or solid objects, sound can't be heard in the vacuum of space, even if you're trying to make a sound there.

In outer space scenes of some science fiction films, sounds, like explosions and ship engines, are deceptively heard, contradicting that law of nature.

Answer: False

The most generally accepted theory is that the Moon formed when a defunct Mars-size planet, named Theia, collided with the newborn Earth. This is based on the studies of moon rocks brought back by Apollo astronauts.

Answer: False

Carbon monoxide and dioxide are practically the only carbon oxides that people talk about it, but these are not the only carbon oxides in existence. Examples of less familiar compounds are carbon trioxide (CO3), carbon suboxide (C3O2), and mellitic anhydride (C12O9). Many of those compounds are metastable at room temperature or are only stable at low temperatures. Many carbon oxides reside in the interstellar medium, where temperatures are low enough to be stable.

Carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are found in traces in the Earth's atmosphere, but carbon dioxide is a thousand times more abundant. Carbon dioxide is a gas we breathe out, a gas plants need for photosynthesis, a product of combustion, and a greenhouse gas. Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that is the product of incomplete combustion.

Answer: True

According to general relativity, space and time are interwined in what is called space-time. Space makes up the first three dimensions and time occupies the fourth dimension. The interconnection between space and time is what makes time travel mathematically possible.

Answer: True

A substance that affects a chemical reaction while not getting affected by it is called a catalyst. A familiar example of a catalyst is the enzyme, a vital component of organisms. If there's no such thing as a catalyst, then there's no such thing as life!

Answer: True

Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down, mainly due to tidal forces applied by the Moon. The days lengthen by two milliseconds every century.

Answer: True

Black holes are collapsed remains of massive stars. Black holes have mass ranging from the mass of our Sun to millions of times the Sun's mass. The size of a black hole is determined by the radius in which the light couldn't escape from it. The rim where the escape velocity equals the speed of light is called event horizon. At the exact center is singularity, which has no size but has mass.

Black holes appear black because light can't escape its monstrous gravity and hence light can't be seen from outside. That's how the term 'black hole' was originated.

Answer: True

Flipping component numbers in the fraction is used especially in dividing fractions. For example, the reciprocal of 3/4 is 4/3.

To divide fractions, we flip the second fraction, then multiply. Dividing numbers is equal to multiplying their reciprocals, and vice versa.

Answer: True

Examples: 1 divided by 9 is 0.111111...; 3 divided by 99 is 0.03030303...; 9 divided by 999 is 0.009009009...; 27 by 99 is 0.272727272727...; 81 by 999 is 0.081081081081...; 243 by 999 is 0.243243243243243... This is only true for numbers where the starting number has an equal number, or fewer, digits than the nine-only number.

If we divide a starting number that has more digits than the nine-only number, but not divisible by 9, then we get the number before the decimal point that is the multiple of 9, then dividing the remainder by 9 to get the recurring number after the decimal point. For example, if we divide 39 by 9, we get 4.333333333... since 4 is how many times 9 is multiplied to get the number, 9 × 4 = 36, and 3 is the remainder, then dividing leftover by 9 is .333333333.... Another example, if we divide 2781 by 99, then we get 28.0909090909... since 28 × 99 = 2772 + (.0909090909... × 99) = 2772 + 9 = 2781.

Answer: True

Titan is the only world in the solar system besides Earth known to possess stable bodies of liquid. Lakes and seas are filled not with water, but with hydrocarbons (methane/ethane). The surface temperature of around -300°F is cold enough to allow those hydrocarbons to condense into liquids, while on Earth, methane and ethane exist as natural gases. Another attribute in allowing liquids to be stable on Titan is its thick atmosphere, the only moon in our solar system to possess it. It rains on Titan, filling up lakes and seas.

Voyager space probes first hinted possible presence of lakes on Titan. The Hubble Space Telescope observations in 1995 provided evidence for standing bodies of liquid on Titan, and then in 2006 Cassini observations provided proof for the existence.

Answer: False

Cirrus clouds are the highest common clouds, but not the highest clouds on Earth. The highest clouds on Earth are noctilucent clouds, found at altitudes around 50 miles (80 km) in the mesosphere. The unfamiliarity of noctilucent clouds is due to the fact that they have to form under strict conditions in order to be seen. They tend to be seen during deep twilight during summer at latitudes between 50° to 70° north or south, when and where it is coldest in the mesosphere and needing sun from up to 15° below horizon to shine at those clouds to be seen.

Noctilucent is the Latin word meaning "night shining."

Answer: True

The component particles that make up protons and neutrons are called quarks. Each subatomic particle contain three quarks. Protons have two up and one down quarks, while neutrons have one up and two down quarks. Up quarks have a charge of +2/3 while down quarks have a charge of -1/3. Simple addition of fractional charges of quarks contained within protons and neutrons would determine the corresponding charges of these. Protons have a charge of +1 since 2/3+2/3-1/3=1; neutrons have a charge of 0 since 2/3-1/3-1/3=0.

Answer: True

People can suffer great deal of memory loss, often caused by certain diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, stroke, or brain tumor. Memory loss can also be caused by traumatic brain injury, alcoholism, or delirium.

Answer: True

If the container holding a gas shrinks, the pressure of a gas inside it builds up because it gets compressed due to the decrease in volume available to hold the gas. This obeys Boyle's law.

Answer: False

Perpetual motion is achieved if an object keeps going indefinitely with no energy added, but it is impossible to achieve as it would violate known laws of physics.

Until the mid-19th century people used to believe that perpetual motion was possible to achieve and carried out experiments figuring out ways to make perpetual motion machines.