50/50 in Science XI Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Comets are known as dirty snowballs since they are made out of ice, rock and dust. They originate in the outer fringes of the solar system far away from the sun. Some occasionally spiral close to the sun where we sometimes see the bright head and long tail in the night sky as they pass by. People have been seeing comets since antiquity and during classical times people were afraid that comets were harbingers of doom. Comets may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Answer: False

Everybody knows that multiplying positive numbers equals a positive number, but negative numbers would not mirror the behavior of positive numbers as multiplying two negative numbers always results in a positive number, never a negative number. Multiplying positive and negative numbers always results in a negative number unless if there are even number of negative numbers in them.

Answer: True

Alcohol is a group of chemical compounds that contain carbon and members of the hydroxyl group. Methanol (CH3OH) and ethanol (C2H5OH) are two of the simplest alcohols. Ethanol is found in alcoholic beverages, while methanol intake can result in loss of vision and is fatal in larger amounts.

Answer: False

That was a myth. Since lightning strikes at random points, there is always the possibility of striking a particular spot multiple times, especially on tall objects.

Answer: False

Humans can only hear at frequencies from 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. The range where humans are able to hear is called audio or sonic. The sound frequency above 20,000 Hz is called ultrasound, while below 20 Hz it is called infrasound. Other creatures can hear at different frequency ranges than humans. Bats and dogs can hear ultrasounds while snakes, whales, dolphins, giraffes and elephants can hear infrasounds.

Answer: False

Rational numbers encompass all of the integers and decimals with patterns, both terminating and repeating decimals. 4, -2, 0.3, and 0.567567 (recurring) are all examples of rational numbers. Rational is derived from the word ratio.

Its opposite is an irrational number, defined as decimals that go on forever without a repeating pattern. Irrational numbers include the square root of any non-square number, such as 2, pi, and e.

Answer: True

Even though noble gases have eight valence electrons, making them stable and unreactive, noble gases can react to form compounds under special circumstances. Identified noble gas compounds are almost exclusively made artificially. An example of a noble gas compound is xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4), which is one of the first such compounds identified.

Answer: True

The planet Vulcan, named after the Roman god of fire, was proposed as orbiting closer to the Sun than Mercury. Urbain Le Verrier, who discovered Neptune in 1846, proposed the planet's existence in 1859 by observing the precession of Mercury's orbit. Astronomers later doubted its existence and spacecraft SOHO and STEREO found no objects bigger than 6 km (4 miles) across between Mercury and the Sun.

Answer: True

It is true that poles can move to different locations on the surface due to shifts in axes of rotation relative to the crust and mantle. The process is called true pole wander. There is evidence that a big pole shift occurred around 800 million years ago.

Answer: False

Although tornadoes are the most destructive weather force, there is a silent weather event that kills more people than any others in the U.S. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, heat waves are the deadliest weather event, followed by flooding, then tornadoes. Heat kills 50% more people than tornadoes.

Answer: False

Snow itself does not glow, but it is true that snow causes nights to light up, due its high reflectivity. Bright nights are caused by snow reflecting artificial lighting such as from street lights. However there must be clouds in the sky for that to happen as clouds also work to reflect light. During clear nights, or in areas far away from cities and towns, snow on the ground does not significantly brighten the night.

Answer: True

The studies at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that women think differently than men due to differences in the neural connections between these genders. Women's brains have more connections between hemispheres, or from left to right, while men's brains have more connections within the hemispheres, or from front to back.

Answer: False

Brownfield is a term coined in 1992 that applies to abandoned industrial and commercial sites. Whether or not the land can be reused for other purposes depends on how much hazardous waste remains on the sites.

Answer: True

Lightning has a temperature of 54,000°F or 30,000°C, five times hotter than the Sun's surface, at a temperature of 10,000°F or 5500°C. It sounds that if super-hot lightning touches you, you would be severely burned immediately, yet most victims survive being struck by lightning, as it flashes so briefly.

Answer: True

The colors that we can't see are yellowish blue (not green) and reddish green (not a shade of brown). The reason why we can't see them is because the opponent neurons in the retina of our eyes sense red light while inhibited by green, while others sense blue while inhibited by yellow.

However it is possible to see these hidden colors under special circumstances, by staring at red-green stripes or blue-yellow stripes using an eye tracker.