A Science Mixture Trivia Quiz

Answer: Newton

A very common misconception among people is that 'weight' and 'mass' are one and the same thing. This is, however, not true! When we ask somebody what their "weight" is, we usually expect an answer in either pounds or kilograms. What we mean, however, is to ask what their *mass* is, not their weight, without knowing it! By convention, however, we now accept weight and mass to be "the same" quantities. 'Kilogram' is the SI unit of mass, and so it's not that my "weight" is 50 kilograms, but that my *mass* is 50 kilograms.

HOWEVER -- there is a big difference between the two, While mass is defined as "the amount of matter contained in a body", weight is "the product of the mass of the body and the acceleration do to gravity", and is actually a type of force! The acceleration due to gravity varies, depending on where in the universe you happen to be, but on earth it is equal to approximately 10 m/s^2. And so on the earth, a body of mass 50 kilograms would "weigh":
50 kg * 10 m/s^2
= 500
And the unit of weight is 'newtons' and so a body of 50 kg "weighs" 500 newtons!

While we all would have the same mass wherever in the universe we are, our weight would change, depending on our location. While my mass will remain 50 kg, wherever in the universe I am in (that is, unless I overdo the junk-food!), but my weight, in newtons would vary. I would, for example, weigh 1/6th of my weight (not mass) on earth, if on the moon.

Answer: Carbohydrates

Cellulose is a carbohydrate, and makes up the cell wall of every plant cell. It allows matter to permeate easily through it. Cellulose is the most important part of the roughage included in our diets. Roughage is fibrous material present in our food, and is indigestible.

It helps hold water in our bodies because of its fibrous nature. By adding bulk to the food, it expands the passage in the large intestine through which the food passes, thus preventing constipation. The skin of fruits is rich in roughage, so the next time you eat an apple, just bite into it (after washing it, of course), don't peel it!

Answer: kinetic

Energy is the ability to do work. And so bodies possessing kinetic energy, i.e. bodies that are in motion, also are capable of doing work. For example, a rhinoceros stampede in the Serengeti plains does the work of causing particles of dust and mud to rise from the ground.

A speeding football can cause glass windows to fracture into several pieces, which get displaced from their original positions.

Answer: Plasmodium falciparum

The malarial parasite has a complex life-cycle. When a mosquito bites a human host (i.e. a human who is suffering from the disease), the plasmodium gets into the mosquito's system along with the blood it takes in. This mosquito can't be any old mosquito; it has to belong to the genus Anopheles. (It is the female Anopheles mosquito that bites animals and takes in their blood; the male one drinks plant-juices.) When the mosquito bites its next victim, it passes the plasmodium into his/her blood stream through its salivary glands.

The worst type of malaria is caused by Plasmodium falciparum; approximately 1 to 2% of people infected with falciparum malaria die of the disease.

Answer: 10.6 years

'Half-life' is defined as "the time taken by half of the radioactive element to disintegrate". After one half-life, the amount of radioactive element becomes half of its original value. After another half-life, it gets reduced to one-fourth. And after that one-eight. And then one-sixteenth. And so on... The half life of Co-60 is 5.3 years.

So in 5.3 years, the sample will get reduced to (1/2)(100) = 50 mg.

And in another 5.3 years, i.e. in a total of 10.6 years, it will be reduced to (1/4)(100) = 25 mg.

Thus, 100 mg of Co-60 takes 10.6 years to get reduced to 25 mg.

Answer: Argon

While around 0.93% of the air we breathe is comprised of argon, the other 5 are present in only negligible trace amounts. Argon is often used to fill light-bulbs, as because of its inertness, it doesn't react with the filament (which is usually made out of tungsten), even at high temperatures.

Answer: 11.2 km/s

And so every time a rocket leaves the earth, it attains a speed of at least 11.2 kilometres per second! Escape velocity doesn't depend on the mass of the object, both an elephant and a pebble need to attain the velocity of 11.6 km/s if they need to leave the earth and enter space.

The escape velocity from the moon is one-fifth that of the earth, as the moon has a smaller mass and radius, resulting in a weaker gravitational force of attraction towards it. Note that a body needs to attain escape velocity only if it has to leave the earth's gravitational field, which would be in the case of space-crafts, satellites, etc.

Answer: False

The coldest object is, in fact, Triton, Neptune's largest moon. The surface temperature is -235 degrees Celsius (-391 degrees Fahrenheit)! Triton is also the only moon with a retrograde orbit, i.e. an orbit in the opposite direction than that of Neptune's rotation.

Answer: True

Plants that grow in areas where water is available in abundance, such as those that grown in ponds, are called hydrophytes. 'Mesophytes' are those that require a moderate amount of water and occupy an intermediate position between xerophytes and hydrophytes in terms of amount of water in their surroundings.

Answer: Calcium chloride, water and carbon dioxide

Marble is nothing but calcium carbonate (CaCO3), and hydrochloric acid is HCl. At first, the two are reactants in a double displacement reaction, resulting in the formation of carbonic acid and calcium chloride.

CaCO3 + 2HCl --> H2CO3 + CaCl2

The carbonic acid (H2CO3) then undergoes a decomposition reaction, and forms water and carbon dioxide.

H2CO3 --> H2O + CO2

And so the three final products are calcium chloride (CaCl2), water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

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