Carbon - the basis of life Trivia Quiz

Answer: False

Carbon is one of the most common elements found in nature. It has been known to humans since prehistoric times in the form of its allotropes - charcoal, diamond and graphite.

Answer: tetravalent

The atomic number of carbon is 6. The resulting electronic configuration of carbon is 1s2, 2s2, 2p2 with four electrons in the valence shell. Hence, carbon is capable of forming four covalent bonds, making it tetravalent. This tetravalence makes carbon capable of forming covalent bonds with many different elements, giving rise to a variety of complex molecules.

Answer: isotopes

Isotopes are different forms of an element with the same atomic number but different atomic mass number. This is because while the isotopes have the same number of protons, they have different number of neutrons. Carbon has three isotopes, of which Carbon-12 is the most abundant (more than 98%), while Carbon-13 is around 1%. Carbon-14 is only found in traces.

Answer: the property of carbon to form very long chains with interlinking C-C bonds

Catenation is the property of an element to form covalent bonds with other atoms of the same element. It is preferred by atoms where the atom-atom covalent bond is strong i.e. bond energy is high.

As carbon is tetravalent, a single carbon atom can bond with two, three or four carbon atoms by forming single or multiple bonds. This leads to the formation of linear, branched or cyclic structures.

Answer: the carbon cycle

The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical cycle. It is the pathway by which carbon travels through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere in its various forms. Other biogeochemical cycles include- the nitrogen cycle, the oxygen cycle, the phosphorous cycle, the sulfur cycle, the water cycle and the hydrogen cycle.

Answer: pentagons and hexagons.

Fullerenes are a group of carbon allotropes. They contain 60 or more carbon atoms which could be arranged in the shape of a sphere, an ellipse or a tube.
Fullerenes were named after the the famous American architect - Richard Buckminster Fuller, because the structure of the carbon fullerenes closely resembled the structure of Richard Fuller's design of a geodesic dome. Hence, spherical fullerenes are sometimes also referred to as buckyballs.

Answer: All of these

Plastics are synthetic or semi-synthetic polymers. Some polymers contain only carbon and hydrogen while others could contain elements like oxygen, chlorine, nitrogen, silicon or sulfur.

Plastics are mainly of two types - thermosetting plastics and thermoplastics.
Thermosetting plastics cannot be softened and remoulded after being subject to heat and pressure. On the other hand, thermoplastics can be repeatedly softened and remoulded by heat and pressure.

Answer: graphite

Graphite is also the most common form of pure carbon. China is the leading producer of graphite in the world.

Graphite is a very good conductor of electricity because it contains delocalized electrons between its carbon layers. It is most commonly used in pencils.

Answer: Nitrogen

Cosmic ray interactions with the atmosphere generate thermal neutrons, which are absorbed by nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere giving rise to Carbon-14 atoms. Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon with a half life of about 5730 years.

It is commonly used in the radiocarbon dating technique, discovered by J R Arnold and W F Libby in 1949 at the University of Chicago. The radiocarbon dating technique is the method to find out the age of archaeological objects of biological origin.

Answer: True

Diamond is the hardest known material in nature. Diamonds display extremely high thermal conductivity at 900 - 2320 W/m*K, but are also excellent electrical insulators, an unusual combination. They are most commonly used in jewelery.