Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The earliest evidence of fire appears in the fossil record some 420 million years ago.
What was happening at the time to account for its appearance?
2. Early humans would have appreciated fire for heat, light, warmth, scaring away predators and cooking food. At first, they would have made use of naturally-occurring wildfires but gradually began to control fire for their own purposes. There is some fossil evidence of this dating back 1.5 million years or so.
Which of these early humans is considered by some scientists to be the first to control fire?
3. Ancient Greek philosophers considered fire to be one of the four elements. Plato in the 4th century BCE suggested that each element was made up of atoms of a defined shape. The shape for fire was sharp and pointed to model the way in which heat could penetrate almost all matter.
Which "Platonic solid" was representative of fire?
4. In the 17th century, scientists began to try to explain combustion. One of the early ideas was that an element called "phlogiston" was released when something burned. Air was only able to absorb a limited quantity of "phlogiston" and when this limit was reached, burning would stop. This idea was shown to be false by a chemist who performed many quantitative experiments and argued that the air contains a gas which combines with a substance when it burns.
Who was this chemist?
5. Many chemical reactions need heat energy to start them off or to speed them up. One of the biggest problems for the early chemists was to find a clean, intense heat source.
Which of these pieces of equipment was NOT a typical piece of equipment for producing heat in the 19th century chemistry laboratory?
6. The gas used for the early Bunsen burner was derived from coal.
What name is given to the solid residue, also a fuel, when coal gas is produced?
7. Ancient peoples such as the Persians, Greeks, Chinese and Romans exploited easily accessible oil and pitch seeps but the modern age of petroleum usage began with the ability to separate the fractions by distillation perfected in the mid 19th century. The need for kerosene for lighting drove the search for "rock-oil" or petroleum and deposits were located, wells drilled and refineries constructed.
Where was the world's first modern, albeit small, oil refinery built?
8. Before humans began to exploit fossil fuels made from the remains of dead plants and animals from long ago, they were reliant on biofuels, such as wood, straw and dried animal dung. As supplies of fossil fuels are non-renewable, alternatives are being sought. One of the biggest consumers of petroleum is the automobile industry.
Which country had most of its cars running on a biofuel derived from sugar cane in the 1980s?
9. A popular model of the ingredients for combustion is the "Fire Triangle" but the firefighting industry has developed this into the idea of the "Fire Tetrahedron".
What is the fourth component of the "Fire Tetrahedron"?
10. Over the years, humans have learned to control fire but there are still regular outbreaks of "wildfire" which arise from natural or non-natural causes such as lightning, volcanic eruptions, coal-mines, "slash and burn" agriculture and arson. They can be classified based on the fuel type.
Which of these classifications is matched INCORRECTLY with its main fuel source?
Source: Author
bucknallbabe
This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor
crisw before going online.
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