Physical Quantities Trivia Quiz

Answer: newtons

Weight is defined as the amount of force that gravity exerts on an object. The SI unit of force is the newton. The pound is also a measure of force, but it is not SI. Grams and kilograms both measure mass, NOT weight.

Answer: volts per meter

Volts per meter is the measure of the strength of an electric field, which is one of the components of light (light is an electromagnetic wave).

Answer: false

Even though current does flow in a certain direction, current is actually defined as the flux of charge flow through a given surface, i.e. the net amount of charge that passes through some surface.

Answer: joules

Kelvins is the SI unit of temperature, which is very different than heat. Heat is a measure of energy, whose SI units are joules.

Answer: angular momentum

The Planck constant is an important quantity in quantum mechanics, as it describes the size of quanta.

Answer: volts per square-meter

The divergence at a particular point in a vector field is (roughly) how much the vector field "spreads out" from that point. Operationally, we take the partial derivative of each of the field with respect to each of its space variables and add all the derivatives together to get the divergence. Electric field (V/m) differentiated with respect to distance (m) yields V/(m^2).

Answer: energy

Energy is a very important quantity in physics, but it is not a fundamental one. The seven fundamental quantities are mass, distance, time, electric current, temperature, luminous intensity, and amounts of substances. Energy is defined as mass * distance squared / time squared. Any quantity that is defined in terms of one or more other quantities is not a fundamental quantity.

Answer: ampere square-meter

Magnetic dipole moment is a vector quantity pointing from the south pole to the north pole.

Answer: false

Volume can be used to measure how much space an object occupies, but the amount of matter contained therein is a measure of its mass. Mass and volume are related by the density of the object.

Answer: dielectric constant

The Young's modulus is a property of all elastic materials. It is the constant of proportionality between stress and strain. But strain is dimensionless, so the modulus has the same dimensions as stress (force per square-meter). Spring constant relates the force exerted by a spring to how far its stretched, therefore it is force per unit distance. The gravitational constant is the constant that defines the strength of gravitation between objects.

The dielectric constant is a property of insulators that causes them to weaken an electric field that passes through them. Since it is simply a scalar, it has no dimensions.