QUIZ: Most Can’t Pass This Basic Science Test

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Whether you were one to fall asleep in the middle of science class or you were the one always raising your hand, there is a good chance you still remember some basic science facts.

It has probably been a long time since you were in class making baking-soda volcanos so test yourself with this science quiz. Science is all around us so it shouldn’t be too hard. If you pass, you’re smarter than a 5th grader!

Fire is caused by which of these chemical processes?

Retry Correct Incorrect “Combustion” is the scientific term for burning. It’s a chemical process that occurs when a substance (fuel) rapidly reacts with oxygen and gives off heat as a result. The fuel can be a solid, liquid, or a gas.

Endothermic reaction
Cellulose
Activation energy
Combustion

What is this chart called?

Retry Correct Incorrect The periodic table of elements is an informative chart of all the known chemical elements. They are arranged by their atomic number, their electron configuration, and their recurring chemical properties.

Elemental table
Timeline
Periodic table
Elemental chart

Which scientist is responsible for developing the polio vaccine?

Retry Correct Incorrect The medical researcher and virologist Jonas Salk discovered and developed one of the first successful polio vaccines at the University of Pittsburgh. After the vaccine was introduced in 1955, Salk campaigned for mandatory vaccination.

Charles Darwin
Marie Curie
Albert Einstein
Jonas Salk

What is the common name for sodium chloride?

Retry Correct Incorrect You probably know this ionic compound best by its common name: salt! Sodium chloride has the chemical formula NaCl, with a 1:1 ratio of sodium and chloride ions. Sea salt also contains other chemical salts.

picture alliance / Contributor

What is the common name for sodium chloride?

Salt
Sugar
Pepper
Caffeine

Which of these will not dissolve in water?

Retry Correct Incorrect Although water is known as “universal solvent” because it can dissolve more substances than any other liquid, it won’t dissolve sand because its bond isn’t strong enough to do so. The sand will just settle to the bottom of the water.

Coffee
Salt
Sugar
Sand

Which of these planets is the largest in our solar system?

Retry Correct Incorrect Jupiter is the largest at 1,120 percent larger than Earth. From largest to smallest: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars, and Mercury. Pluto is currently classified as as a dwarf planet.

Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn

What space item is defined by an icy core and a tail of gas and dust?

Retry Correct Incorrect Asteroids and comets are commonly mixed up, but it’s easy when you realize that comets have tails of dust and gas. Asteroids, on the other hand, are just big floating rocks.

Star
Comet
Asteroid
Planet

To which of these animal classes do snakes belong?

Retry Correct Incorrect Snakes are reptiles, along with lizards, crocodiles, and turtles. Reptiles are cold-blooded creatures that are able to change their body temperature by lying in the sun or in the shade.

Amphibians
Mammals
Reptiles
Arachnids

Which of these has a heart consisting of one atrium and one ventricle?

Retry Correct Incorrect Fish hearts are two-chambered organs that are composed of one ventricle and one atrium. This heart pumps the blood in a single loop throughout the body. In contrast, the human heart has two separate ventricles and two separate atria.

Whale
Snake
Crocodile
Fish

What is the most common element in the universe?

Retry Correct Incorrect Hydrogen, atomic number 1, is a colorless, odorless, and flammable gas. With just proton and one electron, hydrogen is both the simplest and the most common element in the universe.

Hydrogen
Carbon dioxide
Oxygen
Helium

Where are hormones produced?

Retry Correct Incorrect Hormones are chemical signals that dictate a vast range of bodily functions. The endocrine system is the glandular network that secretes these vital chemicals in order to regulate the body.

Pituitary glands
Pancreas
Hypothalamus
Endocrine glands

It takes light from the sun how long to reach the Earth?

Retry Correct Incorrect It takes merely eight minutes for the light from our sun to reach planet Earth. The sun is 149.6 million kilometers away from us so that light is traveling pretty fast!

Eight seconds
Eight minutes
Eight days
Eight hours

What is the lifespan of a monarch butterfly?

Retry Correct Incorrect Monarchs are also called milkweed, wanderer, common tiger, and black veined brown butterflies. Adult monarchs tend to live for anywhere from two to six weeks during the summer breeding season.

One week
One year
6 months
Two to six weeks

The human rib cage is made up of how many ribs?

Retry Correct Incorrect Symmetrically paired on the right and left sides, the human body has 24 ribs. The ribs are numbered from one to twelve and are attached to the thoracic vertebrae. The rib cage plays a major role in the respiratory system.

20
22
26
24

Which of these foods is the best source of protein?

Retry Correct Incorrect Protein is essential for the body’s growth and repair, and also provides energy. Fish is an excellent source of protein and also supplies essential minerals and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.

Tomato
Fish
Bread
Apple

The Earth’s core is which temperature?

Retry Correct Incorrect Believe it or not, the Earth’s core is as hot as the sun’s surface! Scientists have estimated the temperature of the core to be about 10,800 degrees Fahrenheit (or 6,000 degrees Celsius).

18,000 Fahrenheit
10,800 Fahrenheit
1,080 Fahrenheit
1,800 Fahrenheit

Which of these organs is responsible for pumping blood throughout the body?

Retry Correct Incorrect Even though the heart is only fist-sized, it plays a huge role. Its job is to pump blood throughout the circulatory system, which it accomplishes with two separate pumping systems, the right side and the left side.

Lungs
Brain
Stomach
Heart

There are 3 states of matter: solids, liquids, and _____.

Retry Correct Incorrect In most environments, there are three distinct states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. All matter is made up of microscopic particles, but the particles’ behavior differs in each of the three phases.

Gases
Animals
Plants
Rocks

Which of these will completely fill any container?

Retry Correct Incorrect No matter how big or small a container, a gas can fill it. Because of their kinetic energy, gas molecules can move freely and will spread out to fill the entire space equally.

None of these
Gases
Solids
Liquids

The human body has how many muscles?

Retry Correct Incorrect According to most sources, the human body has over 650 named skeletal muscles. Muscles are given Latin names according to their shape, location, relative size, action, and/or the number of origins.

527
240
365
639

Which of these particles make up an atom?

Retry Correct Incorrect Atoms are the smallest unit of ordinary matter in a chemical element. Electrons have a negative electrical charge, protons have a positive charge, and neutrons are neutral, with no charge.

Protons and neutrons
Protons and electrons
Electrons, neutrons, and protons
Electrons and neutrons

A light-year is a measurement of what?

Retry Correct Incorrect A light-year is a unit of astronomical distance which is equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year. That distance is 9.4607 × 1012 kilometer, or almost six trillion miles.

Sound
Distance
Time
Brightness

What is responsible for creating the ocean tides?

Retry Correct Incorrect Sir Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation helps to explain the tides. A gravitational pull from the moon and the sun causes the oceans to bulge out, which results in tides. Since the earth is always rotating while this pulling motion occurs, there are two tides per day.

The Earth’s rotation on its axis
The weather
The gravitational pull from the moon and sun
The wind

Lumber is which of these resource types?

Retry Correct Incorrect Wood, or lumber, is considered a renewable resource since forests grow back after a harvest. In some cases, however, trees are cut down faster than they grow back and that is a problem.

Recyclable
Nonrenewable
Heavy
Renewable

How many moon phases are there?

Retry Correct Incorrect The moon’s different phases cause changes in its appearance. As it orbits Earth, the moon cycles through eight distinct phases, with its four primary phases occurring about a week apart. The eight phases are: new, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent.

12
10
8
6

Where in the atmosphere is Earth’s ozone layer?

Retry Correct Incorrect The ozone layer is the region of Earth’s stratosphere that absorbs most (97 to 99 percent) of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. A 1976 study found that industrial chemicals are depleting the ozone layer at an alarming rate.

Troposphere
Exosphere
Mesosphere
Stratosphere

Which of these choices is not part of the water cycle?

Retry Correct Incorrect The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle, describes how water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises into the atmosphere, cools and condenses into snow or rain in clouds, and then falls again to the surface as precipitation.

Evaporation
Precipitation
Condensation
Emancipation

A carnivore would be most likely to eat which of these?

Retry Correct Incorrect The word carnivore means “meat eater.” Carnivores are organisms that get their energy and nutrients from a diet that consists primarily of animal tissue (meat). The meat is obtained through predatory activities or scavenging.

Plant
Soil
Animal
Dead tree

Tsunamis are most commonly caused by which of these?

Retry Correct Incorrect The majority of tsunamis are caused by large earthquakes on the seafloor. When enormous slabs of rock move past each other suddenly, it causes the water above to move and results in large waves that move away from the source of the earthquake.

Earthquakes
Landslides
Tornados
Excess rain

Pollen is produced by which part of the flower?

Retry Correct Incorrect The pollen-producing part of a flower is the stamen. This usually consists of a slender filament supporting an anther, which is the part of the stamen where pollen is actually produced.

Stem
Pistil
Stamen
Petal

Who is considered the father of modern chemistry?

Retry Correct Incorrect Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743 – 1794) was a French nobleman and chemist. He discovered the role that oxygen plays in combustion, he recognized and named oxygen and hydrogen, he helped construct the metric system, and he predicted the existence of silicon.

Stephen Hawking
Antoine Lavoisier
Louis Pasteur
Marie Curie

Which of these choices results when you multiply an object’s mass by its velocity?

Retry Correct Incorrect Momentum is a physics term. It’s defined as the force or strength that an object has when it’s in motion, and is the product of the object’s mass and velocity.

Force
Kinetic energy
Acceleration
Momentum

Toothpaste is white because of which of these?

Retry Correct Incorrect Titanium dioxide is a white pigment with a high refractive index, meaning that it scatters light and creates a very white appearance. It’s also used in cosmetics such as skin care products and sunscreens.

Rice starch
Propylene glycol
Calcium carbonate
Titanium dioxide

Which of the following is not a simple machine?

Retry Correct Incorrect Examples of simple machines include a pulley, a wheel and axle, a lever, an inclined plane, a wedge, and a screw. Compound machines are comprised of two or more simple machines, so scissors are a compound machine.

Screw
Scissors
Pulley
Wedge

A cell phone makes and receives calls using which waves?

Retry Correct Incorrect Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation, and they’re not sound waves as some people believe. Cell phones work by transmitting radio waves through a network of fixed antennas called base stations.

Light waves
Gravity waves
Radio waves
Sound waves

Which of these elements is the reason Mars is called “The Red Planet”?

Retry Correct Incorrect Mars appears red because of iron oxide, which is the same compound that gives rust and blood their coloring. The planet has more than twice as much iron oxide in its outer layers than Earth does.

Zinc
Iron
Copper
Cadmium

Which is not a class of rock?

Retry Correct Incorrect There are three classes, or types, of rock: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. The differences between rock types have to do with how they are formed, whether they’re created from cooling and hardening, as a result of pressure, or from particles.

Igneous
Sedimentary
Metamorphic
Volcanic

Which of these animals does not need to drink water?

Retry Correct Incorrect Since kangaroo rats live in very dry, hot areas they are built to conserve water. These creatures get enough water from the metabolic oxidation of the seeds they eat to survive. As a result, they don’t need to drink any additional water.

Hippopotamus
Sloth
Camel
Kangaroo rat

The largest human cell is which of these?

Retry Correct Incorrect The largest cell in the human body is the ovum, which is the female egg cell. These cells are about 1000 micrometers, or one millimeter, in diameter. The largest cell on Earth is the egg cell of an ostrich.

Ovum
Liver
Skin
Spleen

Out of the flightless birds, which is the smallest?

Retry Correct Incorrect Although they’re the smallest flightless birds in the world, female kiwis lay one of the largest eggs in relation to their body size of any other bird. The endangered species is native to New Zealand.

Rhea
Ostrich
Kiwi
Penguin

Congrats, you finished! Here are your results:

Retry Yikes! We hope you don’t help your children with their science homework! Not too good… It may be time for you to go back to school. You did alright. We give you a “B” for effort, but you still need more practice. Great job! You’re a science wizard!

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