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Think you know science? Try this quiz

Posted on: Wednesday, 31 March 2004, 06:00 CST

OK, folks, put on your brain-boosting beanie.

It's time for the annual Science Quiz, intended to test your knowledge of physics, biology and all the other things you thought you'd left behind in college, high school or wherever else you got your education.

Actually, this is just my yearly rip-off of questions from the Tennessee Science Bowl, which, by the way, was won by a team from Oak Ridge High School. The winning team of Sebastian Chialvo, Jingyuan Wu, Ben Clemens, Ryan Lee and David Ryan (alternate) will represent the state at the national event this spring in Washington, D.C. As usual, the superlative Nita Ganguly is coach.

Oak Ridge also had a team that finished fourth in the Science Bowl. The McCallie School of Chattanooga took second, and Farragut High School finished third.

Congratulations to all.

Now, back to the quiz. The questions are culled from those offered to the area's brightest high school students, so don't feel too bad if you suddenly feel old, feeble and ridiculously stupid. (No, I won't reveal how many I got right.) The answers are at the bottom of the column. No peeking.

1. Chemistry - A molecule that has an octahedral molecular geometry will have how many charge clouds around its central atom? (a) 4 (b) 6 (c) 8 (d) 10.

2. Astronomy - A person in Texas observes a waxing first-quarter moon rising at 4 p.m. At which of the following times will the moon most likely rise two days later: (a) 2:02 p.m. (b) 3:12 p.m. (c) 4:52 p.m. (d) 5:42 p.m.

3. Biology - Using electrophoresis at a pH of 6.0, which one of the following amino acids would move toward the anode the fastest? (a) arginine (b) glutamic acid (c) glycine (d) alanine (e) lysine.

4. Earth Science - Which of the following organisms eventually sediments onto the ocean seafloor as a siliceous ooze? (a) coccolithophores (b) foraminifera (c) diatoms (d) fish scales.

5. General Science - On average, equatorial areas of the Earth receive approximately 2.4 times as much insolation as polar areas because: (a) the North Pole is ice-covered (b) the air at the Equator contains more moisture (c) there is greater heating at the Equator (d) the Earth is a sphere.

6. Computer Science - What is the total number of devices that can be connected to a USB host? (a) 15 (b) 63 (c) 127 (d) unlimited.

7. Physics - Which of the following laws was most directly employed by Robert Milliken to calculate the radius of a charged particle falling through air, for which he was awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize: (a) Fick's law (b) Bernoullis' law (c) Hooke's law (d) Stoke's law.

8. Biology - Proteins of which of the following will typically have the shortest half-life? (a) ovary (b) kidney (c) liver (d) smooth muscle.

9. General Science - Radioactive dating of the Tyrolean Ice Man has shown he lived during which of the following ages: (a) Stone Age (b) Copper Age (c) Bronze Age (d) Iron Age.

10. Earth Science - Named in honor of the English mathematician who explained them, what is the name for the thermal circulation consisting of rising air near the Equator and sinking air near 30- degree latitude? (a) Rossby wave (b) Ferrel cell (c) Hadley cell (d) Christopher cell.

11. Physics - How many neutrons and how many protons are present in a single tritium nucleus? (a) one of each (b) two protons and one neutron (c) two neutrons and one protons (d) two of each.

12. Chemistry - Which of the following properties is best used and most accurate for the determination of molecular weights of an unknown substance? (a) vapor-pressure lowering (b) freezing-point depression (c) boiling-point elevation (d) osmotic pressure.

13. Biology - In plant tissue culture, one of the most effective ways to prepare sterile solutions of heat-labile hormones is to do which of the following: (a) pasteurize the sample (b) freeze and thaw the sample multiple times (c) dissolve the sample in 95 percent ethanol (d) autoclave the sample.

14. Earth Science - Which geological time period is thought to have existed between approximately 500 and 570 million years ago? (a) Vendian (b) Cambrian (c) Jurassic (d) Ordovician (e) Archaen.

15. General Science - What type of microscope usually has a binocular eyepiece tube, a long working distance, and a range of magnifications from 5x to 35x or 40x? (a) dissecting (b) dark field (c) light field (d) phase contrast.

16. Biology - What is the term, coined by Francis Crick, which accounts for the freedom in pairing in the third base of the codon with its anticodon? (a) wobble (b) durst (c) amplitude (d) fessem.

17. General Science - Ethologists are scientists who study: (a) Earth's ecosystems (b) animal behavior (c) racial groups (d) countries of origin.

18. Astronomy - The great Homer mentions in the Illiad that the Bear constellation is never plunged into the ocean. What do astronomers most commonly call such motion? (a) down loop (b) circumpolar (c) whisking (d) high and dry.

19. General Science - Carcinogenic effects of sunlight on skin are primarily caused by which of the following bands of light: (a) infrared (b) UV-A (c) UV-B (d) UV-C.

20. Computer Science - Spooling occurs when: (a) a document is loaded into a buffer for printing (b) the operating system copies a certain number of pages from the hard disk to main memory (c) data being sent over secure networks is encrypted (d) analog data is converted into digital data.

Answers: 1. (b) 2. (d) The moon rises about 50 minutes later each night. 3. (b) 4. (c) 5. (d) 6. (c) 7. (d) 8. (c) 9. (b) 10. (c) 11. (c) 12. (d) 13. (c) 14. (b) 15. (a) 16. (a) 17. (b) 18. (b) 19. (c) 20. (a)

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