The Incredible Shrinking Science Quiz

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. Soon you weigh only ten pounds. You are smaller than the smallest of all living apes. What ape is it? Orangutan Gibbon Bonobo Chimpanzee

2. Not much later you weigh only two ounces. You are smaller than the smallest living member of the order Carnivora. What animal is this? Ermine Short-tailed weasel Stoat Least weasel

3. Now you weight less than one-tenth of an ounce. You are as small as the smallest living mammal on Earth. What is it? Bumblebee bat Dormouse Pygmy shrew Deer mouse

4. At this size, insects look big enough to be a threat to you. Which of the following is NOT an insect? Cockroach Louse Tick Flea

5. Oops! You just got a lot smaller and fell into a drop of water. You can just barely see single-celled organisms all around you. Like you, they seem to be moving around at random. What effect is causing this erratic movement? Brownian Motion Einstein's Theory of Relativity Newton's Laws of Inertia The Heisenberg Uncertainty Priniciple

6. Soon you are small enough to make out the individual shapes of the micro-organisms that share your tiny world. There goes one with a long, whip-like tail that it uses to move along. What is it? Amoeba proteus Trypanosome gambiense Paramecium aurelia Plasmodium falciparum

7. You continue to shrink until you are the size of a virus. Which of the following diseases is NOT caused by a virus? Influenza Mumps Dysentery Measles

8. You become much, much smaller, until you can start to see individual molecules. Mixed in with all the water molecules surrounding you, you see a molecule which consists of a single carbon atom connected to three hydrogen atoms, and also connected to an oxygen atom, which is connected to another hydrogen atom. What substance is made up of these molecules? Ethanol Benzene Acetone Methanol

9. Next you find yourself smaller than an atom. You can see subatomic particles dashing madly about. Which one of the following particles is NOT found in ordinary atoms? Electron Proton Neutron Positron

10. One last step down in size before you return to normal. Now you can see quarks, believed to be the components of neutrons, protons, and other particles. There are six kinds of quarks known to science, all with whimsical names. Which of the following is NOT a type of quark? Odd Charm Strange Bottom