Physics Trivia

1. In order to complete the calculations Suzie wants to make about her activities, she needs to know her mass. Exactly what property does her mass measure?

From Quiz The Power is Yours

Answer: Her tendency to maintain a constant state of motion

Inertial mass, which is usually just called mass, is a measure of any object's tendency to keep on moving as it is. If it is at rest, it will stay at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced outside force; if it is moving, it will keep moving in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted on by an unbalanced outside force. This is usually referred to as Newton's First Law, or the Law of Inertia. Weight is a measure of the force which gravity exerts on an object. In any one place, mass and weight are proportional, but when you go to a place where the force of gravity is stronger or weaker, your weight will increase or decrease without any corresponding change in mass. Size is more precisely called volume, and the tendency of an object to resist spinning is its moment of inertia, a property which depends on both the mass and the shape of the object.

From Quiz Forces

Answer: Gravity

On Earth, gravity is acting on everything, even objects which are not falling. An object in free fall is not affected by any force other than gravity, and it has a constant acceleration of -9.8 m/s² (-32 ft/s²).

From Quiz Swaying Like a Pendulum

Answer: Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei's first observation of the pendulum motion was made in Pisa cathedral, when he counted the time it took for a swinging chandelier to return to its motionless position against his heartbeat. By experimenting, he found that no matter how wide the arc of the swing was, or the mass of the pendulum, it took the pendulum the same time to become still. From this breakthrough discovery of a universal scientific principle, Christiaan Huygens, one hundred years later, was able to create a reliable time keeping device.

From Quiz Derivatives and Integrals in Physics

Answer: acceleration

Acceleration is the rate at which your velocity changes (dv/dt). Velocity has units of meters/second. When divided by time we get meters/second squared, the common unit for acceleration. Car commercials will sometimes state that their vehicle can go from "0 to 60mph in 6s." This represents the acceleration of the car.

From Quiz The Physics of Football

Answer: motion

The word "physics" is derived from the Greek meaning, "knowledge of nature." This essential science is key to explaining how things work, on and off the football field. It is one of the oldest fields of science, dating to the Greeks in 650 BC.

From Quiz Tabula Rosy's Learning Lab

Answer: Acoustics

The science of the production, transmission and capture of the effects of sound is called acoustics. The pitch of sound can be measured in wavelengths. High-frequency (short-wavelength) sound waves are known as overtones. If a sound is higher frequency than can be heard in human hearing it is called ultrasound, or ultrasonic waves. Some uses of ultrasonic waves are in motion detection and prenatal imaging.

From Quiz Nobel Winning Physicists, 1921-1930

Answer: Einstein & Albert Einstein

In 1905, his "miracle year", Einstein would publish four papers that revolutionized physics. Building on the work of Max Planck, Einstein established the existence of photons, particles of light that conveyed energy. The theories of Einstein created the basis for modern electronics and laid the foundations for the field of quantum mechanics. Not bad for a guy with dyslexia.

From Quiz Physics

Answer: 60 kg

Mass depends on the amount of matter in a body. Weight is dependent on gravity. Mass does not change on the Moon as it is not dependent on local gravity. The gravity on the Moon is 1/6 of the gravity on Earth.

From Quiz Physical Quantities

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.

From Quiz Subatomic Particle Theory

Answer: Particle smaller than an atom

Atoms make up all things. Subatomic particles make up atoms. The main ones are protons, neutrons and electrons, although there are many more. Protons contain a positive charge. Neutrons have no charge (I guess because they don't have credit cards). Protons and neutrons are found in the center, or nucleus, of atoms. Electrons have a negative charge and rotate outside the nucleus.

From Quiz Time Travel

Answer: Special Relativity Theory

According to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), Einstein's Special Relativity Theory can be summed up with two major points: "the speed of light is the same for all observers" and "physics is the same for all inertial observers". Many scientists use Einstein's theory to argue that time travel is possible, if not probable, based upon the laws of physics.

From Quiz Quirky Quantum and Nuclear Physics

Answer: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is deified amongst scientific communities. His style, inimitable; his physical knowledge, paralleled by an elite few. A common misconception is that Albert Einstein received the Nobel Prize for his work on the Theory of Relativity. However, this is false as he received the prize not for his almost ubiquitously known equation, E = mc^2, but for his work on the photoelectric effect, a magnificently interesting field of particle physics.

From Quiz A "C"avalcade of Physics Vocabulary

Answer: Take the average of the objects' positions, weighted by their masses.

The center of mass of a group of objects is a point located at the mass-weighted average position of those objects. It's very useful in determining the motion of the system, which can often be very complicated (think, for example, of buckshot fired from a shotgun). Instead of individually calculating the momentum of each object, you can find the momentum of the system by multiplying its total mass by the velocity of the center of mass -- only one calculation! Similarly, the total force on the system can be calculated from the total mass and the center of mass's acceleration. We can also calculate the center of mass of a continuous system -- such as a sports car or a figure skater -- using an integral to calculate the average, rather than a sum. (An integral allows you to add up infinitesimally small pieces.) An athlete's center of mass changes depending on his or her posture, and need not be located within the body at all -- making possible maneuvers like the Fosbury Flop. High jumpers can thus clear the bar without ever bringing their centers of mass above it, simply by bending their bodies to keep those centers low!

From Quiz Deforming Physics!

Answer: Strain

The full equation is; 'strain = extension / original length'. By deriving units it is found that strain doesn't actually have a unit. By dimensional analysis, extension is measured in metres and length is also measured in the SI unit, metres. This is saying it is (m / m = m^1 x m^-1 = m^0 = 1). Though, sometimes for clarification, strain is sometimes given a percentage value. So, you can gather from the equation that strain is the quantification of how a force has extended (or compressed) the length of an object.

From Quiz Mixed Physics

Answer: A manometer

The manometer is a u-tube containing liquid used to measure gas pressure against atmospheric pressure. One end of the tube is joined to the gas supply which is then turned on. If the pressure of the gas is high, mercury is used. If the pressure of gas is low water is used to give a more accurate measurement.

From Quiz General Physics

Answer: Erwin Schrodinger

Schrödinger's cat was a hypothetical experiment. In the experiment, a cat is in a small, sealed box with a poisonous substance. This substance is sealed away from the cat, but will be released when a certain radioactive element disintegrates. Suppose you leave the box where it is. At any moment, you cannot tell whether the cat is dead or alive, since if the element has disintegrated, the cat will be dead and if it didn't the cat will still be alive. Since there is no way to know whether the element disintegrated, he argued, the cat will be in a state between dead and alive until you open the box and thus take a measurement. This experiment was proposed to counter critics, such as Einstein, and help them understand what quantum theory was all about. Quantum theory states that properties of a particle are not known until you measure them (thus the life or death of the cat). Therefore, quantum mechanics is a statistical theory in nature. Einstein however, was convinced that a deterministic God did not play dice and hence the universe could not be statistical, so he did not agree with quantum mechanics as a final theory. Schrödinger on his part, countered with this experiment. Unfortunately for Schrödinger, his experiment is quantum physics on a wrong level. Quantum physics only works at a submicroscopic level as a theory and hence should be only used for that. The cat for sure is either dead or alive and its fate does not depend on a measurement (as the spin of an electron seems to do). The macroscopic world is thus thought to be deterministic and the submicroscopic world indeterministic or statistical.

From Quiz Infinity

Answer: The number '8'

The Romans sometimes used this symbol to represent 1000, a big number, and this led a mathematician named John Wallis to suggest in 1650 that it should be used as the symbol of infinity. It stuck.

From Quiz Problems With Physics?

Answer: 5 & Five

In this case, work done is the potential energy of the object.

From Quiz Forces

Answer: They are equal

If gravity was stronger, the object would be falling, and not at rest. If the normal force was stronger, the object would be ascending, which is impossible.

From Quiz Physics IQ challenge

Answer: 0

There are no electrons present in the nucleus of this, or any other, uranium atom as the nucleus of any atom consists only of protons and neutrons. Electrons revolve around the nucleus in a fixed orbit.

From Quiz Swaying Like a Pendulum

Answer: Newton's Cradle

Newton's Cradle or Executive Ball Clicker is based on the principle of conservation of momentum. After the first ball of a Newton's Cradle hits the second ball, its momentum is not lost but it is transferred to the second ball, then the third ball, until it reaches the last ball and sets it to swinging motion. Then, the first and last ball swing at nearly the same momentum while the middle balls seem stationary. The first demonstration of this principle was made by French physicist and priest Edme Mariotte, in the 17th century.

From Quiz Derivatives and Integrals in Physics

Answer: displacement

Multiplying the units of velocity and time (meters/second and seconds) results in meters - the unit for displacement.

From Quiz The Physics of Football

Answer: mechanics

The study of mechanics involves how a physical body, like a football, is subjected to outside forces and/or displacement (like a cut block tackle). The word "mechanics" comes from the Greek, and was extensively developed by the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Archimedes (no, they didn't play for the Green Bay Packers). Progression in the field brought us the work of Sir Isaac Newton and his three laws of motion, the stuff of football legends.

From Quiz Tabula Rosy's Learning Lab

Answer: Amorphous

The atoms and the molecules of a solid can be amorphous or crystalline. An amorphous structure, almost always, is basically a random structure. Many a physics textbook will have as an example that an amorphous solid does not have a lattice-like pattern of atoms and molecules. A crystalline form of the atoms of a solid has a more orderly structure. The word amorphous comes from the Greek meaning having no shape.

From Quiz Nobel Winning Physicists, 1921-1930

Answer: Sir Joseph J Thompson

Bohr worked with Joseph Thomson in Manchester in 1911 and 1912. His experiments there led Bohr to discover the structure of hydrogen atoms. Thompson had won the Nobel in 1906 for his work with cathode ray tubes that led to the discovery of the electron. While Bohr's theory has been superseded by more complex explanations of the motion of atoms, a century later his model is still used to teach introductory students about the nature of atomic structure.

From Quiz Lucky Strike

Answer: Near the bottom

The center of gravity of a standard tenpin is very low, which makes it harder to knock over when hit (this is also why they wobble without falling over). If the center of gravity was near the top, they would fall over much more easily. Imagine a water bottle with a little bit of ice stuck at the very bottom. It is fairly sturdy and doesn't knock over easily. Flip it over, and now all the weight is at the top of the bottle, and you can knock it down easily, perhaps even with a small blow. The same thing applies to the bowling pins. With the majority of the weight near the ground, the center of gravity is low, making it difficult to knock over.

From Quiz Physics

Answer: 88 days

As Mercury is the closest planet to the sun it has the least period of revolution, 88 Earth days. The period of revolution goes on increasing as the distance between the sun and the planet goes on increasing. For example, the period of revolution of Neptune is 165 Earth years.

From Quiz Turn Up the Volume

Answer: Medium

In order for sound to be generated, the sound waves must be passed from one molecule to the next, vibrating each one on its way from the source to your ear. The material that contains these molecules is called the medium. Imagine this, you have a rack containing 12 steel ball bearings packed tightly together. If you place your finger on one end and tap the other end with a hammer, you should be able to feel the vibrations on your finger. This is because the vibrations pass through each ball until you can feel it on your end. Sound acts in the same way. That's also why you can lose sound over distance. There isn't enough force to stimulate all of the molecules between a sound source and your ear so the sound becomes lost. Shouting has much more sound force than whispering does, so shouting will vibrate more molecules through air which will increase the distance it can be heard.

From Quiz The Physics of Radiation Therapy

Answer: They are man made.

Gamma rays and X-rays are both ionizing radiation consisting of highly energetic photons. The distinction between them is that gamma rays are produced as a result of nuclear decay of a radioactive element, and X-rays are produced by accelerating a beam of electrons at a metal target using high voltages. Both have no charge, do the same damage to tissue (assuming they have the same energy of course), and pass through water quite easily.

From Quiz Understanding Physics

Answer: A moment

Moments cause a turning effect (known as a torque) if the object the force is applied to is pivoted and the force is applied at a perpendicular distance from the pivot.

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Last Updated May 10 2025 5:44 AM

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