Man is the Measure Trivia Quiz

Answer: Force

A newton (N) is one kilogram metre per second squared.

Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and physicist who lived from 1642 to 1727. He was a professor at Cambridge, president of the Royal Society and Master of the Mint, and was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705.

Answer: Pressure

A pascal (Pa) is one newton per square metre.

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician who lived from 1623 to 1662. His name has also been used for a computer programming language introduced in 1970.

Answer: Electrical current

The ampere (A), frequently referred to as an amp, is a base unit in the SI system.

André-Marie Ampère was a French physicist who lived from 1775 to 1836. His name is one of the seventy-two scientists, engineers and mathematicians whose names are engraved on the Eiffel Tower.

Answer: Energy

A joule (J) is the energy needed to move a force of one newton one metre in the direction that the force is applied.

James Prescott Joule was an Englishman who lived from 1818 to 1889. He was the son of a brewer, and he grew up to manage the brewery; his scientific work was done in his spare time.

Answer: Power

A watt (W) is one joule per second.

James Watt was a Scottish inventor, engineer and chemist who lived from 1736 to 1819. He is best remembered for his work on improvements to Newcomen's steam engine making steam power much more efficient.

Answer: Electrical charge

A coulomb (C) is the quantity of electricity conveyed by a current of one amp in one second.

Charles-Augustin de Coulomb was a French physicist who lived from 1736 to 1806. He was called out of retirement, after working as en engineer, to help take part in the determination of the new weights and measures called for after the French Revolution.

Answer: Electrical potential

A volt (V) is one watt per amp, which is equivalent to a joule per coulomb.

Alessandro Volta was an Italian scientist who lived from 1745 to 1827. He is credited with making the first electro-mechanical cell or battery.

Answer: Temperature

The Celsius scale (originally called the centigrade scale) is based on a figure of zero degrees for the freezing point of water and one hundred degrees for its boiling point.

Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer who lived from 1701 to 1744. Both his father (Nils Celsius) and his maternal grandfather (Anders Spole) were astronomers, too.

Answer: Frequency

A hertz (Hz) is a frequency of one cycle per second.

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz was a German physicist who lived from 1857 to 1894. Despite his work proving the existence of electromagnetic waves, which had been postulated by James Clerk Maxwell, Hertz stated that "It's of no use whatsoever". Nevertheless his work led others, including Marconi, to experiment with radio waves for communication.

Answer: Radioactivity

A becquerel (Bq) is the activity of a radioactive substance when one nucleus decays in a second.

Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who lived from 1852 to 1908. He shared the 1903 Nobel prize with Marie and Pierre Curie.