Physics

Question 1

Of the four fundamental forces in the Standard Model of physics, three have known particles mediating them. Name the remaining force, whose mediating particle remains hypothetical.

Answer 1

Gravity

Question 2

What is scattered by the Tyndall effect?

Answer 2

Light–the Tyndall effect in a solution scatters blue light more than red, which is why smoke sometimes appears blue-ish. A similar effect, Rayleigh scattering, explains why the sky is blue.

Question 3

Absolute zero occurs at 0 degrees Kelvin. What are its values in Fahrenheit and Celsius?

Answer 3

-456.67F, -273.15C

Question 4

Two physicists won the 2015 Nobel Prize for discovering that at least some neutrinos have mass. Name either of the two known elementary particles–both “force carriers”–still thought to be massless.

Answer 4

Photons mediate electromagnetism and gluons mediate the strong nuclear force, and both are (probably) massless.

Question 5

At room temperature, what property of water is 72.8 millinewtons per meter?

Answer 5

The surface tension of liquids is measured in terms of force per unit length.

Question 6

A quantity, such as velocity, momentum, or force, that has both magnitude and direction, is known as a vector. What is the accompanying term used for a quantity, such as mass, length, temperature, or speed, whose only property is magnitude (or numerical value)?

Answer 6

Scalar

Question 7

What is the scientific term, one of the three components of Ohm’s law (along with current and resistance), that is used most commonly for the difference in electric potential between two points in an electrical field?

Answer 7

Voltage

Question 8

A nuclide made from the radioactive decay of a parent nuclide.

Answer 8

Daughter nuclide

Question 9

This is the name given to an optical phenomenon and type of superior mirage applied to items located on the horizon. It is caused rays of light being bent went passing through air layers of different temperatures. Its name is the same as the Italian version of a certain Arthurian character.

Answer 9

Fata Morgana

Question 10

In physics, it’s the ability of a deformed body to return to its original size and shape.

Answer 10

Elasticity

Question 11

What is the term used in the theory of general relativity for a point of infinite density and infinitesimal volume, at which space and time become infinitely distorted? They are believed to exist at the center of black holes, and the Big Bang theory suggests that one existed at the beginning of the universe.

Answer 11

Singularity

Question 12

What word from acoustics, synonymous with tone quality or tone color, is defined as the character of a sound, distinct from its pitch and intensity? It’s what makes two sounds with the same pitch and intensity distinguishable from each other.

Answer 12

Timbre

Question 13

What numerical value represents the same temperature in both celsius and fahrenheit?

Answer 13

-40

Question 14

If electrons ever meet these, their antimatter counterparts, the two “annihilate” each other, releasing a lot of energy.

Answer 14

Positron

Question 15

Einstein used it to denote the speed of light.

Answer 15

c

Question 16

In Physics, it’s a substance that technically can be gas or liquid and that conforms to the shape of the vessel holding it.

Answer 16

Fluid

Question 17

When a molecule of an alkali metal or alkaline earth element (among other substances) loses an electron to gain a positive charge, it’s referred to by what six-letter term?

Answer 17

Cation

Question 18

A tachometer measures RPM; this, named for scientist Ernst, measures speed in relation to the speed of sound.

Answer 18

Machmeter

Question 19

Ironically, it’s a metaphor meaning a huge step forward, but this 2-word process only occurs on a subatomic scale.

Answer 19

Quantum Leap

Question 20

Named after a German physicist, this is the SI derived unit of electrical resistance. It was written with the symbol Ω.

Answer 20

Ohm

Question 21

What type of electromagnetic radiation is named for the fact that it has a lower frequency than the lowest frequency form of visible light?

Answer 21

Infrared

Question 22

The siemens, the SI derived unit of electric conductance and admittance (the reciprocal of resistance in ohms), is also known by what three-letter “semordnilap”?

Answer 22

Mho

Question 23

In 1868, what Uppsala physicist created a influential chart of the electromagnetic spectrum measured in ten-millionths of a millimeter?

Answer 23

The great Swedish scientist Anders Angstrom didn’t mean to, but he gave physics a new (tiny) unit of length with that chart.

Question 24

What is the instrument, common in many everyday machines, that measures angular speed, and in particular the number of revolutions (per unit of time) made by a rotating shaft? The name was coined by Bryan Donkin, a British engineer credited as the instrument’s inventor.

Answer 24

Tachometer

Question 25

What sort of imaginary creature did James Clerk Maxwell use in an 1867 thought experiment to represent a hypothetical violation of the second law of thermodynamics? The creature’s function was to operate a partition between two chambers of gas.

Answer 25

(Maxwell’s) Demon

Question 26

The process of removing a magnetic field is named for what German physicist?

Answer 26

When you “degauss” a computer monitor, ship’s hull, or storage tape, you are helping to exorcise the ghost of Carl Friedrich Gauss, whose consciousness has been imprisoned in Earth’s magnetic field ever since his 1855 death.

Question 27

What two-word phrase, familiar in different contexts, is the most common term used in nuclear physics to denote the minimum quantity of material required to produce a sustained fission chain reaction?

Answer 27

Critical Mass

Question 28

While entropy (symbol S) is a measure in thermodynamics of the unavailability of a system’s energy to do work, what similar term (symbol H) is a thermodynamic property defined as a system’s internal energy plus the product of its pressure and volume, equivalent to the total heat content of the system?

Answer 28

Enthalpy

Question 29

A word for a certain type of building is used as a unit of area for the cross-sections in interactions among nuclei and subatomic particles, equal to 10-28m2. What is that word?

Answer 29

Barn

Question 30

While there is now an official SI unit for luminous intensity, that photometric quantity was formerly expressed in terms of the “power” of what type of object?

Answer 30

Candle

Question 31

This color “shift” is the increase in wavelength of light emitted by a source moving away from an observer.

Answer 31

Red shift

Question 32

Raoult’s Law is the basis for the “fractional” type of what scientific process?

Answer 32

Raoult’s Law deals with the differing partial pressures of components in a mixture, and comes into play in fractional distillation.

Question 33

What is the two-word phrase for the property of a liquid where the molecules at its exterior edge show a strong inward attraction, with these cohesive forces forming an apparent outer membrane across the edge?

Answer 33

Surface Tension

Question 34

Paul A.M. Dirac’s 1930 theory of electrons and protons hypothesized a particle that is a mirror image of the electron, exactly the same but with an opposite charge. When discovered two years later, this antiparticle was given what name?

Answer 34

Positron