Science Trivia Questions and Answers

Physics, chemistry, biology and space, pitched for a table rather than an exam hall. The easy questions are the ones most people half-remember from school and can recover with a moment's thought; the hard ones go a layer past that, into the units, the exceptions and the discoveries that were named after the wrong person. Space and the human body carry the broadest appeal and appear most often. Nothing here needs maths — a question that required working out on paper would stall a round, so the pool tests what you know rather than what you can calculate under a clock.

39 questions with answers · free · no account needed

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  1. 1. What is the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy called?Medium

    • Photosynthesis ✓
    • Respiration
    • Fermentation
    • Transpiration

  2. 2. What is the name for the layer of the atmosphere that contains most of the ozone?Hard

    • The stratosphere ✓
    • The troposphere
    • The mesosphere
    • The thermosphere

  3. 3. What happens to water when it is heated to its boiling point?Easy

    • It turns into a gas ✓
    • It turns into a solid
    • It disappears completely
    • It turns into a liquid

  4. 4. What is the process of a solid changing directly into a gas called, skipping liquid?Medium

    • Sublimation ✓
    • Evaporation
    • Condensation
    • Deposition

  5. 5. At what temperature in Celsius does pure water freeze at sea level?Medium

    • 0 degrees ✓
    • 10 degrees
    • 32 degrees
    • -10 degrees

  6. 6. Which planet is famous for its large, visible rings?Easy

    • Saturn ✓
    • Jupiter
    • Uranus
    • Neptune

  7. 7. How many planets are there in our solar system?Medium

    • Eight ✓
    • Seven
    • Nine
    • Ten

  8. 8. Which organ filters waste from the blood to produce urine?Easy

    • The kidneys ✓
    • The liver
    • The lungs
    • The stomach

  9. 9. Which organ do humans use to see?Easy

    • The eyes ✓
    • The ears
    • The nose
    • The skin

  10. 10. Which part of the cell is often called the powerhouse for producing energy?Hard

    • The mitochondria ✓
    • The nucleus
    • The ribosome
    • The cytoplasm

  11. 11. What do we call the speed of an object in a particular direction?Easy

    • Velocity ✓
    • Mass
    • Force
    • Energy

  12. 12. Which scientist developed the famous equation E equals mc squared?Medium

    • Albert Einstein ✓
    • Isaac Newton
    • Stephen Hawking
    • Niels Bohr

  13. 13. What is the term for energy stored in an object due to its position?Medium

    • Potential energy ✓
    • Kinetic energy
    • Thermal energy
    • Chemical energy

  14. 14. Which Italian scientist was tried for supporting a Sun-centred solar system?Medium

    • Galileo Galilei ✓
    • Nicolaus Copernicus
    • Johannes Kepler
    • Giordano Bruno

  15. 15. Which scientist's X-ray images were crucial to discovering the structure of DNA?Hard

    • Rosalind Franklin ✓
    • Marie Curie
    • Ada Lovelace
    • Dorothy Hodgkin

  16. 16. What do we call the loudness of a sound?Easy

    • Volume ✓
    • Pitch
    • Frequency
    • Wavelength

  17. 17. What unit is commonly used to measure the loudness of sound?Hard

    • The decibel ✓
    • The hertz
    • The watt
    • The joule

  18. 18. What is the term for the Moon appearing fully lit in the night sky?Medium

    • A full moon ✓
    • A new moon
    • A crescent moon
    • A gibbous moon

  19. 19. What is water falling from clouds as rain or snow called?Easy

    • Precipitation ✓
    • Evaporation
    • Condensation
    • Collection

  20. 20. Where does most of Earth's water come from, feeding the water cycle?Easy

    • The oceans ✓
    • Rivers only
    • Lakes only
    • Underground wells only

  21. 21. What is the underground storage of water within rock and soil called?Medium

    • Groundwater ✓
    • Runoff
    • Precipitation
    • Collection

  22. 22. What is the flow of water over land back into rivers and oceans called?Medium

    • Runoff ✓
    • Groundwater
    • Transpiration
    • Infiltration

  23. 23. Which invisible field surrounds a magnet and exerts force on other magnetic materials?Hard

    • A magnetic field ✓
    • An electric field
    • A gravitational field
    • A radiation field

  24. 24. Which shape is DNA famously described as taking?Easy

    • A double helix ✓
    • A single strand
    • A perfect circle
    • A triangle

  25. 25. What is an exact genetic copy of another organism called?Hard

    • A clone ✓
    • A hybrid
    • A mutant
    • A twin only

  26. 26. Which system in the body allows movement by contracting and relaxing?Easy

    • The muscular system ✓
    • The skeletal system
    • The nervous system
    • The circulatory system

  27. 27. What connects muscles to bones in the human body?Medium

    • Tendons ✓
    • Ligaments
    • Cartilage
    • Nerves

  28. 28. Roughly how many muscles are there in the human body?Hard

    • About 600 ✓
    • About 100
    • About 300
    • About 1,000

  29. 29. What is a rapidly rotating neutron star that emits beams of radiation called?Hard

    • A pulsar ✓
    • A quasar
    • A supernova
    • A magnetar

  30. 30. Which type of energy source comes from burning coal, oil and gas?Easy

    • Fossil fuels ✓
    • Solar power
    • Wind power
    • Hydropower

  31. 31. Which renewable energy source uses flowing or falling water to generate power?Easy

    • Hydropower ✓
    • Wind power
    • Solar power
    • Geothermal power

  32. 32. Which energy source uses heat from deep within the Earth to generate power?Medium

    • Geothermal energy ✓
    • Solar energy
    • Wind energy
    • Hydropower

  33. 33. What is the process of splitting an atom's nucleus to release energy called?Hard

    • Nuclear fission ✓
    • Nuclear fusion
    • Nuclear decay
    • Nuclear bonding

  34. 34. What is the process of combining atomic nuclei to release energy, powering the Sun, called?Hard

    • Nuclear fusion ✓
    • Nuclear fission
    • Nuclear decay
    • Nuclear bonding

  35. 35. What term describes the advantage a machine gives by multiplying force?Hard

    • Mechanical advantage ✓
    • Kinetic advantage
    • Torque ratio
    • Load factor

  36. 36. What does REM stand for in relation to sleep?Easy

    • Rapid eye movement ✓
    • Restful evening mode
    • Rhythmic energy motion
    • Recovery essential minutes

  37. 37. Which part of the brain is associated with forming new memories?Medium

    • The hippocampus ✓
    • The cerebellum
    • The brainstem
    • The amygdala

  38. 38. Which part of the brain regulates basic functions like heart rate and breathing?Hard

    • The brainstem ✓
    • The cerebellum
    • The cerebrum
    • The hippocampus

  39. 39. Which element has the atomic number 1 on the periodic table?Hard

    • Hydrogen ✓
    • Helium
    • Carbon
    • Oxygen

How to play these as a game

Trivia Tavern runs these as a live round: one person opens a room, everyone else joins with a five-character code, and answers are locked in on each player’s own phone with a clock running. Faster correct answers score more, and a match draws from the full science pool — around two hundred questions, of which the 39 above are a sample.

Two to eight players, about fifteen minutes for three rounds, and nobody needs to make an account to sit down.

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