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History Quiz: Science

Guess the answers to these questions about science and scientists throughout history.
Quiz by MaxStickies
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Last updated: August 26, 2020
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First submittedMarch 4, 2020
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Average score46.7%
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1. Which scientist, in 1780, discovered that he could make a dead frog's legs twitch by applying electricity to the muscles?
Luigi Galvani
Michael Faraday
Alessandro Volta
Volta invented the Voltaic pile, an early battery, and made several other advances in the field of electrical science. As did Faraday, who is probably most famous for his Faraday cage.
2. Which of these did Archimedes not actually invent/formulate?
Arhimedes' principle
Archimedes' screw
Claw of Archimedes
Archimedes' screws existed in Ancient Egypt since before the 3rd Century BC. Archimedes described the technology in 234 BC, after a visit to Egypt, but never claimed credit for its invention. However, 200 years later, the historian Diodorus attributed the invention to Archimedes.
3. Marie Curie, along with her husband Pierre, discovered radium and which other element?
Polonium
Uranium
Francium
They extracted both (radium in the form of radium chloride) from uraninite (known then as pitchblende) in 1898. Uranium was discovered by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789 and francium was discovered by Marguerite Perey, a student of Marie Curie, in 1939.
4. What type of device are the Jantar Mantar of India?
Astrolabes
Equatoria
Sundials
They contain giant triangular gnomon (the bit that casts the shadow) with the hypotenuse parallel to the Earth's axis. On each side of the gnomon is a quadrant of a circle, parallel to the plane of the equator.
5. Which one of these did Isaac Newton not study?
Alchemy
Astrology
Theology
One of the things he wanted to discover was the location of the philosopher's stone.
6. Which was the first zoo to stop using cages?
Tierpark Hagenbeck
Jersey Zoo
Bronx Zoo
The reason wasn't for the animals' well-being, but so that the exhibits seemed more realistic. Bronx Zoo and Jersey Zoo were more focussed on conservation and the animals' wellbeing.
7. Which of these scientists contributed to the field of quantum physics?
John Dalton
Niels Bohr
Francis Crick
He conceived the principle of complementarity, which holds that objects have certain pairs of complementary properties which cannot all be observed or measured simultaneously. John Dalton introduced the atomic theory into chemistry, while Francis Crick co-authored the academic paper proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
8. "The Book of Healing" and "The Canon of Medicine", both encyclopedias, were written by which Islamic scientist (Latinised name)?
Albategnius
Avicenna
Algorithmi
The former focussed on philosophy and science, while the latter focussed on medicine.
9. Chemist Humphry Davy came from which town in the south-west of England?
Glastonbury
Totnes
Penzance
He isolated a number of elements using electricity, including potassium, sodium and calcium.
10. Kotaro Honda created a type of which alloy?
Steel
Pewter
Brass
He called is KS steel. The "KS" stands for Kichizaemon Sumitomo, who provided financial support for Kotaro Honda's research.
11. What was the purpose of the Antikythera mechanism?
To tally large amounts of grain
To predict the tides
To predict astronomical positions and eclipses
These predictions were used for calendar and astrological purposes.
12. Who is seen as the founder of the science of genetics?
James Watson
Charles Darwin
Gregor Mendel
He was a friar who conducted experiments with pea plants, which established many of the rules of heredity.
13. The first probe to successfully orbit Mars was sent by which nation?
Soviet Union
United States
China
Mariner 9 was the first, also making it the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. It reached Mars on 14th November 1971, only weeks before the Soviet probes Mars 2 and Mars 3.
14. Who was born last?
Johannes Kepler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Galileo Galilei
He was born 27th December 1571. Copernicus was born on 19th February 1473 and Galileo was born on 15th February 1564.
15. The Indian scientist Aryabhata described which of these?
Spread of disease
Relativity of motion
States of matter
This entails that the motion of any object is only meaningful when given relative to something else. He described it as: "Just as a man in a boat moving forward sees the stationary objects (on the shore) as moving backward, just so are the stationary stars seen by the people on earth as moving exactly towards the west."
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