What comes to mind when you think of physics? Is it that really fashionable teacher who would always scribble the mole formula on the blackboard, and you never really understood a thing, is it the smartest kid in class who seemed to get every answer right, or is it that assignment that once made you wake up at 3 am to finish up? Whatever the case is, if you took up this daring subject then you sure have a certain memory attached to it.
Engrossing, captivating, and intriguing are among the words we can use to describe this subject. A quick reminder of what physics is. Physics is the study of heat, light, sound, space, electricity, pressure among many other topics. It is actually one of the science subjects.
Physics Trivia Questions and Answers
We have compiled some physics trivia questions to help you see just how much you can remember from your class. Students on the other hand are super lucky because these questions will help them revise what they’ve been taught, they’ll be smiling all the way to the exam room.
Click on the “show answer” to see whether you got it right. Take a look! It will certainly be fun.
1. Which Renaissance scientist is credited with the discovery of the pendulum?
2. Where does sound travel faster; water or air?
3. What constant is equivalent to 96,485 coulombs per mole of electrons?
4. What name is given to the science of sound?
5. What is opposite to matter?
6. What is the repeated sound when sound waves bounce off other objects called?
7. Name the SI unit of mass?
8. Why do bubbles pop?
9. What constant is referred to as “The Universe’s Clock”?
10. What is the name of Isaac Newton’s important law?
11. What is the Law of Conservation of Energy?
12. To which part of physics does the Archimedes’ Principle refer?
13. Name the instrument used to measure gas pressure?
14. What is the unit measurement for the activity of a radioactive source?
15. What was the first sound-recording device called?
16. Which physicist is more famous for his cat than for his equation?
17. If you mix all colors of light do you get black, white, or a rainbow?
18. What is the term for the capacity of a body or system to do work?
19. Can you name the tube used to produce X-rays?
20. How many separate patents did Thomas Edison file?
21. What is the main form of energy produced by a laser?
22. What is a word used to describe a solid whose arrangement of atoms and molecules has no definite pattern?
23. What does TCP/IP stand for?
24. What is the scientific word for push or pull?
25. How are X-rays different to gamma rays in radiation therapy?
26. What’s the highest recorded surface wind speed?
27. How many watts is one horsepower?
28. Can you state the term used to describe an orbit’s farthest point from Earth?
29. What is the name of the layer of air closest to us in the atmosphere?
30. What type of lens has a thin middle and makes objects appear smaller?
31. What is the function of a capacitor?
32. True or false – is lightning 3 times hotter than the Sun?
33. Who discovered that a moving magnet generates electric current known as electromagnetic induction?
34. For what discovery did Albert Einstein win his first Nobel prize?
35. True or false: When lightning hits a tree, the water inside the tree boils and expands, blowing the tree apart.
36. What liquid is a fuel commonly used in automobiles?
37. Which is the main type of radiation that is emitted when a copper plate is heated to 100 degrees centigrade?
38. Is the stratosphere above or below the troposphere?
39. About how fast does sound travel in meters per second?
40. Upon what two factors is the amount of kinetic energy of an object dependent?
41. How many volts can an electric eel produce?
42. Masses are to Newton’s Gravitational Law as charges are to what?
43. The discovery of infrared radiation is credited to whom?
44. True or false: The Eiffel Tower is taller in summer than it is in winter.
45. What kind of electromagnetic radiation arises only from nuclear excitations?
50. Can you state the year in which Max Planck introduced his quantum theory to science?
51. What is the word ‘radar’ an abbreviation for?
52. What measure is used to express reactance in conductors and capacitors?
53. What is the force that allows an object submerged in a fluid to rise to the top of a container?
54. What year was the sound barrier broken?
55. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics?
56. The hypothesis that all matter exists out of particles was first formulated by whom?
57. On the moon, which would hit the ground first if they were dropped from the same height and at the same time: a feather or a bowling ball?
58. How many grams are in a pound?
59. What do we mean by velocity?
60. Is it possible to physically stop light from moving?
61. What is the anti-matter equivalent of an electron?
62. Who developed an equation that relates momentum and wavelength?
63. What unit is used to measure the intensity of light?
64. What is water in its solid form called?
65. What is the name for the unit of the optical power of a lens?
66. What does the acronym ‘LASER’ stand for?
67. What liquid is used as a standard when measuring density?
68. For what discovery did Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn win a Nobel Prize in 1924?
69. What rock floats in water?
70. What physical constant did Henry Cavendish first determine using two weights and a cantilever?
71. What is the SI unit of heat?
72. Which freezes faster, hot water or cold water?
73. What is the distance between two peaks of a wave called?
74. What is the term used to describe the bending of a light ray when it passes between materials of different densities?
75. What is the hardest known substance?
76. After physics, what study did Isaac Newton take up until he published “Principia Mathematica”?
77. Which scientist discovered the photoelectric effect in 1887?
78. What is the speed of light?
79. What was originally defined as one 10-millionth of the distance from the equator to the North Pole?
80. What is emitted by the hot metal filament in a cathode ray tube?
81. Does light travel faster through air or water?
82. What is it called when a current skips part of the circuit?
83.Can you name the phenomenon of light that is responsible for a CDs colorful look when exposed to light?
84. When you mix red and green light, what color light is formed?
85. How much would a 150-pound person weigh at the center of the earth?
86. Can you name the instrument used to communicate by light?
87. The word “force” comes from the Latin word “fortis”, meaning:
88. What is the opening of a lens, which controls the amount of light?
89. Approximately how long does it take for light to travel from the sun to the earth?
90. Your weight tells you how much stuff makes up your body.
91. How many quarks are in an electron?
92. Which law states that at a constant temperature, the volume of a fixed mass of gas is inversely proportional to its pressure?
93. What is the name of the force keeping you in your seat on a rollercoaster when it goes upside down?
94. What are the ends of a bar magnet called?
95. What causes the Aurora Borealis (also known as the Northern Lights)?
96. When the roads are wet, sometimes that water reduces friction between the tyres and the tarmac and causes our cars to lose control. What is this called?
97. What is the main form of energy produced by a laser?
98. The quality of a sound wave depends on what?
99. Scientists often talk about “Classical Mechanics.” What does this mean?
100. Which abbreviation refers to a term that literally means “below red”?
101. In which century was physics discovered?
102. True or false: gravity can be so strong that it even pulls in light.
103. What would you use to measure the mass difference between two like objects?
104. What are the five main laws of physics?
105. Which muscle in the human body can produce the most force for its size?
106. Dimples on golf balls help increase speed by reducing what?
107. Who is the most famous physicist?
108. Which is the strongest fundamental force in the universe?
109. What is the scale used to measure tornadoes?
110. Which scientist discovered the phenomenon of superconductivity?
111. True or false: Isaac Newton was Albert Einstein’s great-great-grandfather.
112. What was magnetite called by the early Europeans?
113. After which scientists’ name is the unit of electric current named?
114. What do we call the study of how objects move when forces act on them?
115. How fast does light travel in one second?
116. For what is a Pitot tube used in physics?
117. True or false: You must touch an object to apply force to it.
118. If you’re talking about electricity, what does “DC” stand for?
119. If an object is in free fall, what is the only force that is acting upon that object?
120. A rocket is launched at a speed of 10 kilometers per second. How far will it travel in 1/2 minute?
121. A derivative represents the rate of change of something. What is the derivative of a velocity function with respect to time?
122. BAC stands for:
123. What word describes a material which maintains a magnetic field after an external field is removed?
124. What is the name of the science of sound?
125. The density of water in g/mL is?
126. How many coulombs does one ampere-hour equal?
127. We all know that the Earth is locked into orbit around the sun thanks to gravity, but exactly how far does the force of gravity go?
128. The rule to calculate momentum is:
129. What electrical term is AC an abbreviation for?
130. What is the SI unit of weight?
131. The density of carbon dioxide gas is greater than that of air. In a container of air, where will carbon dioxide gas be found?
132. Who discovered the rotating magnetic field that is the basis of Alternating Current?
133. Time travel (traveling to the past or future) has been a popular theme in film and fiction. Albert Einstein offered a groundbreaking theory that gives some scientific possibility to actual time travel. What theory is this?
134. Four-wheel-drive owners let the air out of their tyres before driving on sand. This is because:
135. What constant is equivalent to 96,485 coulombs per mole of electrons?
136. You are driving on the freeway when you see a police car on the side of the road. Your speedometer broke, so you don’t know how fast you are going. What formula should you use to find out your speed?
137. The small groups of atoms that behave like small magnets inside a large magnet are called:
138. What are the component parts of a battery called?
139. If an object is at rest on a flat surface, there is always gravity pulling down and the normal force pushing up. Which force is greater?
140. The magnetic field of a magnet:
141. Which insect can indicate the air temperature?
142. What is the number of electrons present in the nucleus of an uranium atom having atomic number 92 and mass number 238?
143. The instrument used to measure current is called?
144. What is the repeated sound when sound waves bounce off other objects called?
145. A popular desk toy consists of a number of metal balls – usually five – suspended by two wires of equal length from a metal frame, lightly touching each other. What is this toy called?
146. The visible spectrum of light from the longest to shortest wavelength is:
147. What is the energy of moving parts called?
148. An integral is the product of two quantities. What physical quantity is obtained when you take the integral of a velocity function with respect to time?
149. When light rays travel at a critical angle through an object such as optical fibre, they are:
150. Who was the Clark University physicist responsible for “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”?
151. What Nobel Prize-winning physicist was Niels Bohr working with when he made the discoveries that led to his 1922 Nobel Prize for physics?
152. There is no sound in a vacuum. True or false?
153. How many joules make one calorie?
154. Bowling pins are shaped in a certain way so they are more stable and less likely to fall over if gently hit. This is because of their center of gravity, which is located where in the pin?
155. The loudness of sound is measured in:
156. What is a body’s resistance to changes in motion or speed called?
157. What is the name for an object with so much mass that the gravitational force is generally believed to be too great to allow anything, even light, to ‘escape’?
158. An example of a second-order lever with fulcrum, load, and effort in that order is:
159. What kind of power do sailboats use?
160. What is the term for the capacity of a body or system to do work?
161. Gravitational acceleration is?
162. What method of arranging elements into related groups was invented by Dimitri Mendeleyev?
163. What is the function of a capacitor?
164. What was Albert Einstein’s first Nobel prize all about?
165. A copper plate is heated to 100 degrees centigrade, and then cools by emitting radiation predominantly of which type?
166. What physicist remarked: “God is subtle, but he is not malicious”
167. The electromotive force induced in a conductor moving at right angles to a magnetic field does not depend upon
168. What M-word defines anything that occupies space?
169. When dealing with magnetic fields, what does the A stand for in the equation { Torque = NIAB sin 90 }?
170. A car speeds up from 54 km/hr to 90 km/hr in 2 sec. Calculate its acceleration. (Acc. = Change in velocity / Time ; Use 1 km/hr = 5/18 m/s)
171. What do you call a substance containing only one kind of atom?
172. The amount of kinetic energy an object has depends upon what factors?
173. What teenager began studying physics after he noticed a chandelier swinging during a 1581 earthquake?
174. Whose principle states that an experiment cannot simultaneously determine the exact component of momentum and position?
175. What elementary particle’s antiparticle is the positron?
176. According to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, what can bend space-time?
177. What element comes last alphabetically?
178. Who is credited with the discovery of infrared radiation?
179. What radioactive element is extracted from carnotite and pitchblende?
180. What unit is used to measure forces?
181. What American physicist pioneered the theory of “black holes” in 1939?
182. In which year did Max Planck introduce his quantum theory?
183. What’s a charged atom, with unequal numbers of electrons and protons?
184. What is the derivative of the momentum function with respect to time?
185. What theory of physics proposes that energy is not transferred continuously but in discrete amounts?
186. Professor Robert Millikan won the 1923 Nobel Prize for his work on electrons. What kind of drops did he use to determine the precise charge of an electron?
187. What element was converted to plutonium in the first nuclear reactors?
188. Cobalt-60 therapy machines were the initial cancer treatment modality. What nuclear decay scheme results in the usable emission of radiation for this isotope?
189. What acronyms for “Weakly Interacting Massive Particles ” and “Massive Compact Halo Objects” do physicists use to explain dark matter?
190. Most humans can hear the same range of frequencies. What is the term used for this range?
191. What’s a single unit of quanta called?
192. If the law,’the extension (x) of an object is proportional to the load (F)’, is put into action and portrayed in graphical form, what shape would you initially expect the line to be?
193. What did scientists build in a squash court under a football stadium at the University of Chicago in 1942?
194. In which ancient culture was the hypothesis that all matter exists out of particles first formulated?
195. What’s the atomic number of hydrogen?
196. To store gamma radioactive substances, a box should be made of which material?
197. What element begins with the letter “k”?
198. Who won a Nobel Prize in 1918 for his work in quantum physics?
199. What F-word is defined in physics as a “nuclear reaction in which nuclei combine to form more massive nuclei”?
200. A Force of 100 N produces an acceleration of 2 m/s/s in a body. Calculate its mass. (Newton’s Second Law)
201. What E-word was the first elementary particle to be discovered?
202. If a 10kg object is pushed with a 20N force and there is a coefficient of friction of 0.4, what will the acceleration be?
203. Which Swedish scientist had a temperature scale named after him?
204. Who developed an equation that relates wavelength and momentum?
205. How many colors are there in the spectrum when white light is separated?
206. What is the integral of the force function with respect to time?
207. The discovery of which law provoked the surprised cry ‘Eureka!’?
208. While Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn did work in several areas of physics, what did he specifically win his 1924 Nobel Prize for?
209. What is measured by the SI unit called a ‘henry’?
210. What is the predominant interaction for megavoltage radiation therapy energies?
211. What is the force that opposes the relative motion of two bodies that are in contact?
212. What is the study and use of frequencies above 20 khz?
213. What is the SI unit of heat?
214. What is an unchanging position in which forces cancel each other out?
215. The “cosmic microwave background” is a small signal, associated with a temperature of only 2.7 degrees Celsius above absolute zero — but it has huge implications. What theory of astrophysics does this background radiation support?
216. Which physicist’s law states that equal volumes of all gases, measured at the same temperature and pressure, contain the same number of molecules?
217. “When an object is bent, stretched or compressed by a ______, the restoring force is directly proportional to the _____ – provided the elastic limit is not exceeded.”
218. What is the ability of fluids to offer resistance to flow?
219. The joule is a derived unit of energy named for the physicist named Joule. What nationality was he?
220. What was invented by Dennis Gabor in 1947, winning him a Nobel prize in 1971?
221. The half-life of isotope X is four days and its initial mass is 32mg. What mass of isotope X will remain after 12 days?
222. What is described as an ionized gas with approximately equal numbers of positive and negative charges?
223. In what way is force directly related to potential energy?
224. What name is given to the very serious chain of events which can follow the failure of the cooling system in a nuclear reactor?
225. What current will pass through a circuit of potential difference 200 V with a resistance of 25 Ohms? (Ohm’s Law)
226. Which electronic device magnifies the strength of a signal?
227. A real image is never created by a) concave lenses b) convex lenses c) concave mirrors d) convex mirrors
228. What was the name of the unit of heat now replaced by the joule?
229. Who discovered the photoelectric effect in 1887?
230. What does c represent in the equation e = mc*2?
231. A ballistic pendulum was a device used by police departments to determine the velocity of a bullet. The device consisted of a piece of which material hanging from cords?
232. What is commonly used in a rectifier to convert alternating current to direct current?
233. What is the integral of the force function with respect to displacement?
234. What is a cylindrical coil of wire in which a magnetic field is created when an electric current is passed through it?
235. How is a shadow formed?
236. What describes a substance that exists in more than one form, differing in physical rather than chemical properties?
237. In their famous experiment which proved the theories of Niels Bohr, what did James Franck and Gustav Hertz pass electricity through to learn about the energy levels of atoms?
238. Whose ‘unified field theory’ tried to explain the four fundamental forces in terms of a single, unified force?
239. Pair production is a form of interaction between photons of very high energy and matter. What is this pair that is referred to?
240. IN Britain, how many lines make up the picture on a TV screen?
241. The Planck constant has what dimension?
242. What diverges rays of light, if it is concave?
243. What is defined as ‘load per unit cross-sectional area’?
244. What can be expressed as the number of cycles of vibration occurring per unit of time?
245. Nuclear physicists often speak of the “binding energy” of a nucleus, which sheds light on everything from fission to fusion. What is nuclear binding energy?
246. What is the product of the mass of a body and its linear velocity?
247. Why is the pressure increased in the car tires after driving it?
248. Which quantity has direction as well as magnitude?
249. Which Italian became famous for the experiment he conducted with a mercury tube to measure the atmospheric pressure?
250. What is the SI unit of magnetic flux density, named after a Croatian electrical engineer?
251. What is the *standard* unit of measurement for acceleration?
252. What does the abbreviation STP stand for?
253. What is emitted by the hot metal filament in the cathode ray tube?
254. What is studied in the science of cryogenics?
255. In an RLC circuit, what does the L stand for?
256. What does the acronym maser stand for?
257. If 21 kJ of heat energy is supplied to 5 kg of water, what is the increase in the temperature of water?
258. A magnifying glass is what type of lens?
259. The Space Shuttle, when orbiting the earth experiences….
260. A person who studies physics is known as a?
261. CDs reflect rainbow colors when exposed to light. Which phenomenon of light is responsible for this?
262. Metals expand when heated and do what when cooled?
263. If an object is on a sloped surface of 45 degrees, in which direction is the normal force?
264. What is the first name of the famous scientist who gave us Newton’s three laws of motion?
265. What is the boiling point of water on the Rankine scale?
266. What state of the art computer technology is used to train pilots when wanting to copy the experience of flying an aircraft?
267. The circus, or flying, trapeze was invented by young acrobat Jules Leotard in the mid 1800s. What was his nationality?
268. Electric power is typically measured in what units?
269. What is the derivative of electric potential with respect to distance?
270. The most recognized model of how the universe began is known as the?
271. What is a generic term for the proton and/or the neutron?
272. Who is the Hubble Space Telescope named after?
273. Which experiment led Jean Perrin to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926?
274. The wire inside an electric bulb is known as the what?
275. Although an atom with orbiting electrons may look like a galaxy, they are very different systems operating under different rules. Which statement illustrates a significant difference between the two?
276. Theoretical physicist James Maxwell was born in what country?
277. The photons emitted in a linear accelerator are Bremsstrahlung X-rays. What does that mean?
278. Infrared light has a wavelength that is too long or short to be visible for humans?
279. Gauss’s law states that the divergence of the electric field is directly proportional to the charge density. What is the SI unit of the divergence of the electric field?
280. What kind of eclipse do we have when the moon is between the sun and the earth?
281. Kinetic energy is defined as half multiplied by mass multiplied by velocity squared. In a closed system, the kinetic energy remains constant. In what type of collision does kinetic energy remain constant?
282. True or false? Iron is attracted by magnets.
283. All things are made of atoms and are generally stable. When an unstable atom decays, which type of particle, or ray, does it NOT give out?
284. What is the earth’s primary source of energy?
285. What Greek letter is used to denote the physical phenomenon of stress?
286. Do conductors have high or low resistance?
287. The sound made when an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound is called what?
288. Electric current is typically measured in what units?
289. What is the current in a 5.0 ohm resistor when the potential difference between the ends of the resistor is 2.5 V?
290. A body of mass 10 kg accelerates from 20 meters per second to 30 m per s in just 1 second. What’s the magnitude of the force applied?
291. Earth is located in which galaxy?
292. Speed is to velocity as …
293. For the hydrogen atom, which series describes electron transitions to
the N=1 orbit, the lowest energy electron orbit?
294. Super String Theory was crafted in the 1960s to try to incorporate both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics in one theory. What condition does the theory require of reality?
295. In the SI system of measure, what is the unit of capacitance?
296. Which elementary particle is also known as the ‘positive electron’?
297. For an object moving in a uniform circular motion, the direction of the instantaneous acceleration vector is?
298. The world’s largest and heaviest skyscraper pendulum, or tuned mass damper as it is more commonly known, is located in a famous building that was the world’s tallest from 2004 to 2010. Which building is it?
299. What is the derivative of the work function with respect to time?
300. What is one use of optical technology?
