School Physics Trivia Quiz

About this quiz

This School Physics Trivia Quiz has 167 questions: 59 easy, 67 medium and 41 hard. It is free. Play it with friends in a room for 2 to 12 players, on phones or in a browser, or play it solo. Type your answers: close enough counts, so a small typo still scores.

Sample questions

20 of the 167 School physics questions in this pack. Think of your answer, then open it.

1. An ambulance siren sounds higher as it races toward you and lower as it speeds away. Whose 'effect' is that?

   Show answer

   Doppler

   Astronomers use the same effect on light to tell whether galaxies are moving towards or away from us.

2. A small apple weighs about one of which unit of force?

   Show answer

   Newton

   Fittingly, the unit honours Isaac Newton, whose falling-apple story is the most famous in physics.

3. Concorde cruised at about Mach 2. Mach 1 is the speed of what?

   Show answer

   Sound

   Mach is named after Austrian physicist Ernst Mach; Concorde flew at about 2,170 km/h.

4. Shanghai's airport train, which once hit 431 km/h, hovers above its track without touching it. What holds it up?

   Show answer

   Magnets

   With nothing rubbing on the rails, there's no rolling friction, only air drag.

5. The crack of a whip is a tiny version of what, because part of the whip moves faster than sound?

   Show answer

   Sonic boom

   High-speed photos in the 1920s showed a whip's tip, or a loop near it, moving faster than sound.

6. Which country made the first magnetic compasses, using lodestone, over 900 years ago?

   Show answer

   China

   Early versions included a lodestone spoon that spun on a smooth plate to point south.

7. Ships measure the depth of the sea by timing how long pulses of sound take to echo back. What is this system called?

   Show answer

   Sonar

   It was developed in the 1910s after the Titanic sank and was used in World War One to hunt submarines.

8. Bats hunt insects in pitch darkness by squeaking and listening for the bounce. What's this called?

   Show answer

   Echolocation

   Some bats can track a moth in total darkness from the faint echoes of their calls.

9. 'Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth.' Which ancient Greek genius said it about the power of levers?

   Show answer

   Archimedes

   He meant a long enough lever on a pivot could lift anything, the same idea behind a crowbar.

10. Pressure cookers cook dal and rice faster because the extra pressure raises water's what?

    Show answer

    Boiling point

    At about twice normal air pressure, water boils at around 120 °C instead of 100 °C.

11. Magnets lose their magnetism if heated past a certain temperature named after Marie Curie's husband. What is it called?

    Show answer

    Curie point

    Above it the atoms' tiny magnets jiggle out of line; for iron it's about 770 °C.

12. Lakes freeze from the top down, so fish survive below. Water is at its densest at what temperature, in °C?

    Show answer

    4

    Water at that temperature sinks to the bottom, while colder water and ice float on top like a lid.

13. Coal, gas and nuclear power stations all boil water into steam to spin which fan-like machine linked to a generator?

    Show answer

    Turbine

    Even a nuclear plant is, in the end, a giant kettle spinning a turbine.

14. Elephants talk to each other across kilometres using rumbles too low for us to hear. What's this deep sound called?

    Show answer

    Infrasound

    The rumbles sit below 20 vibrations a second and can travel several kilometres.

15. Wheelchair access paths and the earth slopes the Egyptians probably dragged pyramid blocks up are which simple machine?

    Show answer

    Inclined plane

    A longer, gentler slope needs less force, but you push over a longer distance.

16. The word 'electricity' comes from the Greek for which golden material, which attracts feathers and straw when you rub it?

    Show answer

    Amber

    The Greek word for amber is 'elektron'; around 600 BC Thales noticed its pull.

17. Steam at 100 °C scalds worse than boiling water at 100 °C, because steam gives up extra hidden heat when it does what on your skin?

    Show answer

    Condenses

    That hidden 'latent heat' is the same energy it took to boil the water in the first place.

18. Sprinkle which metal powder around a bar magnet to see its invisible field lines?

    Show answer

    Iron filings

    Each tiny filing becomes a mini-magnet and lines up along the field.

19. A steel ship weighing 100,000 tonnes floats because the water pushes up on it. What is that upward push called?

    Show answer

    Buoyancy

    A ship settles until it has pushed aside water weighing as much as the whole ship.

20. A fridge pumps a special liquid round its pipes that soaks up heat inside as it does what?

    Show answer

    Evaporates

    The heat is dumped from the coils at the back, which is why the back of a fridge feels warm.

Play free with friends

How to play with friends

1. Start a room. Open this quiz in Braggit, already picked for you. It plays in any browser or the app.
2. Invite your friends. Share the room code or link. Friends join from their own phones, in the same room or over a video call.
3. Type, wager, brag. Everyone types an answer before the timer runs out. Wager points when you are sure, then share your brag card.

Questions about this quiz

More quizzes like this

• School Biology: Cell Mates School biology · 224 questions
• School Chemistry: Bonding Time School chemistry · 158 questions
• Inventions: Eureka! Inventions · 112 questions
• Doctor's Orders: Medical Trivia Medicine · 196 questions
• Space: Look Up Space · 196 questions
• Aviation: Wheels Up Aviation · 171 questions

All Science & Nature quizzes · All quizzes · Trivia with friends