Can You Pass a Basic Physics Test?

By: Torrance Grey
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Pass a Basic Physics Test?
Image: Yuichiro Chino/ Moment/gettyimages

About This Quiz

Physics: Some scientists call it "the fundamental science," because of the way it underlies every other science. Think that atoms and molecules are only for chemistry class? Think again -- how those atoms move, and the nature of the subatomic particles that make them up, are province of physics. Think that black holes are only studied in astronomy? Not so -- there's a whole branch of physics that deals with the matter, energy and motion of the heavenly bodies. Among the sciences, probably mathematics rivals physics as a prerequisite to understanding every other field. (And yes, math is considered a science!)

For this quiz, we're not going to venture into the sexy (yet nearly incomprehensible) area of quantum physics. Don't worry, you won't need to know what they're doing at CERN, or what a Higgs boson really is. We're going to quiz you the stuff that bedeviled you -- or maybe the stuff you loved -- in middle school or high school. We're going to talk about the physics that keeps planes in the air, and makes baseball such a thrilling game to watch. And there'll be a few questions on the most famous physicists of all time. (A guy named Albert might come up). 

Are you ready? No need for a No. 2 pencil -- just a love of this most beautiful of sciences!

What does an ohm measure?
air resistance
electrical resistance
temperature of plasma
volume of gas
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Resistance is what is sounds like: a measure of the difficulty in passing an electrical current through a conductive, or not so conductive, substance. The opposite quality is conductivity, which is the ease with which current travels.

Which of these is NOT a state of matter?
gas
liquid
solid
they are all states of matter
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

It's common for us to say that matter can be a solid, liquid or a gas. However, plasma is the fourth state, which is very rare and usually has to be created under lab conditions.

True or false: Velocity and acceleration have the same meaning.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Acceleration is rate of change in speed. Does that make "speed" the same thing as "velocity"? In everyday life, yes, but not in physics. In physics, "velocity" describes speed in a known direction. If direction is unknown, the object just has "speed. "

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The ability of a substance to return to its shape after being deformed is called ______.
elasticity
flexibility
metaflex
integrity
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is another physics concept which is important to engineering. Not all concepts in physics have such real-life applications.

In nuclear physics, what is the opposite of fusion?
stasis
fission
partition
replication
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Nuclear fission is essentially the splitting of the atom. Don't try this at home.

The upward force that water exerts on objects is called ________.
buoyancy
impermeability
resistance
water pressure
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Every physics student hears the story of Archimedes, who was able to determine if a crown was pure gold, or had lesser metals mixed in, by using buoyancy. Technically, Archimedes's revelation was more about displacement, but that's a concept closely related to buoyancy. Both gold and silver are too heavy to be held up by buoyancy, but the extent to which they displace water is different -- so Archimedes had a baseline for measuring how much water the crown should displace.

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The change in pitch of an ambulance siren, when the ambulance is in motion, is called the ______ effect.
Bohr
Compton
Doppler
Bohr
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A siren sounds higher in pitch if the emergency vehicle is approaching you, and get lower as it goes away. The same thing happens with light coming from moving sources, which moves up and down the color spectrum. This gives us the witty T-shirt with "The Doppler Effect" written in blue in front, and red in back.

Which of these terms is also from electricity?
amperes
volts
wavelengths
both #1 and #2
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Volts are a measure of electric potential. Amperes are a unit of electrical current, and we didn't even get into joules or coulombs. Electricity is a complex subject, despite the fact that we use it daily. If you truly want to understand it, you'd be better off taking an electrical engineering course than a physics class.

Newton's Second Law says that force equals mass times _____.
acceleration
height
heat
3.14
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is one of the simplest physics concepts to understand. People cock back their fist to punch because the mass of their fist doesn't change, so the way to pack a harder punch to to increase the speed at which it travels -- which requires starting from farther back.

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A lens can be concave, _______ or planar.
convex
complex
displanar
refractory
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You're probably used to hearing "concave" and "convex" when it comes to lenses, "planar" less often. A concave lens curved inward from the outer edges; a convex one outward. (Turn a spoon forward and backward to get an immediate visual on this).

A hypothetical process in which nuclear reactions could take place at room temperature is called _________.
cold fusion
hypofusion
antimatter fission
enthalpy
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

There was a stir in the science world when two credible electrochemists claimed they'd achieved this. But the results couldn't be replicated, and the consensus of the scientific community is that it won't happen. Which is unfortunate, because the energy that cold fusion could provide the world would be incredible.

The height of a wave above its normal/center position is its _______.
amplitude
latitude
scale
wavelength
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When you're watching sound waves on a computer screen, (or, more likely, watched people watch sound waves on a screen in a movie with a lot of sciencey props) the amplitude is the top of the curve. Think of it like the vertex in a parabola.

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Newton's First Law states that objects at rest shall remain at rest, unless what happens?
They are in space.
They are acted on by an external force.
They become too cold.
They shrink to subatomic size.
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Newton's First Law is summarized as the concept of inertia. In full, it says, "Objects in motion will stay in motion, and objects at rest will remain at rest, unless acted on by an external force." Common "external forces" are another moving object (a foot kicking a ball), air pressure (wind), or gravity.

A change in the speed and direction of light is called ______.
diffraction
infraction
refraction
exfraction
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You've seen visible evidence of refraction if you've seen a "rainbow maker," a crystal carved so that it creates a small rainbow when light hits it. This might be the only piece of physics equipment you can buy at your local New Age store.

Is "stiffness" a property of physics?
Sure is!
You're joking, right?
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Though it sounds very informal, "stiffness" is indeed a term from physics. It describes a material's ability to resist changing shape in response to an external force, which is important in engineering.

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Which of these things is named after Isaac Newton?
a crater on Mars
a measure of weight
a type of telescope
all of these
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Newton is also the namesake of an early Apple computer and a mathematics institute at Cambridge. But we're partial to the Newtonian telescope, a long-bodied but inexpensive kind that uses a mirror, not a lens, to enlarge images.

On Earth, gravitational acceleration is 9.8 _____ per second, per second.
centimeters
inches
meters
kilometers
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Also written as "9.8 meters per second squared," this is the rate of acceleration at which objects to fall to earth, until they are stopped by hitting another object (like the earth) or reach an absolute velocity, which will vary depending on the property of the object.

_______ law reads, "The pressure of a gas, multiplied by its volume, is a constant."
Bacon's
Boyle's
Bohr's
Cooper's
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is an easier concept to understand than it at first appears. If you have air in a closed container, and squeeze the container so that the interior space gets smaller, the pressure of the air has to rise proportionally. This is why, under too much pressure, the lid of the container might blow off.

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What does a Faraday cage block?
heat
electromagnetic fields
sound
all of these
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

These structures are named for physicist Michael Faraday. Elevators work as Faraday cages (by accident, not by design), which explains why your cellphone often doesn't work in one.

The physics of bodies and phenomena beyond planet earth is called ______.
astronomy
astrophysics
rocket science
stellar physics
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Don't be confused: "astronomy" is the broad study of the heavens. But when you're dealing specifically with the motion and forces of stars, planets and the like, that's astrophysics.

A total absence of matter is called a ______.
abyss
quantum
vacuum
void
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

What we tend to think of as the absence of "anything" is actually air -- which is matter; it moves, and it exerts about 14 psi of pressure at sea level. It's space which is a true vacuum.

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A body's gravitational force is proportional to its ______.
age
mass
shape
velocity
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

This is one of the first things students in astronomy or physics learn: that the planets revolve around the Sun because of its great mass. Here's the kicker: Physicists know this is a universal law, but still don't know why mass creates gravity.

The amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit is called a ________.
base thermal unit
British thermal unit
millijoule
megajoule
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The use of a Fahrenheit degree should have tipped you off, since the British, like the US, have stubbornly clung to the standard-measure system instead of centigrade. Perhaps that's why the BTU is rarely used compared to the joule.

Zero degrees on the ________ scale is called absolute zero.
Celsius
Fahrenheit
Kelvin
Maxwell
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

You might have learned in school that this is the lowest temperature matter can reach, but that's not entirely true. At absolute zero, matter still retains zero-point quantum-mechanical energy. Which we'd explain, if we understood. Which we don't.

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Put these famous physicists in the correct chronological order:
Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday
James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday, Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Probably the first and last physicists on this list are the most famous. But James Clerk Maxwell and Michael Faraday were huge in the field as well.

Which of these are you least likely to study in a physics class?
expansion of gases
the Krebs cycle
the effects of gravity
how an airfoil works
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

To an extent, every other science is dependent on the laws of physics. That's why it's sometimes called "the fundamental science." But the Krebs cycle, about how nitrogen goes from the earth's soil to the atmosphere and back again, is usually studied in biology classes.

True or false: Only iron has ferromagnetism.
true
false
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ferromagnetism is named for iron, of course. But other materials like nickel and cobalt are ferromagnetic. "Ferromagnetism" is simply the term for magnetism of metals, which is easily observed compared to other electromagnetic phenomena.

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Newton formulated 3 laws of physics regarding inertia, energy, and what?
Vertigo
Entropy
Infinity
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Newton's laws are also called the laws of motion. They explain energy, inertia and entropy.

The branch of physics studying the properties of light is called ______.
radiophysics
spectral physics
optics
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

We tend to think of the prefix "opt-" as having to do with vision, thanks to "optometry" and "opticians." However, all vision is a function of light, and at its core, optics is the study of how light behaves, including its creation of color.

Which of these colors has the shortest wavelength?
blue
red
violet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Red has the longest wavelength, and violet the shortest. The wavelengths in between, in order, are orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo.

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How many laws of thermodynamics are there?
four
five
six
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The laws of thermodynamics are numbered 0 to 3, not 1 to 4. Why? Because law "zero" was added after the first three, but was so basic that the powers that be in physics decided it should come first.

A "newton" weighs about how much in standard measure?
an ounce
a quarter pound (102 grams)
2.2 pounds
3 pounds
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A newton is 102 grams, or about one-fourth of a pound. Why is this amount special enough to be named after Sir Isaac Newton? It represents the force that would cause a 1 kilogram object to accelerate 1 meter per second, squared.

What is the opposite of centrifugal force?
centrilocking force
centrimedal force
centripetal force
centrizygous force
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

If you own a salad spinner, you're familiar with centrifugal force -- the spinning causes water to fly to the outside perimeter. Centripetal force is the opposite, causing matter to move toward the center of rotation.

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The Bernoulli principle is key to what modern convenience?
airplanes
cell phones
microwave ovens
Twitter
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Bernoulli principle has to do with how fast molecules of air travel over an airfoil -- a surface which is curved on top, in order to have greater area than it does on the bottom. The slower motion of air under the airfoil creates upward pressure. In this way, wings allow flight. It's really that simple!

Is light visible?
yes
no
Depends what you mean by "visible"
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Physicists do refer to "visible light," but they're referring to the fact that we can see the objects that light illuminates, not light itself. They use the term "visible light," though, because in a larger sense, light is electromagnetic radiation, and there are spectrums of it that are completely invisible to humans -- they don't affect what we can see. Clear now?

You Got:
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Yuichiro Chino/ Moment/gettyimages