Science Trivia Quiz: Physics, Chemistry and Discoveries

This science trivia quiz mixes physics, chemistry, biology and great discoveries, from gold's chemical symbol and the speed of light to Albert Einstein, photosynthesis in chloroplasts, diamonds, nitrogen and Alexander Fleming's penicillin. Ten questions, 90 seconds.

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🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 90 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 90s

Chemistry
What is the chemical symbol for gold?
Physics
Roughly how fast does light travel in a vacuum?
Physics
Which scientist developed the general theory of relativity?
Biology
Which part of a plant cell carries out photosynthesis?
Materials
What is the hardest naturally occurring substance?
Physics
At sea level, at what temperature in degrees Celsius does water boil?
Earth
Which gas makes up most of Earth's atmosphere?
Physics
Which unit is used to measure electrical resistance?
Atoms
Which particle in an atom has no electric charge?
Discoveries
Which scientist discovered penicillin in 1928?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What is the chemical symbol for gold?
Answer: Au
Au comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold. Ag is the symbol for silver, from argentum, and Gd stands for gadolinium.
Q2: Roughly how fast does light travel in a vacuum?
Answer: About 300,000 km/s
Light travels at about 299,792 kilometers per second. At that speed it could circle the Earth about seven and a half times in one second.
Q3: Which scientist developed the general theory of relativity?
Answer: Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein published general relativity in 1915, describing gravity as the bending of space and time. It predicted gravitational waves, which were first detected in 2015.
Q4: Which part of a plant cell carries out photosynthesis?
Answer: Chloroplast
Chloroplasts contain the green pigment chlorophyll, which captures sunlight to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar. Mitochondria release energy from that sugar, and the nucleus holds the cell's DNA.
Q5: What is the hardest naturally occurring substance?
Answer: Diamond
Diamond scores 10 on the Mohs hardness scale. It is made of pure carbon, the same element as the graphite in pencils, arranged in a different crystal structure.
Q6: At sea level, at what temperature in degrees Celsius does water boil?
Answer: 100
Water boils at 100 °C at sea level, which is 212 °F. On a high mountain the air pressure is lower, so water boils at a lower temperature.
Q7: Which gas makes up most of Earth's atmosphere?
Answer: Nitrogen
Nitrogen makes up about 78 percent of the air, oxygen about 21 percent and argon almost 1 percent. Carbon dioxide is only about 0.04 percent.
Q8: Which unit is used to measure electrical resistance?
Answer: Ohm
The ohm is named after German physicist Georg Ohm. Volts measure electrical pressure, or voltage, and amperes measure current.
Q9: Which particle in an atom has no electric charge?
Answer: Neutron
Neutrons have no charge, protons have a positive charge and electrons a negative one. The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932.
Q10: Which scientist discovered penicillin in 1928?
Answer: Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming noticed that mold had killed bacteria in a dish he had left out in his London lab. Penicillin became the first widely used antibiotic and has saved millions of lives.

Science Trivia Quiz – How the World Works

Science is the way humans find out how the world works. It starts with curiosity and careful observation, then uses experiments to test ideas. The results have given us electricity, medicines, computers and spaceflight, and they explain everything from why the sky is blue to how a seed becomes a tree.

This quiz moves between the main branches of science. Physics covers forces, light and energy; chemistry studies the elements and how they react; biology looks at living things; and Earth science explains our planet's air, water and rocks. Many big discoveries happen where these fields meet, such as photosynthesis, which links chemistry and biology.

Several questions focus on famous scientists and lucky breaks. Albert Einstein changed our understanding of gravity with general relativity, while Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin almost by accident when he noticed mold growing in a dish he had forgotten to clean. Science often moves forward through a mix of hard work and chance.

Some of the answers may surprise you. Diamonds and pencil lead are made of the same element, carbon, and the air we breathe is mostly nitrogen, not oxygen. Light is so fast that it could circle the planet more than seven times in a second, yet sunlight still takes about eight minutes to reach us.

Whether you are a student, a teacher or simply curious, this quiz is a quick tour of the science everyone should know.

What This Quiz Teaches

This quiz suits students revising for tests, teachers looking for a warm-up and anyone who enjoys learning how things work.

Why gold's chemical symbol is Au
How fast light travels
What Einstein's general relativity explained
How photosynthesis works
What the air is mostly made of
How penicillin was discovered

Quick Facts About Science

There are 118 known chemical elements on the periodic table.
Sound travels about four times faster in water than in air.
A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh billions of tonnes on Earth.
Human DNA is about 99.9 percent identical from one person to the next.
Lightning is about five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Water is one of the few substances that expands when it freezes.