Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Thursday Quiz LXXI

The Thursday Quiz!

It's the return of the Thursday Quiz in its beloved classic form! A twelve item is-it-or-isn't-it test of your knowledge, reasoning, stamina, and moxie!

Remember always the Fundamental Rules of the Thursday Quiz:


1. The Thursday Quiz is a POP quiz. No research, Googling, Wikiing, or use of reference books. Violators will never be able to look at themselves in the mirror again.

2. Don't get all stressed out about it! It's supposed to be fun!

Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto, it's:
Science!

Twelve basic concepts from various branches of science are below. But ARE THEY are AREN'T they defined correctly?

1. Astronomical Unit (AU) - a unit of measurement based on the distance from Earth to Alpha Centauri, one of the nearest stars.

2. catalyst - A substance that increases the speed of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction.

3. condensation - the process of a substance changing state from a liquid to a gas.

4. density - the ratio of the mass of an object to its volume.

5. electrolysis - the emission of an electrical charge by a molecule when its protons are separated from its neutrons.

6.emulsion - a substance comprised of droplets of one liquid suspended within another liquid.

7. inertia - the tendency of a body to remain at rest or to remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

8. inorganic compounds - compounds composed primarily of carbon.

9. ions - molecules that have a positive or negative charge due to an unequal number of protons and electrons.

10. isotopes - Atoms that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons.

11. light year - The amount of time required for light or any other electromagnetic energy to travel one Astronomical Unit.

12. plane of the ecliptic - The surface area of a fluid through which waves can convey energy.

Postulate your hypotheses in the comments.

26 comments:

PB said...

Ah, science, my old nemesis, we meet again. It has been many years...

1. Incorrect
2. Correct
3. Incorrect
4. Correct
5. Incorrect
6. Incorrect
7. Correct
8. Incorrect
9. Correct
10. Correct
11. Incorrect
12. Ummm... Incorrect?
The last one's the only one I can never recall hearing before... but admittedly I've only heard emulsion on cooking shows, and I never really paid much attention to what it is.

Nichim said...

1. No
2. Yes
3. No
4. Yes
5. No
6. Yes
7. Yes
8. No
9. Yes!
10. Yes
11. No
12. No

I welcome the return of the classic format, as well as the topic of SCIENCE! I am glad for this reward after being up late working on homework about statistics.

Yankee in England said...

I really have no clue but after learning in HS Chemisty that with out outside influces that all things return to caos I tried to tell my mother there was no point to cleaning my room since it would just return to caos. She didn't buy it.

Cartophiliac said...

1. isn't
2. is
3. isn't
4. is
5. isn't
6. is
7. is
8. isn't
9. is
10. is
11. isn't
12. isn't

Anonymous said...

1 wrong
2 right
3 wrong
4 right
5 wrong
6 right
7 right
8 wrong
9 right
10 right
11 wrong
12 wrong

Elizabeth said...

1. Positive.
2. Negative.
3. Negative.
4. Positive.
5. Negative.
6. Positive.
7. Positive.
8. Negative.
9. Positive.
10. Positive.
11. Negative.
12. Negative.

Elizabeth said...

p.s. the only reason I said "Negative" on #2 is because I think a catalyst STARTS a chemical reaction - might speed it up, too, and I suppose if you count moving from zero state to be "speeding up" it's correct. So if you agree with this afterthought, my answer is "positive" but otherwise I'm sticking to my catalytic guns.

lamanyana said...

Oooh - a quiz I can answer! (though apparently I don't get up early enough)

1. isn't - it's the distance from the earth to the sun.

2. is

3. isn't - you have it backwards.

4. is

5. isn't - or at least it doesn't sound right somehow

6. is - salad dressing

7. is

8. isn't - you describe organic compounds. (I understand that much, even if it was a College organic chemistry that killed any aspirations I had at being a scientist myself.)

9. is

10. is

11. isn't

12. isn't (doesn't it have something to do with planetary orbits?)

d said...

wait. are we done with putting things in order already?

1. f
2. t
3. f
4. t
5. t
6. t
7. t
8. f
9. t
10. t
11. t
12. f

Anonymous said...

1 yes
2 no
3 no
4 yes
5 no
6 yes
7 yes
8 no
9 no
10 yes
11 no
12 no

LegalMist said...

Ok, I'm back to try my hand at your very hard quizzes. I hope I don't embarrass myself too much. Here are my guesses:

1. True
2. True
3. False
4. True
5. False
6. True
7. True
8. False
9. True
10. True
11. False
12. False

DrSchnell said...

1. No. It's the distance to the sun from earth.
2. Yes
3. No. it's from gas to liquid
4. yes
5. um.... yes
6. yes
7. yes
8. no!
9. yes
10. yes
11. no
12. no

Rex Parker said...

"Plane of the Ecliptic" sounds like some drug-induced musical composition of the late 60s. I think Strawberry Alarm Clock might have recorded a version.

rp

Anonymous said...

Twelve Angry Guesses

1 / no
2 / yes
3 / no
4 / yes
5 / yes
6 / yes
7 / yes
8 / no
9 / yes
10 / yes
11 / yes
12 / no

Ben said...

1. False. How about the distance between Earth and Sol?
2. False (?). I'm thinking it's a substance that causes a chemical reaction to start in the first place.
3. False. Other way around.
4. True. I'll buy that.
5. False. Isn't that fission?
6. True. I have to guess something.
7. True. I often experience the "remain at rest" variety.
8. False. Carbon compounds are organic.
9. True.
10. True. It could be.
11. False. A measure of distance, not time.
12. False.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater said...

Light Speed: The best way to escape from a Death Star or a Star Destroyer or just get away from dudes when you're smugglin' in the Falcon.

I don't know shit about science, but I know Star Wars shit for days.

fingerstothebone said...

1. no
2. no
3. no
4. yes
5. hmmm, I thought it was when you get your hair removed...but I'll say yes, just because I'm saying no so much
6. no
7. yes
8. no
9. yes
10. no
11. no
12. no

Kritkrat said...

Aw, crap. My streak is definitely over!

1. No
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Yes
6. No
7. Yes
8. Yes
9. Yes
10. Yes
11. No
12. No

Morgan said...

1. No
2. No (I think)
3. No
4. Yes
5. Yes (I don't know, actually)
6. No (that's a solution, right?)
7. Yes (Yay Bill Nye the Science Guy)
8. No
9. No (Ions are Atoms)
10. Yes
11. No
12. No

Fool for paper said...

This is the kind of quiz that makes me realize just how much I’ve forgotten, and just how useful that Astronomy class that I dropped would have been.
1. Astronomical Unit (AU) – No….. but with no great confidence: something about this just doesn’t sound right to me.
2. catalyst - Yes
3. condensation - No
4. density - Yes
5. electrolysis - No
6.emulsion - Yes
7. inertia - Yes
8. inorganic compounds - No
9. ions – mmmmm….No? All I can think of is salt water, and Sodium and chloride aren’t molecules when in solution.
10. isotopes – Maybe? Oh, all right, Yes.
11. light year – If I knew what an astronomical unit was I could answer this question! How about No?
12. plane of the ecliptic - No.

Anonymous said...

Imagine my disappointment to find a science quiz. (I'm an ENGLISH teacher.) Oh, well, thought I; I won't post. Then I just learned on a skim through the quiz FAQs that this decision makes me "a big chicken and a major killbuzz," which affects my self-esteem, but there's a disclaimer protecting against that. Jeez. I'd make a personal attack, but there's a disclaimer . .. well, you see the position I'm in.

1 don't know; sounds funky
2 don't know
3 uh--no
4 sounds smart!
5 is this Latin for "killz hair"?
6 British for "paint" (also yes)
7 yes
8 wrong wrong wrong
9 no idea
10 yes--or something like this
11 ?? wow, I should really be confident saying yes...
12 no idea, but it sounds so cool. Once I know what it means, I plan to use it metaphorically, a lot, for... something.

Michael5000 said...

So, like, here's the answers:

1. Astronomical Unit (AU) - No way. It's the average distance from the Earth to the Sun

2. catalyst - I've reviewed this one, and YES, it is best defined as a substance that increases the speed of a chemical reaction without being consumed by the reaction. Because it can make a very slow process suddenly become very fast, it can SEEM like it initiates a reaction, but that's not technically what's going on.

3. condensation - NO. Condensation is gas to liquid to gas.

4. density - YES.

5. electrolysis - No, made that up. Electrolysis is stimulating a chemical reaction with an electrical charge.

6.emulsion - YES.

7. inertia - YES.

8. inorganic compounds - NOPE, those are ORGANIC compounds.

9. ions - YEP.

10. isotopes - YEP.

11. light year - NO WAY.

12. plane of the ecliptic - NOPE. That's the plane that the planets orbit in.

Michael5000 said...

Four perfect entries today, one after the other.

We start with Nichim, who snares the first Gold Star of the Eighth Season, her second Gold and her seventh Star overall.

Cartophiliac was right behind to snatch the Silver, only his third, but his seventeenth Star overall.

Next came gs49, claiming his third Blue Star and the tenth spot on the leaderboard, with eleven Stars overall.

And finally, a big welcome to lamanyana, the 49th human to win Thursday Quiz honors! She, or he, starts off a virtual trophy case with a big Green TQLXXI Star!

Kudos also to Elizabeth and Ben, who were only tripped up by a reasonable thought about #2. Them's the breaks.

Michael5000 said...

@Nichim: I, too, welcome the return of the classic format. I missed it.

@Yank: Your mother could have reasonably countered that, as an embodyment of life energy, you have the power and to a certain entent the function of forestalling entropy for as long as your electrical field persists -- traditionally threescore and ten.

@Rex: No, I think it shows up in one of the Hendrix boxed sets.

@karma: Always so angry!

@Dr. Ken: As I recall, light speed serves only to land you right in the very space within the infinities of the galaxy where your nemesis happens to be hanging out: "That's no small moon... that's a space station!"

@sis: Well done: You can look at yourself proudly in the mirror and say, "I am not a big chicken."

lamanyana said...

oh - perhaps I should introduce myself. I am the husband of the aforementioned Nichim, and am a librarian in training in PDX (and by virtue of residence in the Rose city have had the honor of attending a couple in-person celebratory events at the lovely chateau 5000.)

As a librarian, the restriction on not being able to look up answers makes these quizzes difficult for me, but when this one came along, I was actually reasonably sure of all the answers (having been a scientist in a previous stage of my life.)

Michael5000 said...

Excellent! That makes, oh, something like four or five or six husband/wife Star-winning combos, not even to mention our resident sprawling mother/father/son/aunt/grandmother Star-harvesting conglomerate.