Trivia Thursday – this one is on science!

Welcome to Trivia Thursday, Expat Living’s weekly quiz where you get the chance to test your grey matter! How about challenging a friend or family member to see who gets the most questions right? You can get together with them over Zoom, Houseparty or Google Hangouts.

Each week, we’ll put together a new quiz of 20 questions covering trivia topics relating to pop culture, geography, history, language and more. This one is all about science!

#1 Name six human body parts that have only three letters. (There are at least ten.)

#2 Which is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature?

#3 The name of which common disease comes from the Italian words for “bad air”?

#4 In a popular “home experiment”, adding confectionary A to a bottle of carbonated beverage B catalyses the release of gas from the beverage, creating an eruption (or “geyser”) that quickly pushes the liquid out of the bottle. What are A and B?

#5 What do you call the muscles found at the front of the thighs?

#6 Which planet is orbited by 27 known moons (most of them named after characters from Shakespeare)?

#7 What type of rock floats in water?

#8 What “wonder drug” was discovered in 1928? 

#9 What is the second most common eye colour in the world? (It’s estimated that 8 to 10 percent of people have this colour.)

#10 Place these five scientists in chronological order of their birth: Einstein, Copernicus, Hawking, Darwin, Aristotle. 

#11 What do you call a meteor after it has hit the ground?

#12 Does sound move faster or slower in water?

#13 One type of adult human tooth is the premolar. What are the other three types? 

#14 Nimbostratus is a type of what?

#15 Produced between 1982 and 1994, what is considered the best selling personal computer of all time?

#16 What, starting with “T”, do you call a treeless plain of frozen soil found in polar regions?

#17 Approximately how many kilometres would you need to travel upwards from sea level to reach space: 100, 280 or 1010? 

#18 What famous structure in Europe is estimated to be around 15cm taller in summer on account of the thermal expansion of its metal?

#19 The Beaufort scale is used to measure what?

#20 To spell “Singapore” using chemical symbols, you would need to use Nitrogen, Gallium, Polonium, Rhenium and what other element?

BONUS: What science-fiction film am I?

(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

I was released in 2015. (10)
I’m based on a book by Andy Weir. (9)
I grossed almost US$600 million worldwide. (8)
I was nominated for seven Academy Awards, but didn’t win any. (7)
My main character is an astronaut. (6)
My cast includes Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels and Kristen Wiig. (5)
I was directed by Ridley Scott. (4)
My main character, Mark Watney, is played by Matt Damon. (3)
I am set on Mars. (2)
I am The _____? (1)

All the answers (no cheating!)

#1 Eye, Hip, Leg, Jaw, Lip, Rib, Ear, Toe, Gum, Arm
#2 Mercury
#3 Malaria
#4 Mentos and Diet Coke (it works with variations on these, but they are the best known)
#5 Quadriceps
#6 Uranus
#7 Pumice
#8 Penicillin
#9 Blue
#10 Aristotle, Copernicus, Darwin, Einstein, Hawking
#11 Meteorite
#12 Faster
#13 Molar, incisor and canine
#14 Cloud
#15 Commodore 64
#16 Tundra
#17 100
#18 Eiffel Tower
#19 Wind speed
#20 Silicon

BONUS: The Martian

Keen to have a go at last week’s quiz? Try it here!

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Shamus Sillar

While he has worked as a magazine editor since 2003, Shamus also has a PhD in Roman History (useful!) and is a published author. He writes mostly on travel but also covers food, history, sport, trivia and more, across Expat Living’s publications and websites in Singapore and Hong Kong.