Science and Technology Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Several identical bulbs are connected in parallel to a battery. If one bulb is removed, what normally happens to the others?
They remain lit because each has its own path through the circuit.
They become connected in series automatically.
They all go out because the circuit is completely broken.
They stop receiving voltage but continue glowing from stored current.
2. Which observation most strongly indicates that a chemical reaction has occurred?
Solid sugar disappears after being stirred into water.
Two liquids combine and produce bubbles of a new gas.
A metal sheet is cut into several smaller pieces.
Liquid water becomes solid inside a freezer.
3. A student tests whether fertilizer affects plant growth but gives the fertilized plants more sunlight as well. What is the main problem with the experiment?
Plant growth cannot be measured in a controlled experiment.
It is unclear whether fertilizer or sunlight caused any difference in growth.
Fertilizer must be tested on different plant species at the same time.
The experiment should compare plants only after they have stopped growing.
4. In computing, what is an algorithm?
A physical component that stores electrical power
A programming error that causes a device to stop responding
A defined sequence of steps for solving a problem or completing a task
A network used only for connecting scientific computers
5. Compared with a solution at pH 5, approximately how much greater is the hydrogen-ion concentration of a solution at pH 3?
2 times greater
It is lower rather than greater.
1,000 times greater
100 times greater
6. When a moving car stops suddenly, a passenger's body tends to continue moving forward. Which concept best explains this?
Electromagnetic induction
Buoyancy
Inertia
Thermal expansion
7. What is a primary purpose of HTTPS when you visit a website?
It guarantees that every statement on the website is accurate.
It prevents the website from collecting any information.
It makes every web page load faster by compressing its images.
It encrypts exchanged data and helps authenticate the website connection.
8. A computer becomes slow when many programs and browser tabs are open, but improves after some are closed. Which resource was most likely under pressure?
Random-access memory, or RAM
The computer's permanent file format
The screen's pixel resolution
The keyboard's input connection
9. An unexpected email says your account will be closed unless you follow its link immediately. What is the safest way to verify the message?
Use the service's official app or type its known address independently.
Open the link and check whether the page displays a familiar logo.
Reply to the email and ask whether the warning is genuine.
Forward the email to a friend and ask whether they received it too.
10. Why is less usable energy available at higher levels of a food chain?
Producers absorb no energy from sunlight.
Organisms use energy for life processes, and much is transferred as heat.
Organisms at higher levels stop carrying out cellular respiration.
Predators destroy energy when they digest prey.
11. Why are antibiotics generally not prescribed to treat influenza?
Antibiotics can act only on microorganisms outside the human body.
Antibiotics work only against infections transmitted through food.
Influenza bacteria become harmless whenever body temperature rises.
Influenza is caused by a virus, which lacks the bacterial targets antibiotics act on.
12. A solid object floats at rest in water without touching the bottom. What can you infer about its average density?
Its average density is greater than that of water.
Its average density is lower than that of water.
Its average density must be exactly zero.
Density cannot influence whether an object floats.
13. Which observation is evidence about climate rather than day-to-day weather?
A thunderstorm formed over a city this afternoon.
Tomorrow is expected to be cooler than today.
A region's average winter temperature increased over several decades.
Wind speeds rose sharply during one evening.
14. What information is primarily encoded by the sequence of bases in DNA?
The amount of energy stored in each cell
The temperature at which an organism can survive
The number of cells in an organism
Instructions used to make RNA and proteins
15. A telescope records light from a galaxy millions of light-years away. What does the image show?
The galaxy as it appeared when the recorded light began its journey
The galaxy at the same instant the telescope receives the light
A reconstruction unrelated to light's travel time
The galaxy as it will appear millions of years in the future
16. What mainly determines which phase of the Moon is visible from Earth?
Earth's shadow covering a different amount of the Moon each night
Seasonal changes in the Moon's own light output
The relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon
Clouds in Earth's atmosphere blocking part of the Moon