Science Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Compared with a solution at pH 5, a solution at pH 3 has approximately how many times the hydrogen ion concentration?
100 times as much
Two times as much
One-fifth as much
One hundredth as much
2. A student tests whether fertilizer affects bean plant growth. To make the comparison fair, which factor should be deliberately changed between the groups?
The amount of water supplied
The type of bean plant used
The number of hours of light received
The amount of fertilizer applied
3. A metal spoon becomes warm after being left in a pot of hot soup. Which process transfers most of the heat through the spoon?
Reflection of heat inside the metal
Convection through the solid spoon
Evaporation from the spoon's handle
Conduction through the metal
4. Which gas do plants take in as a raw material for photosynthesis?
Oxygen
Carbon dioxide
Nitrogen
Hydrogen
5. What is a primary function of the cell membrane?
Storing hereditary information in chromosomes
Producing all of the cell's usable energy
Regulating what enters and leaves the cell
Breaking down every waste product outside the cell
6. Why does the Northern Hemisphere generally experience summer when it is tilted toward the Sun?
Earth is much closer to the Sun during that part of its orbit
The Sun produces substantially more energy during those months
Sunlight arrives more directly and daylight lasts longer
Earth rotates more slowly, making each day warmer
7. Which subatomic particle determines which chemical element an atom belongs to?
Electron
Proton
Neutron
Photon
8. What does a light-year measure?
The brightness of a star over one year
The distance light travels in one year
The rate at which light loses energy in space
The time Earth takes to orbit the Sun
9. Magma cools and solidifies below Earth's surface. What broad type of rock forms?
Sedimentary rock
Metamorphic rock
Fossiliferous rock
Igneous rock
10. Why do antibiotics generally not cure illnesses caused by viruses?
Viruses are always larger than antibiotic molecules
Antibiotics can work only at temperatures below body temperature
Viruses lack the bacterial structures or processes targeted by antibiotics
Viruses prevent antibiotics from entering the bloodstream
11. An oceanic tectonic plate converges with a continental plate and sinks beneath it. Which pair of features is most likely to form near the boundary?
A mid-ocean ridge and a broad rift valley
A stable plain and very few earthquakes
A coral atoll and a river delta
A deep-ocean trench and a volcanic mountain chain
12. After the same antibiotic is used repeatedly, a bacterial population contains a larger proportion of resistant bacteria. Which explanation best fits natural selection?
Resistant variants survive and reproduce more successfully
Bacteria choose to alter their genes when exposed
The antibiotic teaches every bacterium how to resist it
The antibiotic causes all surviving bacteria to become a new species
13. Three working bulbs are connected in a simple series circuit. What happens if one bulb is removed and the circuit is left open?
The remaining bulbs become brighter
All the bulbs go out
Only the bulb nearest the battery stays lit
The remaining bulbs keep their original brightness
14. A cart's mass stays constant while the net force on it doubles. According to Newton's second law, what happens to its acceleration?
It remains unchanged
It is cut in half
It doubles
It becomes zero
15. A solid object is placed in water and floats without dissolving. What can be inferred about its average density?
It is lower than the density of water
It is exactly twice the density of water
It must have the same density as water
Its density cannot affect whether it floats
16. What primarily causes the Moon to appear in different phases during a month?
Our view of the Moon's sunlit half changing as it orbits Earth
Clouds in Earth's atmosphere blocking portions of the Moon
The Moon producing different amounts of light as it moves
Earth's shadow regularly covering different parts of the Moon