Wednesday, July 21, 2010

History of Science Quiz

Who was the first scientist to propose that everything is built up from atoms?

Leucippus of Miletus

Democritus of Abdera

Isaac Newton

Is Euclid's collection of geometric proofs known as the 'Elements', published around 300 BC, still in use?

Yes

No

Yes, but only as a publication of historical interest

Who compiled the first comprehensive star chart in 134 BC?

Titus Lucretius Carus

Hipparchus of Rhodes

Sosigenes of Alexandria

Who was the originator of the word 'algebra'?

Aristotle

Muhammed ibn Musa al-Kwarizmi

Immanuel Kant

Isaac Newton

What did Johann Gutenberg invent around 1437?

a printing technique with moveable type

a basic typewriter

a way to reproduce printed text by photocopy

Who made the first telescope in 1590 by combining double convex lenses?

Galileo Galilei

Leonardo Da Vinci

Zacharias and Hans Janssen

What do we call the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter which Galileo Galileo discovered in 1609?

The Jovian Moons

The Galilean Moons

They do not have a group name

Who observed, in 1620, that the maps of Africa and South America seemed to fit together (hinting at tectonics)?

Francis Bacon

Galileo Galilei

Christopher Columbus

Was Blaise Pascal's five-digit adding machine the first calculator?

Yes

No, a six-digit calcuator, driven by gears, had been constructed as early as 1623

He did not build an adding machine

Who was tried and sentenced to house arrest by the Inquisition in 1632 for his belief that the Earth orbited the Sun?

Galileo Galilei

Giordano Bruno

Leonardo Da Vinci

What did Evangelista Torricelly devise in 1644 to measure atmospheric pressure?

a mercury barometer

an air freshener

a thermometer

Who discovered Saturn's moon Titan, and when?

Hipparchus of Rhodes in 134 BC

Galileo Galilei in 1651

Christiaan Huygens in 1655

How was phosphorus discovered around 1674?

by distilling human urine

by taking samples from a live volcano

by subtracting salt from ocean water

How did Ole Roemer discover that light travels at a finite speed in 1676?

By measuring the time it took for a light signal to travel from Paris to Copenhagen

By observing the eclipse of Jupiter's moon Io

By calculating differences in the orbits of Mars and Earth

What was special about the chronometer which John Harrison tested at sea in 1736?

it was the first accurate clock which ran on salt-water batteries

it was the first chronometer to cross the Pacific ocean

it was the first accurate chronometer for determining longitude

What was the 'leyden jar' which was invented in 1746?

a form of capacitator which produces electric sparks

the first tin can for conservation of foods

a small flask for storing blood samples

Who published the first classification system for plants and animals in 1758?

Charles Darwin

Carl Linné

Francis Bacon


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