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2024 is winding to a close and 2025 is just around the corner. What better way to celebrate than with a science quiz!

This quiz contains (almost) all of the science trivia questions featured in Double Helix Extra throughout 2024. There’s over 100 science questions to discover!

To make the quiz more manageable, it only displays 10 questions at a time. If you want more trivia, hit the refresh button to bring up a brand new selection of brain-busting science.

 

Results

Well done! You’re a real science whiz!

Oh dear! better brush up before the next quiz!

#1. True or false? CSIRO invented flexible solar panels that have been launched into space.

True. After more than a decade of work, CSIRO scientists invented highly efficient, flexible and roll-up-able solar panels. These special solar panels can be put on buildings and even clothing! In March of this year, they were launched into space where they successfully powered a spacecraft.

#2. True or false? Cleopatra VII, famous ancient Egyptian Queen, also invented a treatment for baldness.

False. Historians found a recipe for a baldness cure written by a Cleopatra. But it uses weight measurements that were invented after Queen Cleopatra died!

#3. Where does your food go after leaving your stomach?

Food enters your mouth first. When you’re ready to swallow, it goes down the long oesophagus into your stomach. From there, food goes into the small intestine where the body takes up most of the nutrients. The food then goes into your large intestine and is passed as poo out of your rectum.

#4. True or false? Like petrol cars, hybrid cars have an internal combustion engine.

True. Both petrol and hybrid cars have an internal combustion engine to convert the chemical energy stored in fossil fuels into moving (kinetic) energy. Petrol cars and some hybrids use that energy to turn the wheels, but some hybrids use it to power an electric generator and drive using electric motors!

#5. Which of the following square facts is untrue?

Squares are kites because you can fold it in half perfectly along a diagonal. They are rhombuses because all their sides are equal, and they are parallelograms because they have two pairs of parallel sides. Trapezoids have no parallel sides, so squares can’t be trapezoids.


In the USA, they call trapeziums trapezoids, and they call trapezoids trapeziums. Very confusing!

#6. What percentage of the human body is made of water?

There are plenty of misconceptions around this fact, but scientists have known for a while that the human body is usually about 55-65% water depending on age, sex, and hydration levels. Kids tend to be on the higher end of that range with babies being born at 78% water!

#7. Speaking of forces of nature, this physicist was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the highest awards possible for a scientist. Who was this physicist?

Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. Both prizes recognised her groundbreaking work on radioactive elements. All the physicists listed above are people who could be considered “forces of nature” because of their impressive scientific discoveries.

#8. What are polymer banknotes made of?

A synthetic plastic. The plastic is made of long chains of chemicals called polymers (which means “many parts”). It has a distinctive feel and it will return back to its original shape if it’s scrunched up.

#9. True or false? Albert Einstein’s theories predict that your head ages faster than your feet.

True! Einstein’s theory of relativity predicts that gravity’s pull slows time down. So the further away you (or your body parts) are from the Earth, the faster time goes. The effect is incredibly small but satellites orbiting far above the Earth have to take this time difference into account.

#10. Which of the following materials were used to prepare mummies?

Ancient Egyptians used lots of ingredients to prepare mummies. First, they dried the body with a salt called natron. Next, they made lotions with animal fats, beeswax and smelly oils to fight bacteria. Finally, they wrapped the mummies in linen and covered them with resin, a sticky substance made by plants.

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