Ten questions on the rules everything obeys, each stated in plain language rather than symbols.
This quiz covers the physics that explains everyday experience: why objects keep moving, what a newton and an ohm measure, how fast light travels and what happens when it passes through a prism. It includes the famous results, relativity among them, at the level of what they claim rather than how they are derived. The explanations avoid equations entirely. Everything here can be understood without calculation, which is closer to how physicists describe their own field than most textbooks suggest.
Every question in this quiz is listed below with its correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Play first if you would rather not see the answers — or read through as a study sheet.
Play it insteadAnswer: D. 300,000 kilometres per second
Why: It is about 299,792 kilometres per second, and nothing carrying information travels faster. The value is now fixed by definition and used to define the metre.
Answer: D. Inertia
Why: It states that an object keeps doing what it is doing unless a force acts on it. This is counterintuitive on Earth only because friction is always present.
Answer: C. The newton
Why: One newton accelerates one kilogram by one metre per second squared. The joule measures energy and the watt measures power.
Answer: C. Albert Einstein
Why: Einstein published it in 1905, showing that mass and energy are interchangeable. The enormous value of c squared is why tiny masses release vast energy.
Answer: D. About one sixth
Why: The Moon is far less massive, so its surface pull is roughly a sixth. That is why the Apollo astronauts moved in long bounding steps.
Answer: D. Solids
Why: Closely packed particles pass vibrations along quickly, so solids carry sound fastest. Sound cannot travel through a vacuum at all.
Answer: A. The ohm
Why: Resistance in ohms describes how strongly a material opposes current. Volts measure potential difference and amperes measure current.
Answer: D. The electron
Why: Electrons are negatively charged, protons positive and neutrons neutral. Chemical behaviour is governed almost entirely by the electrons.
Answer: D. Zero kelvin
Why: It is 0 K, or about minus 273 degrees Celsius, the point where particle motion is minimal. It cannot actually be reached, only approached.
Answer: B. A spectrum of colours
Why: Different wavelengths bend by different amounts, spreading the light into its components. Newton used this to show white light is a mixture rather than a pure colour.
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Ten questions on how things move, why they stop, and what a force actually does to them.
Newton's third law says forces come in pairs. What is true of the two forces in a pair?
Where energy goes, why heat only ever flows one way, and why a metal handle feels colder than a wooden one.
What does the temperature of a substance actually measure?
Why thunder lags behind lightning, how a straw appears to bend in a glass, and what makes a passing siren drop in pitch.
Why can sound not travel through the vacuum of space?