Can you name the answers to these increasingly difficult high school physics questions?

created by naturefreak2101

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Source: Sample HS Curriculum
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Question	Answer
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1. Remember to put money in or the maid will ticket you!
2. Go sit under an apple tree and the answer might hit you.
3. This term has a lot of possiblities!
4. It is commonly used to describe an array in computer science.
5. This type of 'diagram' is certainly not a slave.
6. Singing a Gregorian chant might jog your memory.
7. Dennis Quaid would think this pun really hertz.
8. This term isn't the 'same' as any of the others.
9. It may help to think of electricity, ovens, or uranium.
10. This term is represented by the variable 'S', and is most commonly seen in the chemistry formula 'ΔG=ΔH-TΔS'.
Nope - not the right size!
Nope - that's the British system!
Nope - kinetic energy isn't stored - it's moving!
I thought about including an mcΔT question ...

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Physics 101 Quiz

Rating:	Nominate Report game
Created by: naturefreak2101 -
Contributed: March 13th, 2010
Category: Science
Plays: 22,178

Tags: Physics Quizzes, question, 101, difficult, increasingly, school, high

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	naturefreak2101:	Mar 13th, 2010 at 22:37 GMT	1 point
	Please leave comments to tell me what you think. It's always possible I missed a technical answer or alternative term. Remember that this quiz is geared towards the majority of Sporclers, and not just science nerds. I have put in some alternate valid answers (such as interference and Doppler for wave altering). I have also thought about rephrasing question #7 as well as replacing question #10 with specific heat, calorimetry, or the like. Please be constructive, and I will be checking back for comments and altering the quiz on any and all good suggestions. Thanks.

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	naturefreak2101:	Mar 14th, 2010 at 15:44 GMT	6 points
	Not so - Einstein was famous for general relativity, which relates matter and spacetime - while gen. rel. can be applied to gravity, Newton was the one famous for universal gravitation.

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	zigfreid:	Mar 16th, 2010 at 02:39 GMT	2 points
	"Altering a wave" seems a bit vague. I was thinking along the lines of amplitude modulation or phase modulation. Perhaps a more specific question on one of those, say diffraction?

	struanavros1:	Mar 16th, 2010 at 18:57 GMT	3 points
	It's a good quiz, but I was under the impression that 'potential energy' is also known as 'stored energy' or 'chemical energy'. Also, Einstein was known both for his general theory of relativity and his advanced theory of relativity. I also heard he did not first think of this -- another person may have done it before him, but these two theories were slightly different. But, anyways. That's what I heard.

	naturefreak2101:	Mar 17th, 2010 at 03:30 GMT	0 points
	Potential energy could theoretically be called "stored" energy, as that's what it means, but I haven't heard stored as a popular name for it. As for chemical energy, it's a type of potential energy (energy stored in chemical bonds), but a boulder sitting at the top of a steep incline doesn't have chemical energy being turned into kinetic as it rolls down - it has potential :P

	heeero60:	Mar 17th, 2010 at 17:32 GMT	3 points
	However, in most systems there is also energy stored in the form of kinetic energy, thermal energy in a liquid for instance. Also, I am a physics grad student, and I have never heard of a free body diagram, so I would assume this is not a generally used term. In question 7 you use a formula, but I think the usual symbol for frequency would be f instead of v. As for question 8, I agree that this is a bit vague. Maybe you should rephrase your question as "One of the three classical methods of altering the direction of a wave." Also, you could allow dissipation as a correct answer in 9, since this is essentially the same as conduction. So the idea of a physics 101 quiz is nice, but there is room for improvement. There is a bit to much vagueness and ambiguity.

	naturefreak2101:	Mar 17th, 2010 at 23:08 GMT	-4 points
	#2: Einstein was famous for relativity, not gravity, and therefore is not a correct answer. #3: Potential energy is the standard term, and "stored" energy is not prevalent, or technically correct. #5: Free body diagram is hard, but I do try to give a couple hints to it. #7: @heeero60 - Technically it's not a "v" - it's the lowercase Greek letter "nu", which looks peculiarly like a "v", and which is the official symbol for frequency (any time you see that formula properly, that's what it looks like). #8: Rephrased the question to ask specifically for diffraction (with a new pun-ny hint. #9: @heeero60 - Added dissipation, though I'm pretty sure it's not 100% accurate, it's acceptable enough for the general Sporcle user (although it's more like radiation than conduction).

Pit_trout:

Mar 18th, 2010 at 19:33 GMT

4 points

Re #2: I'd also support adding Einstein as an alternate answer for no. 2; as you point out above, general relativity unifies gravity with several other phenomena, so it is considered by most physicists as a theory of (among other things) gravity. If you want to keep it as just Newton, maybe rephrase the question to something more specific, like "Physicist famous for his Law of Universal Gravitation"?
Also, like heeero60 says, "free body diagram" seems not to be a universally used term - I'm a maths grad student and have never come across that name for it, and while I appreciate the hints, I don't think they're enough if you've never come across the term.

	naturefreak2101:	Mar 19th, 2010 at 02:54 GMT	0 points
	I still disagree somewhat, but given enough support, I added Einstein as an extra answer. It will only show Newton, but Einstein now gets you by.

	wilsonhubbell:	Mar 19th, 2010 at 20:59 GMT	1 point
	Great quiz. I had to get a hint on 4. Five SporcleBlobs to you!

	kinglarryxvii:	Mar 20th, 2010 at 01:42 GMT	9 points
	"has both size and direction" sounds too much like it has some sort of volume. "magnitude" would be a much better term than size.

	Secret_Asian_Man:	Mar 20th, 2010 at 02:24 GMT	2 points
	I use free body diagrams all the time to solve force problems, so I guess the usage of it varies quite widely.

	Williams27:	Mar 22nd, 2010 at 12:18 GMT	8 points
	Another physics grad student here who has never heard of a "free body diagram". It's not a good question to have at no. 5 since it's just testing what seems to be a somewhat obscure and unimportant point of terminology (at my school we'd just have said "force diagram", I think, and does it matter?) rather than any real physics knowledge as in all the others. Recommend you replace it.

	mapmandan:	Mar 26th, 2010 at 18:41 GMT	1 point
	You should accept FBD for free body diagram

	Yoshi:	Mar 28th, 2010 at 06:19 GMT	3 points
	Free body diagrams were one of the first things taught in my college physic classes.

	riomhaire:	Mar 28th, 2010 at 14:27 GMT	4 points
	I'm in second year university physics and I've never heard of a free body diagram either. Is it an American term?

	trivial:	Mar 30th, 2010 at 18:33 GMT	2 points
	Free body diagrams are definitely used widely in the U.S. in physics and engineering. They're basically a depiction of what forces are acting on a body. Maybe this is called something different in other countries?

	Cryptus:	Apr 1st, 2010 at 18:34 GMT	1 point
	I'm a A-Level mechanics student in the UK, and free body diagrams are taught in the first module of the A-Level mechanics course (and are known as such).

	naturefreak2101:	Apr 2nd, 2010 at 05:16 GMT	0 points
	Added "FBD" as a possible answer for #5. Thanks for all the support guys!

	giga:	Apr 12th, 2010 at 03:50 GMT	1 point
	yeah free body diagrams are taught in more introductory physics courses...but once you learn the Lagrangian/Hamiltonian formulation for mechanics you'll never draw another one again, hence it being alien to physics grad students

Rating:	Nominate Report game
Created by: naturefreak2101 -
Contributed: March 13th, 2010
Category: Science
Plays: 22,178

	bigturnip:	Apr 13th, 2010 at 16:47 GMT	-2 points
	Shame you can't spell 'Metre' in the very first question, the whole point of SI units is to standardise them.

	naturefreak2101:	Apr 14th, 2010 at 01:20 GMT	1 point
	The American spelling is "meter". I do accept "metre" however, for my European friends and others, so don't call me inconsiderate.

	bazmerelda:	Apr 18th, 2010 at 13:40 GMT	2 points
	Another physics grad who has only ever heard a free body diagram referred to as a force diagram before. The fact that 30% of people are being stumped by such a seemingly simple question suggests you should probably include 'force diagram' or just change question 5 altogether - it's not as if there are a shortage of physics topics to cover since it pretty much describes everything that is possible to happen in the universe.

	DLJessup:	Apr 20th, 2010 at 00:38 GMT	7 points
	@naturefreak2101: "If you'd like to leave a rating of 1 (whoever you are who just did for no apparent reason), please justify it with a comment below. If you're simply rating other games down to try to prop your games up, then you should simply leave Sporcle." Wow. I've gotta say, that comment tempts me to leave a rating of 1 as well. It's nice for people to leave constructive criticism, but you have no right to demand it, and you certainly have no grounds to impugn the motives of whoever happened to give your game a score you didn't like.

	DLJessup:	Apr 20th, 2010 at 01:01 GMT	0 points
	With regards to question #2, although I knew who you were likely referring to, Albert Einstein is definitely a famous physicist who is noted for his theories on gravity. General relativity is primarily an attempt to incorporate gravity into the existing theory of special relativity. A less ambiguous way to phrase the question might be: "What famous physicist is noted for his Law of Gravitation?"

	kypzethdurron:	Apr 20th, 2010 at 20:59 GMT	2 points
	And another physics student complaining about that question. #4 is badly phrased and made me really think about what you were trying to describe. #5 is just not a question about physics, in the slightest. I know what a free body diagram is but I couldn't possibly get it form that clue and it's not a term I've ever come across in my studies (but only in certain revision guides) so not sure why it's still there?

	docMed:	Apr 26th, 2010 at 00:07 GMT	3 points
	a vector has magnitude and direction :D

	venussuperfly:	Apr 29th, 2010 at 21:56 GMT	3 points
	You should be able to see the answer when you get it wrong, otherwise there's no point coming back and trying to do better - if you don't know it and don't want to spend ages researching it's a dead end for thickies like me!

	naturefreak2101:	May 11th, 2010 at 15:14 GMT	-2 points
	@DLJessup: I could understand your assuming my arrogance, but I leave a comment like that only when I know for sure that someone did that. In this case, I saw the game quiz rating dropped significantly (equivalent to a score of 1 being applied to the average), but there were still the same number of plays as before. Therefore, they never actually played the quiz, just went around and rated it a 1 (and can't even see the questions until they take the quiz!). There are people who do this, and they get on my nerves. If you want to defend their right to give my quiz a one because of the name of the quiz and the background color red, go ahead - but I defend my right to impugn them for voting against me without actually taking the quiz.

	naturefreak2101:	May 11th, 2010 at 15:17 GMT	-1 points
	Also, not quite sure why people are still complaining about Einstein - I added him in as a secondary correct answer over a month ago.

	SjoerdL:	May 16th, 2010 at 22:29 GMT	-3 points
	Good quiz, but you shouldn't be accepting Einstein at 2. Then you also should accept kinetic at 3, becouse it is energy and it's stored in the mass(maybe change the question into "What is the other kind of stored energy in a pendulum besides kinetic" or "Name a stored energy in a pendulum"). Also 5 is a bit strange, couse it's not everywhere thaught. a Applied physics student

	Maverick197:	May 19th, 2010 at 04:57 GMT	-1 points
	That v is v=c/lambda is not a v. It's the greek letter nu. If you can't do a nu I would just change it to an f since v the roman letter almost universally means velocity (thus v=c/lambda doesn't even make sense in terms of units). As for 10 there is all kinds of things wrong with that definition but I suppose that is the normal one given out in highschool (god knows why). @SjoerdL For what possible reason would you NOT accept Einstein. As has been pointed out repeatedly Newton's Theory of Universal Gravity has been replaced by GR for almost a hundred years. GR is THE theory of gravity (amongst other things).

	naturefreak2101:	May 23rd, 2010 at 04:12 GMT	0 points
	that actually is a "nu" ... copied and pasted from Windows Character Map ... Sporcle's font just cuts off the little edge of it that makes it unique. For comparisons: Nu: ν V:: v

	TeganX7:	Jun 22nd, 2010 at 07:01 GMT	2 points
	I give you a lot of credit for tackling physics, and good for you in adding Einstein as a possible answer on gravity (his theory is more generally accepted than Newton's more specific one today). My only suggestion: while vectors are represented by arrows which are geometric objects, vectors are themselves quantities and not "objects". I would personally replace "object" with "quantity". As for the energy if you are discussing gravitational potential energy it is more proper to say that it is stored as a consequence of an object's position in a gravitational field, because SjoerdL is correct about that.

	msingh3000:	Jun 28th, 2010 at 02:24 GMT	2 points
	Pretty nice quiz son

	tomthecool:	Jul 27th, 2010 at 20:13 GMT	5 points
	I've never heard of a "free body diagram" before (despite having drawn many of them before) - I had to cheat on that one. I've only heard them called "diagrams". or maybe "force diagrams" before; I don't see why they deserve a special name. As for the rest of it though, great quiz! Pretty easy for me, but that's what I'd expect.

	blablooblah:	Sep 23rd, 2010 at 05:32 GMT	1 point
	soo I just have a couple quick suggestions... and let me preface this with i have a bachelors phys etc etc so vectors are not really referred to as having "size" they have magnitude, -after all what is "size" outside of 3space? so that one confused me, in fact, calling them a geometric object is misleading if technically true, in my opinion. personally, i would stick to your guns on the newton question, although that's preference the lots of different types of energy can be stored in a mechanical system, so the potential thing could be worded better, diffraction doesn't really refer to that specifically as well, it could refer to light going through a small hole for example, in difact that is a more famous experiment. i would specify base units when you talk about SI, because kilometers, centimeters and picometers are all si as well, same for ohms. and finally, i would make it way shorter, otherwise you could just google everything but good job overall cheers =)