Science36 Trivia Questions7 Easy · 15 Medium · 14 Hard

Physics Trivia: 36 Quantum Paradoxes, Glowing Reactors & Mind-Bending Laws

Skip the chalkboard equations—explore 36 bizarre experiments, relativistic time shifts, and quantum quirks that make reality stranger than sci-fi.

How many ghostly solar neutrinos zip through your thumbnail every single second?

Question 1 of 36Hard

1.How many ghostly solar neutrinos zip through your thumbnail every single second?

Why do spinning wingnuts flip end-over-end every few seconds in zero gravity?

Question 2 of 36Medium

2.Why do spinning wingnuts flip end-over-end every few seconds in zero gravity?

Roughly how often does an ordinary potassium-rich banana emit an antimatter positron?

Question 3 of 36Hard

3.Roughly how often does an ordinary potassium-rich banana emit an antimatter positron?

If atmosphere scatters violet light most, why does daytime sky look blue?

Question 4 of 36Easy

4.If atmosphere scatters violet light most, why does daytime sky look blue?

What simple prop did physicist Richard Feynman use to explain Challenger's failure?

Question 5 of 36Medium

5.What simple prop did physicist Richard Feynman use to explain Challenger's failure?

What effect expels magnetic fields so superconductors levitate effortlessly in midair?

Question 6 of 36Hard

6.What effect expels magnetic fields so superconductors levitate effortlessly in midair?

How do you instantly shatter a hammer-proof glass Prince Rupert's drop?

Question 7 of 36Medium

7.How do you instantly shatter a hammer-proof glass Prince Rupert's drop?

From which James Joyce novel did Murray Gell-Mann borrow the word 'quark'?

Question 8 of 36Hard

8.From which James Joyce novel did Murray Gell-Mann borrow the word 'quark'?

Where did astronaut David Scott drop a hammer and falcon feather simultaneously?

Question 9 of 36Easy

9.Where did astronaut David Scott drop a hammer and falcon feather simultaneously?

Why doesn't the Coriolis effect dictate which way your bathroom sink drains?

Question 10 of 36Medium

10.Why doesn't the Coriolis effect dictate which way your bathroom sink drains?

What pushes two uncharged metal plates together inside an empty quantum vacuum?

Question 11 of 36Hard

11.What pushes two uncharged metal plates together inside an empty quantum vacuum?

What optical property lets transparent Iceland spar calcite crystals create double images?

Question 12 of 36Medium

12.What optical property lets transparent Iceland spar calcite crystals create double images?

Roughly how much would a single teaspoon of neutron star matter weigh?

Question 13 of 36Hard

13.Roughly how much would a single teaspoon of neutron star matter weigh?

Why do passengers inside a metal airplane survive direct lightning strikes unharmed?

Question 14 of 36Easy

14.Why do passengers inside a metal airplane survive direct lightning strikes unharmed?

What happens to water at its thermodynamic triple point in a vacuum?

Question 15 of 36Medium

15.What happens to water at its thermodynamic triple point in a vacuum?

How do cosmic-ray muons survive the trip down through Earth's atmosphere?

Question 16 of 36Hard

16.How do cosmic-ray muons survive the trip down through Earth's atmosphere?

What physics phenomenon makes wintergreen hard candies spark blue when crushed in darkness?

Question 17 of 36Medium

17.What physics phenomenon makes wintergreen hard candies spark blue when crushed in darkness?

How tiny are the spacetime length shifts measured by LIGO's four-kilometer lasers?

Question 18 of 36Hard

18.How tiny are the spacetime length shifts measured by LIGO's four-kilometer lasers?

Why can atoms never stop jiggling completely, even at absolute zero?

Question 19 of 36Easy

19.Why can atoms never stop jiggling completely, even at absolute zero?

What held Otto von Guericke's famous copper spheres together against sixteen pulling horses?

Question 20 of 36Medium

20.What held Otto von Guericke's famous copper spheres together against sixteen pulling horses?

What happened when physicist Anatoli Bugorski accidentally stuck his head inside a particle beam?

Question 21 of 36Hard

21.What happened when physicist Anatoli Bugorski accidentally stuck his head inside a particle beam?

What aerodynamic phenomenon twisted Washington's Tacoma Narrows Bridge apart in 1940?

Question 22 of 36Medium

22.What aerodynamic phenomenon twisted Washington's Tacoma Narrows Bridge apart in 1940?

What happens when intense sound waves collapse a tiny underwater gas bubble?

Question 23 of 36Hard

23.What happens when intense sound waves collapse a tiny underwater gas bubble?

Why won't a penny dropped from the Empire State Building kill pedestrians?

Question 24 of 36Easy

24.Why won't a penny dropped from the Empire State Building kill pedestrians?

By how much would smartphone GPS drift daily without Einstein's relativity corrections?

Question 25 of 36Medium

25.By how much would smartphone GPS drift daily without Einstein's relativity corrections?

How did chemist George de Hevesy hide two Physics Nobel medals from Nazis?

Question 26 of 36Hard

26.How did chemist George de Hevesy hide two Physics Nobel medals from Nazis?

What did Léon Foucault's giant swinging Paris pendulum visibly prove in 1851?

Question 27 of 36Medium

27.What did Léon Foucault's giant swinging Paris pendulum visibly prove in 1851?

What bizarre feat does liquid helium perform just above absolute zero?

Question 28 of 36Hard

28.What bizarre feat does liquid helium perform just above absolute zero?

What happens to light's speed when passing through a brilliant diamond?

Question 29 of 36Easy

29.What happens to light's speed when passing through a brilliant diamond?

What royal fraud was Archimedes investigating when he shouted 'Eureka' bathside?

Question 30 of 36Medium

30.What royal fraud was Archimedes investigating when he shouted 'Eureka' bathside?

Why did Erwin Schrödinger originally invent his famous boxed cat thought experiment?

Question 31 of 36Hard

31.Why did Erwin Schrödinger originally invent his famous boxed cat thought experiment?

What makes water droplets skitter frictionlessly across a scorching iron skillet?

Question 32 of 36Medium

32.What makes water droplets skitter frictionlessly across a scorching iron skillet?

Why do underwater nuclear reactor cores glow with eerie blue light?

Question 33 of 36Hard

33.Why do underwater nuclear reactor cores glow with eerie blue light?

How did Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba rediscover hot water freezing faster?

Question 34 of 36Easy

34.How did Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba rediscover hot water freezing faster?

How many drops fell during ninety-five years of Queensland's Pitch Experiment?

Question 35 of 36Medium

35.How many drops fell during ninety-five years of Queensland's Pitch Experiment?

Which breakthrough actually won Albert Einstein his 1921 Physics Nobel Prize?

Question 36 of 36Medium

36.Which breakthrough actually won Albert Einstein his 1921 Physics Nobel Prize?