Science Trivia Questions

220+ Science Trivia Questions and Answers

Sam Newman
By Sam Newman
Hal Gatewood
Sam Newman
By Sam Newman
Hal Gatewood

Okay, Einstein, are you ready to test your science knowledge? Put on your thinking cap and transport your brain to those beloved science fairs. Just picture space dioramas, model volcanos, and microorganisms in petri dishes. Good luck and go for that 1st place ribbon with these science trivia questions.

Science Trivia Questions

Trivia Question: What element did Joseph Priestley discover in 1774?
Answer: Oxygen

Trivia Question: What inorganic molecule is produced by lightning?
Answer: Ozone

Trivia Question: Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of what two elements?
Answer: Copper and Tin

Trivia Question: What is the nearest planet to the sun?
Answer: Mercury

Trivia Question: The earth has three layers that are different due to varying temperatures. What are its three layers?
Answer: Crust, mantle, and core

Trivia Question: What is the largest known land animal?
Answer: Elephant

Trivia Question: Which of Newton’s Laws states that ‘for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction?’
Answer: The third law of motion

Trivia Question: How many elements are there in the periodic table?
Answer: 118

Trivia Question: What is the tallest type of grass?
Answer: Bamboo

Trivia Question: How many bones do sharks have?
Answer: Zero

Trivia Question: Diabetes develops as the result of a problem with which specific organ in the body?
Answer: Pancreas

Trivia Question: What is the rarest blood type?
Answer: AB-

Trivia Question: What is it called when you make light change direction by passing it through a lens?
Answer: Refraction

Trivia Question: What type of bond involves the sharing of electron pairs between different atoms?
Answer: Covalent

Trivia Question: Where is the world’s most active volcano located?
Answer: Hawaii

Trivia Question: What disease stems from the medieval term that means ‘bad air’?
Answer: Malaria

Trivia Question: Optics is the study of what?
Answer: Light

Trivia Question: What part of the brain deals with hearing and language?
Answer: Temporal lobe

Trivia Question: Dolly was the first-ever living creature to be cloned. What type of animal was she?
Answer: Sheep

Trivia Question: Animals that eat both plants and meat are called what?
Answer: Omnivores

Trivia Question: What is the quality of an object that allows it to float on water?
Answer: Buoyancy

Trivia Question: What is the largest internal organ of the human body?
Answer: Liver

Trivia Question: Oncology focuses on what disease?
Answer: Cancer

Trivia Question: Which two elements on the periodic table are liquids at room temperature?
Answer: Mercury and Bromine

Trivia Question: What planet in our solar system has the most gravity?
Answer: Jupiter

Trivia Question: Penicillin is used to fight what type of infections?
Answer: Bacterial

Trivia Question: What is the medical term for bad breath?
Answer: Halitosis

Trivia Question: The study of the weather is called what?
Answer: Meteorology

Trivia Question: What is a Geiger Counter used to measure?
Answer: Radiation

Trivia Question: What type of cell division results in two four daughter cells, each with half the number of chromosomes in the parent cells?
Answer: Meiosis

Trivia Question: What is the symbol of the element silver?
Answer: Ag

Trivia Question: What does ‘E’ represent in E=MC2?
Answer: Energy

Trivia Question: According to Apollo astronauts, the Moon smells like what?
Answer: Burnt gunpowder

Trivia Question: Frogs belong to which animal group?
Answer: Amphibians

Trivia Question: Which component of an atom might you expect to be orbiting around it?
Answer: Electrons

Trivia Question: Mycology is the scientific study of what?
Answer: Fungi

Trivia Question: What is the name of the red pigment found in vertebrates that functions in oxygen transport?
Answer: Hemoglobin

Trivia Question: What is the electrical charge of a neutron?
Answer: No charge

Trivia Question: What kind of energy does an unlit match have?
Answer: Chemical energy

Trivia Question: How do you calculate density?
Answer: Density is mass divided by volume

Trivia Question: What is it called when an individual doesn’t offer to help someone in an emergency if there are other people present?
Answer: Bystander effect

Trivia Question: Which psychological concept did Pavlov’s dog help him describe?
Answer: Conditioning

Trivia Question: In terms of pH, what is ammonia?
Answer: Basic

Trivia Question: About how old is Earth?
Answer: 4.5 billion years

Trivia Question: What is the name of the most recent supercontinent?
Answer: Pangea

Trivia Question: What is the scientific term for peeling skin?
Answer: Desquamation

Trivia Question: Which moon of Saturn has a methane cycle?
Answer: Titan

Trivia Question: Around what percentage of animal species are invertebrates?
Answer: 95%

Trivia Question: What animal is the closest living relative of a human?
Answer: Chimps and bonobos

Trivia Question: What is the “powerhouse of the cell?”
Answer: Mitochondria

Trivia Question: What is the sun mostly made up of?
Answer: Hydrogen

Trivia Question: The smallest bones in the body are located where?
Answer: The ear

Trivia Question: What is the scientific name for the job or role an organism plays in its habitat?
Answer: Niche

Trivia Question: The process of weathered material moving due to gravity is called what?
Answer: Erosion

Trivia Question: What is the fin on the backs of fish, some whales, and dolphins called?
Answer: Dorsal Fin

Trivia Question: What is a scientist who specializes in the study of cells called?
Answer: Cytologist

Trivia Question: What part of the brain controls hunger?
Answer: Hypothalamus

Trivia Question: What flap on your windpipe helps keep out food particles?
Answer: Epiglottis

Trivia Question: What causes the moon to shine?
Answer: Reflection from the sunlight

Trivia Question: What does the ER of a cell stand for?
Answer: Endoplasmic Reticulum

Trivia Question: What is the main structural molecule in hair and nails?
Answer: Keratin

Trivia Question: What is a unit that measures force?
Answer: Newtons

Trivia Question: What are the gaps between nerve cells called?
Answer: Synapses

Trivia Question: What is the galaxy closest in light-years to the Milky Way Galaxy?
Answer: Andromeda

Trivia Question: Which constellation are the stars Castor and Pollux in?
Answer: Gemini

Trivia Question: What element is a diamond composed of?
Answer: Carbon

Trivia Question: What was the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope?
Answer: Uranus

Trivia Question: What does a conchologist collect?
Answer: Seashells

Trivia Question: What is the splitting of atomic nuclei called?
Answer: Nuclear Fission

Trivia Question: What is the sticky part of the pistil called?
Answer: Stigma

Trivia Question: What instrument do you use to measure wind speed?
Answer: Anemometer

Trivia Question: What do you count on a tree to tell how old it is?
Answer: It’s rings

Trivia Question: Botulinum toxin is commonly referred to as what?
Answer: Botox

Trivia Question: What does the gall bladder secrete?
Answer: Bile

Trivia Question: What is made by white blood cells to help fight off infection?
Answer: Antibodies

Trivia Question: Which person is known for publishing “The Interpretation of Dreams”?
Answer: Sigmund Freud

Trivia Question: How many chambers make up the human heart?
Answer: Four

Trivia Question: The first vaccine was for which disease?
Answer: Smallpox

Trivia Question: Who was the first woman in space?
Answer: Valentina Tereshkova

Trivia Question: What is the calm center part of a hurricane called?
Answer: Eye

Trivia Question: What layer of the Earth is right below the crust?
Answer: Mantle

Trivia Question: What is the first phase of mitosis?
Answer: Interphase

Trivia Question: What are the lower chambers of the human heart called?
Answer: Ventricles

Trivia Question: Who begins food chains?
Answer: Producers

Trivia Question: What part of the brain is responsible for vision?
Answer: Occipital

Trivia Question: What is the chemical symbol for lead?
Answer: Pb

Trivia Question: Who is considered the “father” of organic chemistry?
Answer: Friedrich Wöhler

Trivia Question: What scientist proposed the theory of continental drift?
Answer: Alfred Wegener

Trivia Question: What is the study of plant life called?
Answer: Botany

Trivia Question: What color catches the eye first?
Answer: Yellow

Trivia Question: Specialized cells are called photoreceptors. What are the 2 types of photoreceptors in the retina called?
Answer: Rods and cones

Trivia Question: A unit of electromotive force is called what?
Answer: Volt

Trivia Question: What gas makes up most of the atmosphere of Mars?
Answer: Carbon Dioxide

Trivia Question: To any astronaut, what is an EVA?
Answer: Extravehicular activity

Trivia Question: Between which two planets does the asteroid belt lie?
Answer: Jupiter and Mars

Trivia Question: What is the process of breaking down food called?
Answer: Digestion

Trivia Question: How many bones are in a giraffe’s neck?
Answer: Seven

Trivia Question: What ongoing process allows water to be constantly recycled?
Answer: Water Cycle

Trivia Question: What is the average life cycle of a red blood cell?
Answer: 120 days

Trivia Question: What was the first sound-recording device called?
Answer: Phonograph

Trivia Question: What is the scientific word for push or pull?
Answer: Force

Trivia Question: What is the only bone in the human body that isn’t attached to another bone?
Answer: Hyoid bone

Trivia Question: Who first proposed the concept of contact lenses?
Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

Trivia Question: What are the four states of matter?
Answer: Solid, liquid, gas, plasma

Trivia Question: The metamorphism of what rock forms marble?
Answer: Limestone

Trivia Question: Aspirin comes from the bark of what tree?
Answer: Willow

Trivia Question: What is the smallest organ in the human body?
Answer: Pineal gland

Trivia Question: What are the four primary precious metals?
Answer: Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium

Trivia Question: What is the only planet in our solar system less dense than water?
Answer: Saturn

Trivia Question: The Arrector Pili muscles are responsible for what phenomenon?
Answer: Goosebumps

Trivia Question: What is the smallest named time interval?
Answer: Planck time

Trivia Question: What reaction releases energy into its surroundings?
Answer: Exothermic reaction

Trivia Question: What gives onions their distinctive smell?
Answer: Sulfer

Trivia Question: What element is named after the Greek word for green?
Answer: Chlorine

Trivia Question: How many vertebrae in the human spine?
Answer: 33

Trivia Question: How long is an eon?
Answer: A billion years

Trivia Question: What is the name of the process where plants lose water in the atmosphere?
Answer: Transpiration

Trivia Question: What part of the human body is the axilla?
Answer: The armpit

Trivia Question: What is the second most abundant mineral in the human body?
Answer: Phosphorus

Trivia Question: Where on the human body are the most sweat glands?
Answer: Bottom of the feet

Trivia Question: What metal is the best conductor of electricity?
Answer: Silver

Trivia Question: What does the human lacrimal gland produce?
Answer: Tears

Trivia Question: What are the four types of adult human teeth?
Answer: Incisors, canines, premolars, molars

Trivia Question: What color has the longest wavelength in the visible spectrum?
Answer: Red

Trivia Question: Syncope is the medical name for what condition?
Answer: Fainting

Trivia Question: What number on the Richter scale does an earthquake have to reach to be considered major?
Answer: 7

Trivia Question: What scale is used to measure the hardness of minerals?
Answer: Mohs scale

Trivia Question: What is the largest nerve in the human body?
Answer: Sciatic

Trivia Question: The small intestine is made up of jejunum, ileum, and what?
Answer: Duodenum

Trivia Question: What condition is singultus?
Answer: Hiccups

Trivia Question: What sense is most closely linked to memory?
Answer: Smell

Trivia Question: NaCI is the chemical formula of which common substance?
Answer: Salt

Trivia Question: What is the fourth planet from the sun?
Answer: Mars

Trivia Question: What is the fattiest human organ?
Answer: Brain

Trivia Question: Who formulated the theory of evolution in his book, The Origin of Species?
Answer: Charles Darwin

Trivia Question: Brass is an alloy of which two metals?
Answer: Copper and zinc

Trivia Question: In which part of the body are the ossicles found?
Answer: The ear

Trivia Question: What is the center of an atom called?
Answer: The nucleus

Trivia Question: A nuclear reaction where the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts is known as what?
Answer: Nuclear fission

Trivia Question: Atoms of the same chemical element but with different atomic masses are known as what?
Answer: Isotopes

Trivia Question: What is the name of the biggest part of the human brain?
Answer: The cerebrum

Trivia Question: Ganymede is a moon of which planet?
Answer: Jupiter

Trivia Question: What are the muscles found in the front of the thighs are known as?
Answer: Quadriceps

Trivia Question: The innermost part of bones contains what?
Answer: Bone marrow

Trivia Question: What is the name of NASA’s most famous space telescope?
Answer: Hubble Space Telescope

Trivia Question: What is the shape of DNA known as?
Answer: A double helix

Trivia Question: What is the long pipe’s name that moves food from the back of the throat down to the stomach?
Answer: The esophagus

Trivia Question: What planet is famous for its big red spot on it?
Answer: Jupiter

Trivia Question: What is the sun?
Answer: A star

Trivia Question: Who was the first person to walk on the moon?
Answer: Neil Armstrong

Trivia Question: Olympus Mons is a large volcanic mountain on which planet?
Answer: Mars

Trivia Question: What planet is closest in size to Earth?
Answer: Venus

Trivia Question: A single piece of coiled DNA is known as what?
Answer: Chromosome

Trivia Question: Electric power is typically measured in what units?
Answer: Watts

Trivia Question: What is the seventh planet from the Sun?
Answer: Uranus

Trivia Question: The process of pasteurization is named after which French microbiologist?
Answer: Louis Pasteur

Trivia Question: Electric current is measured using what device?
Answer: Ammeter

Trivia Question: The wire inside an electric bulb is known as what?
Answer: Filament

Trivia Question: A magnifying glass is what type of lens?
Answer: Convex

Trivia Question: Electric resistance is typically measured in what units?
Answer: Ohms

Trivia Question: The most recognized model of how the universe began is known as the?
Answer: Big Bang

Trivia Question: What is the earth’s primary source of energy?
Answer: The sun

Trivia Question: Water is made up of what two elements?
Answer: Hydrogen and oxygen

Trivia Question: The deepest point in all of the world’s oceans is named what?
Answer: Mariana Trench

Trivia Question: In terms of computing, what does CPU stand for?
Answer: Central Processing Unit

Trivia Question: Along with whom did Bill Gates found Microsoft?
Answer: Paul Allen

Trivia Question: What do you call molten rock before it has erupted?
Answer: Magma

Trivia Question: What are the three-time periods of the dinosaurs?
Answer: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous

Trivia Question: Someone who studies earthquakes is known as what?
Answer: Seismologist

Trivia Question: What country experiences the most tornadoes?
Answer: United States

Trivia Question: What is the name of a weather instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure?
Answer: A barometer

Trivia Question: The Japanese word “sakura” means the blossoming of what kind of tree?
Answer: Cherry tree

Trivia Question: The movement of pollen from the anthers to a flower’s stigma is known as what?
Answer: Pollination

Trivia Question: What is the name of the world’s largest reef?
Answer: Great Barrier Reef

Trivia Question: What islands were extensively studied by Charles Darwin?
Answer: Galapagos Islands

Trivia Question: The Ayers Rock in Australia is also known as what?
Answer: Uluru

Trivia Question: What is the chemical symbol of gold?
Answer: Au

Trivia Question: What is the freezing temperature of water?
Answer: 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius)

Trivia Question: Substances that don’t conduct heat are known as what?
Answer: Insulators

Trivia Question: At what temperature is Fahrenheit equal to Centigrade?
Answer: -40 degrees

Trivia Question: In terms of engineering software, what does CAD stand for?
Answer: Computer-Aided Design

Trivia Question: Apatosaurus is also widely known by what other name?
Answer: Brontosaurus

Trivia Question: A person who studies fossils and prehistoric life, such as dinosaurs, is known as what?
Answer: Paleontologist

Trivia Question: What is another name for a tidal wave?
Answer: Tsunami

Trivia Question: When a gas changes into a liquid, it is called what?
Answer: Condensation

Trivia Question: What is it called when a solid changes directly into a gas?
Answer: Sublimation

Trivia Question: What does “SPF” mean in sunscreen?
Answer: Sun Protection Factor

Trivia Question: What gas is essential in the production of fertilizers and light bulbs?
Answer: Nitrogen

Trivia Question: What part of the body are low-density lipoproteins most likely to clog?
Answer: Arteries

Trivia Question: What instrument is used for accurately measuring small amounts of liquid?
Answer: Pipette

Trivia Question: What’s the study of materials at very low temperatures?
Answer: Cryogenics

Trivia Question: What planet is circled by two moons?
Answer: Mars

Trivia Question: The study of human remains is called what?
Answer: Archaeology

Trivia Question: The chemistry of carbon is known as what?
Answer: Organic chemistry

Trivia Question: What does the term ‘PCR’ stand for?
Answer: Polymerase chain reaction

Trivia Question: Mechanical engineer Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was from what country?
Answer: Germany

Trivia Question: Who split the atom?
Answer: Ernest Rutherford

Trivia Question: What is the chemical structure of magnesium sulfate?
Answer: MgSO4

Trivia Question: How many cervical vertebrae are there in the typical human body?
Answer: Seven

Trivia Question: What does ‘NMR’ stand for?
Answer: Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Trivia Question: What is the world’s largest Hydroelectric Power Plant?
Answer: Three Gorges Dam

Trivia Question: Who invented the microscope?
Answer: Zacharias Janssen

Trivia Question: Who is the father of modern taxonomy?
Answer: Carolus Linnaeus

Trivia Question: What is the study of the interaction or relationship of living organisms to one another?
Answer: Ecology

Trivia Question: What gas makes soda bubbly?
Answer: Carbon Dioxide

Trivia Question: What enzyme in the human mouth helps digest carbohydrates?
Answer: Salivary Amylase

Trivia Question: What is the formal name for climate studies?
Answer: Climatology

Trivia Question: Which form of energy can we see with the naked eye?
Answer: Light

Trivia Question: What does Earth do that causes night and day?
Answer: Rotates

Trivia Question: What are the chewing teeth called?
Answer: Incisors

Trivia Question: Who was the inventor of the first battery?
Answer: Alessandro Volta

Trivia Question: What is the distance between the moon and earth?
Answer: 238,900 miles

Trivia Question: What is so reactive with water that it has to be stored in oil because it will react with the air’s moisture?
Answer: Potassium

Trivia Question: What type of bond is present in a water molecule?
Answer: Hydrogen Bond

Trivia Question: What is the shape of the Milky Way?
Answer: Spiral

Trivia Question: What is the strongest magnet in the universe?
Answer: Magnetars

Trivia Question: What is the programmed death cell process called?
Answer: Apoptosis

Trivia Question: Who was the first man to see bacteria?
Answer: Antony Leeuwenhoek

Trivia Question: Where is the Olympus mons present?
Answer: Mars

Trivia Question: What is another name for the SA node in the heart?
Answer: Pacemaker

Trivia Question: What is the inflammation of the liver called?
Answer: Hepatitis

Trivia Question: What procedure known for sound navigation?
Answer: Sonar

Trivia Question: What is the most malleable metal?
Answer: Gold

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