Everyday Science

Please read each question carefully and select the correct answer by clicking on the corresponding button. The answer key will be provided after the quiz is scored. Streeeetch that mind!

1.	Why does your voice sound different to you on a recording?

When you hear yourself speak regularly, the sound waves emanate through the tissue, bone, and other material, which changes its sound.

When you hear yourself speak regularly, the sound waves bounce off who you are talking to, which changes its sound.

The speakers of the cassette recorder distort the sound of your recorded voice.

I don't know

2.	Do you move faster when swimming under the water or half-submerged?

You move faster under the water

You move faster when half submerged

I don't know

3.	You are sitting in a baseball game in bleachers far from the field. You see the batter hit the ball and then you hear the crack of the bat. Why the delay?

The sound has to travel through a lot of material (all the people in the stadium) before it reaches your ear.

Light travels almost one million times faster than sound.

Your brain anticipates what is going to happen visually, so you see the act a split second before it actually happens.

You are too far away to hear the actual sound of the bat hitting the ball. What you hear is the echo of the actual sound.

I don't know

4.	What are mirages?

Hallucinations of dehydrated wanderers

A mixture of gases that leak through fissures in the earth, mixing to create strange apparitions

Miniature whirlwinds blow sand in tight circles that seem to take shape from a distance

Optical phenomenon due to temperature differences of the surface and air directly above the surface

Low lying clouds

I don't know

5.	Why does one sometimes have red-eyes in photographs?

The rays of the sun bounce off the lens of the camera, projecting a reddish glow into the eyes of those photographed.

An ineffective flash doesn't allow enough light for the actual eye color to be recorded in the photo.

A flash that is too glaring often makes people blink at the same time the shutter snaps. Therefore, the subjects eyes are merely blurred, though it appears red in the actual photo.

The pupil doesn't have enough time to constrict and the picture records the reflection of the red retina in the back of the eye.

I don't know

6.	It is estimated that there are about 100 occurrences of lightning throughout the world each second. How many of these strike ground?

I don't know

7.	Why is the moon small when it is high overhead in the sky, and large when it is near the horizon?

Near the horizon, the brain scales the size of the moon to trees and buildings.

The moon is actually much closer when it is near the horizon, and thus appears larger.

The physical act of rolling the eyes upwards (towards the sky) encourages the brain to interpret objects to be smaller than they are.

When the moon is viewed near the horizon, one is actually viewing its reflection against the earth's ozone layer. This image is a shrunken version of the actual moon.

I don't know

8.	Which of the following has been known to curdle milk?

Sugar

Thunderstorms

Extremely loud music

Acidic soil

I don't know

9.	Can pearls be found within mussels?

Yes

I don't know

10.	What would happen if you soaked a raw egg in vinegar for 24 hours?

The yolk would turn green

It would disintegrate completely

The shell would turn rubbery

The shell would split perfectly in two

I don't know

Don't problem-solve or make decisions when you're upset. Your solutions will mirror your mood.

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."
Robert Frost

You really don't know what you're capable of accomplishing unless you allow yourself to try.

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