What's that Science Term? | Space & the Universe | "Element"-ary, my dear Watson | Famous Engineers | Mathematics |
---|---|---|---|---|
What is an Ohm
This unit of electrical resistance, named after a German physicist, is also the last letter of the Greek alphabet
|
What is Alpha Centauri (or Proxima Centauri)
To reach this star it would take approximately 18,000 years using the fastest spacecraft we've launched into space. Other than our sun, it is the closest star to Earth
|
What is Helium
The lightest of the noble gases, this element is the second most abundant in the universe. The most common use of this element is in cryogenics
|
Who are the Wright Brothers
These famous brothers operated a bicycle repair shop in Dayton, Ohio prior to reaching greater heights in their more famous endeavors
|
What is Pi
Since it was first announced in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium, March 14 is the annual celebration of this 'tasty' mathematical constant
|
What is the Coriolis Effect
This "effect" - by which a rotating object experiences a force perpendicular to the direction of motion - is the reason toilets flush clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern hemisphere
|
What is Infrared
The James Webb Space Telescope, launched by NASA in 2022, observes deep space objects using this form of electromagnetic radiation, which has wavelengths longer than those of visible light
|
What is Chromium
The resistance of stainless steel to rusting is due to the presence of this element with atomic number 24
|
Who is Euclid
This ancient Greek's "Elements" was a pivotal text in the development of geometry
|
What is a Klein Bottle
A German mathematician of the same name was the first to describe this object, a "non-orientable" surface that, despite appearances, has only one side
|
What is a Photon
Scientists have achieved science fiction-style teleportation, though only with this elementary particle of light
|
What is Jupiter
Of the planets in our solar system, this planet rotates the fastest
|
What is an Isotope
This "I"-word applies to atoms of the same element that have the same atomic number but different mass numbers
|
What is a Beaver
This animal is considered "nature's engineer", which is why it also serves as the mascot (Tim) for the MIT sports teams
|
What is 13
Fibonacci knew this number was next in the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8…
|
What is a Jerk
Acceleration is the change in an object's velocity with respect to time. The change of an object's acceleration with respect to time is called this - a name it shares with some inconsiderate people
|
What is Venus
In 2020, NASA sponsored a public competition to help engineer a rover that could withstand the 900-degree surface temperature & crushing atmospheric pressure of this otherwise somewhat Earth-like planet
|
What is a Quark
This type of elementary particle that carries a fractional electronic charge shares its name with a dairy product made by warming sour milk
|
Who is Imhotep
Perhaps the first historically documented engineer, credited with creating the step pyramid - a type of building named for its series of flat-terraced platforms
|
What is a Sieve
This ancient algorithm for finding prime numbers is known as the _____ of Eratosthenes, where the blank is filled with this kind of tool you might find in your kitchen
|
What is a Petawatt
Symbolized as “PW", 1000 terawatts is equivalent to one of this unit of measurement commonly used to measure the potency of solar electricity
|
What is Elliptical
This category of galaxy is the most common in the universe - also an orbit eccentricity classification
|
What is Tungsten
Though Thomas Edison primarily used carbon filaments, most incandescent light bulbs today are made with filaments of this element, whose atomic symbol is a 'W' for its alternate name, "wolfram"
|
Who is Howard P. Grant
The first Black graduate of Berkeley Engineering, the first Black engineer for the City of San Francisco, and the first known Black member of the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) - Initials H.G.
|
Who is Issac Newton & Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
In a controversy that lasts to this day, both these individuals claim to have developed the mathematical discipline of Calculus
|