Sasol and Science in Africa brings to you
the
"Sir Ion" - Science Quiz!
 What
is Sir Ion's Science Quiz?
This month we welcome the start of what we hope you will find an interesting
and informative set of quiz questions. The Quiz questions are drawn up by
"Sir Ion" - actually Dr Sirion Robertson - a
scientist. We'll set ten questions each time, and you can e-mail or mail your answers to us.
Entry details below. Three winners will be drawn on April 30th 2002. The
prize is a dictionary of science - the Sasol Science and Technology Resource
(Find out more about the book HERE) plus
a Year's Subscription to Archimedes. (Find out
more about this great science mag HERE).
How does it Work?
After each question you'll see (S) or (J). These stand, respectively, for
Senior and Junior. Roughly, we regard the Junior questions as being about right for
pupils in Grades 8 to 10. The Senior questions require a little more knowledge
of science, and are suitable, we think, for Grade 11 and 12 pupils. Where you don't see any such sign it means we think
the question might be equally suitable at both levels.
The Details
Answer the following Ten questions and then e-mail or mail your answers to us.
Simply right down the answers numbered one to ten. Include your name, your
postal address, telephone number, your age, the Grade you are in and the name of
your school. Then mail or e-mail your answers to us by the 28th April 2002.
E-mail: editor@scienceinafrica.co.za
Postal address:
Science in Africa, Box 696, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa. The
competition is open to school pupils across Africa. Winners will be announced on
28th February. The judges decision is final. GOOD LUCK.
The Questions
Here are ten questions on physics and astronomy:
1. What name is given to the effect that causes a straight stick to appear
bent when we put part of its length under water? (J)
2. What's the difference between "mass" and "weight"?
What units are the two measured in? (S)
3. If you drop something - a hammer, brick, piece of paper, feather, whatever
- and if you ensure that air resistance doesn't slow it down (by dropping it
down an evacuated tube, for example), how far will it fall during the first
second of its travel? (Assume, of course, that you're performing this experiment
in some fairly tall building on the Earth's surface.) (S)
4. Imagine a toy boat floating in a fish tank. In the boat is a fishing
sinker made of lead. Now imagine you remove the sinker from the boat and drop it
over the side - into the fish tank. It sinks, of course (because it's a sinker).
The question is: what happens to the water level in the fish tank? Does it rise,
fall, or stay the same?
5. In the context of astronomy in South Africa, what is the SALT project?
(This isn't a chemistry question!)
6. What is a Foucault pendulum?
7. Where does sound travel faster (in air) - at the equator, or at the poles?
(S)
8. Here's a problem: The Earth is about 80 times as massive as the Moon. Yet
the force of gravity at the Earth's surface is only about 6 times greater than
the gravitational force at the Moon's surface. Why isn't the Earth's
"pull" eighty times greater than the Moon's? (S)
9. The principle of jet propulsion involves one of Newton's Laws of Motion.
Which one? What does this law actually state? (S)
10. Apart from the Sun and the Moon, which is the brightest "heavenly
body", and why is it so bright?
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