ISAAC ASIMOV’S SUPER QUIZ
Take this Isaac Asimov’s Super Quiz to a Ph.D. Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the Graduate Level and 3 points on the Ph.D. Level.
Subject: SCIENTISTS AND INVENTORS
(e.g., In 1999, Time magazine named him the Person of the Century. Answer: Albert Einstein.)
1. He was purportedly inspired by an apple falling from a tree.
2. His improvements to the steam engine aided the Industrial Revolution.
3. Theoretical physicist who is almost totally paralyzed.
4. His research laboratory was known as Menlo Park.
5. He was forced to recant his heliocentrism and was put under house arrest.
6. Husband and wife team who received the Nobel Prize.
7. Called the “Father of Genetics” for his study of pea plants.
8. The SI unit of capacitance — the farad — is named after him.
9. His work “Elements” is the most successful mathematical textbook ever.
ANSWERS: 1. Isaac Newton. 2. James Watt. 3. Stephen Hawking. 4. Thomas Edison. 5. Galileo. 6. Pierre and Marie Curie. 7. Gregor Mendel. 8. Michael Faraday. 9. Euclid.
18 points — congratulations, doctor; 15 to 17 points — honors graduate; 10 to 14 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 4 to 9 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 3 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you?
(c) 2009 Ken Fisher
Reprinted with permission from Barracade Books Inc.
North America Syndicate Inc.