Science & Nature Trivia

**Approximately 299,792 kilometers per second (or about 186,282 miles per second).** It is a fundamental constant of nature.

**An atom.** Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and are the basic building blocks of chemical elements.

**Carbon dioxide (CO₂).** They use sunlight to convert CO₂ and water into glucose and oxygen.

**Nitrogen.** It makes up about 78% of the atmosphere, with oxygen at about 21%.

**The nucleus.** It houses DNA and controls the cell's growth, metabolism, and reproduction.

**100°C (212°F).** This is a standard physical property used in chemistry and cooking.

**Mars.** Its reddish appearance comes from iron oxide, or rust, on its surface.

**The mitochondrion.** It generates most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy.

**A lizard.** It is the largest living species of lizard, native to several Indonesian islands.

**Gravity.** Specifically, the gravitational pull of the sun provides the centripetal force needed for orbital motion.

**Photosynthesis.** They convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into glucose and oxygen.

**The Amazon Rainforest.** It spans nine countries in South America.

**Diamond.** (Also a general question — acceptable overlap.)

**A murder.** It is one of the most well-known collective nouns for animals.

**Bamboo.** Some species can grow over 100 feet tall.

**Green.** It is the pigment that gives plants their color and absorbs light for photosynthesis.

**The Great Barrier Reef.** It is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

**Oxygen.** It is a byproduct of the process.

**Omnivore.** Humans, bears, and raccoons are examples.

**Meteorology.** Meteorologists use data from satellites, radar, and weather stations to forecast conditions.

**The Sun.** It is about 93 million miles (150 million km) away.

**Sputnik 1.** It was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957.

**The Milky Way.** It is a barred spiral galaxy containing 100–400 billion stars.

**Yuri Gagarin.** The Soviet cosmonaut orbited Earth on April 12, 1961.

**A giant storm.** It has been raging for at least 350 years and is larger than Earth.

**Venus.** Despite Mercury being closer to the Sun, Venus's thick atmosphere traps heat.

**National Aeronautics and Space Administration.** It was established in 1958.

**About 27.3 days.** This is known as a sidereal month.

**The event horizon.** Once crossed, not even light can escape the black hole's gravity.

**Saturn.** As of 2026, it has 146 confirmed moons, surpassing Jupiter.

**The cheetah.** It can reach speeds up to 70 mph (112 km/h) in short bursts.

**Bats.** While flying squirrels glide, bats are the only mammals that can genuinely fly.

**A pride.** Prides typically consist of related females, their offspring, and a small number of adult males.

**The Greenland shark.** Some individuals have been estimated to live over 400 years.

**The whale shark.** Despite its size, it is a filter feeder and eats plankton and small fish.

**Three.** Two pump blood to the gills, while one pumps it to the rest of the body.

**The giraffe.** Adult males can reach up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) tall.

**The African grey parrot.** It is considered one of the most intelligent bird species.

**The African bush elephant.** It can weigh up to 6,350 kg (14,000 pounds).

**A joey.** Joeys are born extremely small and undeveloped, then crawl into their mother's pouch.

**3.14.** It is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

**2.** All other even numbers are divisible by 2 and therefore not prime.

**49.** Squaring a number means multiplying it by itself.

**10.** Roman numerals use letters from the Latin alphabet to represent values.

**180 degrees.** This is true for all Euclidean triangles.

**12.** Because 12 × 12 = 144.

**10 to the power of 100 (1 followed by 100 zeros).** The search engine Google was named after this number.

A sequence where each number is the sum of the two preceding ones (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...).

**1 in 6, or approximately 16.67%.** A standard die has six faces.

**Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction.** It is the order of operations in arithmetic.