National Science Quiz 2017

Melbourne - 18 June
Adelaide - 25 June

Questions and solutions

1.
If you hang a towel outside on a sunny day after washing it, why does it go stiff?
a. UV light changes the chemical composition of the detergent
b. Dust particles blow into the fibres
c. Salt crusts are formed due to lack of movement

Answer: c
When drying a towel by laying it flat or by hanging it on a clothesline (either
inside or outside), evaporation of water leaves a crust on the towel consisting of
the salts dissolved in the water. (These salts form with elements such as
aluminium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium.) This makes the towel feel stiff. In
a tumble dryer, the towels are moved consistently, so that the salts cannot dry
into a crust, and a lot of the salts will be also shaken off. As a result, towels from
the dryer feel softer than those dried by hanging.

When drying towels on the clothesline in the presence of strong winds, we may
observe a difference in stiffness between the towel’s top (little movement so
more crust forms) and the bottom (strong movement so less crust forms).
2.
How are you able to make a water drop sit on top of a water surface indefinitely?
a. By vibrating the water
b. By making the water surface flow
c. By heating the water surface

Answer: a
Water drops can remain intact near a water surface if a thin layer of air separates
them from the surface. Ordinarily, the weight of the drop slowly pushes the air
layer away and the drop disappears into the water. By moving the water surface
up and down at high speed, the air layer is recharged constantly. As long as this
continues (for minutes or even hours) the drop will continue to bounce.
3.
What causes champagne bubbles to prickle your tongue?
a. The popping of the bubbles
b. The temperature of the bubbles
c. A chemical substance in the bubbles

Answer: c
The bubbles in champagne are from carbon dioxide (CO2) released during
fermentation. (In soft drinks, the gas is added artificially to produce bubbles.)
CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid (H2CO3). Our tongue has different
types of nerve endings that specialize in detecting environmental factors that
may have a harmful effect on us, such as pressure, temperature or chemicals.
These receptors, known as "nociceptors", send a small stimulus to the spinal
cord nerve cells, which pass the stimuli on to the brain stem. Here the stimuli are
perceived as pain. Nociceptors react to carbonic acid. The small bubbles release
carbonic acid, thus each bubble on the tongue causes a little sensation of pain.
The sensation is known as ``carbonation bite''.

An experiment with drinking fizzy lemonade in a high pressure chamber (3.4

atmospheres, instead of 1 atmosphere) has shown that it is really carbonic acid
and not the bursting of the bubbles that causes the prickling sensation. In the
high pressure chamber, bubble formation is prevented, but the subjects still felt
the same sensation on their tongue. It has been hypothesized, however, that the
popping of the bubbles can make the prickle more severe.

Lastly, it has been shown that the temperature of the bubbles has nothing to do
with the prickling sensation.
4.
A "gravity train" is a proposed rail system where a straight tunnel is built
connecting two points on the surface of the Earth. What is the maximum depth of
a tunnel for a Melbourne-Adelaide gravity train?
a. 84 metres
b. 840 metres
c. 8.4 km

Answer: c

Modelling the Earth as a perfect sphere, we get the diagram above, where:
 B is the surface distance from Melbourne to Adelaide (about 654km),
 r is the radius of the Earth (about 6300km),
 A is the distance from the centre of the Earth to the tunnel, and
 d is the depth of the tunnel

We can solve the problem using values we know (B and r) to derive the values of
unknown quantities that will assist us in determining d.

From the diagram we see that

𝑑 =𝑟−𝐴
so we need a way to determine A, which is one edge of the shaded right-angled
triangle. So, we use trigonometry to get
𝐴
cos(𝜃) = 𝑟 or 𝐴 = 𝑟 cos(𝜃) ,
and we have
𝑑 = 𝑟 − 𝑟 cos(𝜃)

Therefore, our problem has reduced to finding the angle θ.

The ratio of the arclength B to the total circumference is the same as the ratio of
2θ to the angle of a full circle, which is 2π radians (or 360 degrees). So

2𝜃 (𝜃 is the unknown angle,in radians) 𝐵 (the known arc length,in km)

=
2π (angle traced out by a circle,in radians) 2π𝑟 (circumference of the Earth,in km)
(Q4 explanation continued)

(The unit “radians” is related to the more familiar “degrees” but is more neat and
useful for certain types of problems. Students may have noted a DEG/RAD key on
their calculator that converts a value in one unit to the other.)

We rearrange this equation to get the required angle, so

2π𝐵 𝐵
2𝜃 = = ,
2π𝑟 𝑟
leading to
𝐵
𝜃= ≈ 0.052 𝑟𝑎𝑑 (2.97 𝑑𝑒𝑔).
2𝑟

So using our expression for d this gives:

𝐵
𝑑 = 𝑟 − 𝑟 cos ( ).
2𝑟

Substituting B ≈ 654 km and r ≈ 6300 km, this gives us depth d of approximately

8.4 km, or 8400 m.
5.
An aurora is the phenomenon known on Earth as the northern or southern
lights. On what planets can aurorae occur?
a. On any planet with an atmosphere
b. On any planet with a magnetic field
c. On planets with oxygen or nitrogen in their atmosphere

Answer: a
An aurora is the result of “gas discharge” (that is, the discharge of energy from
gas) in the topmost layers of the atmosphere. This gas discharge is comparable
to that which occurs in the operation of neon lamps or fluorescent tubes.
Electrons, which originate from the sun, fly into the atmosphere of planets at
high speed, thereby passing on energy to gases there.

In particular, when an electron from the sun collides with an electron in a gas
atom, energy is transferred from the former to the latter. This may cause a gas
electron to be “excited” to a higher energy level. This is an unstable arrangement
and when an electron drops back to a lower energy level it releases some or all of
the recently acquired energy as electromagnetic radiation. The frequency of this
radiation depends on the gas from which it was emitted, as each has
characteristic gaps between the electron energy levels. In the case of nitrogen
and oxygen (which make up the bulk of our atmosphere), the frequencies fall
into the spectrum of visible light.

For example, oxygen emits green light and nitrogen pink; these colours are
characteristic of the northern lights on earth. Following excitation, other gases in
the atmosphere can emit light in this way, in other colours.

The Earth’s magnetic field lines pass through the Earth’s North and South
magnetic poles and extend outwards into space. When an electron from the sun
enters the region of field lines near the Earth, its motion is redirected so that it
spirals around the field lines, heading in their general direction. It is very likely
that at some point the electron will enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Most electrons
enter somewhere near one of the magnetic poles as they continue to move in the
general direction of field lines.

The magnetic field is thus only responsible for the location, not for the
phenomenon itself. On planets like Mars where there is no or only a weak
magnetic field, aurorae are also observed. These aurorae are visible from a
greater range of locations on the planet surface.
6.
You knot together the two ends of a rope. You then pull the rope through a
carabiner. With a second carabiner you connect the two ends.
You are not allowed to unclip either carabiner and pull the rope out of it.
What do you need to do to release the rope?

Answer:
The key is to clip one carabiner into the other, thus changing the topology (this is
an example of a problem in knot theory). The steps:
7.
A magician shuffles a standard deck of 52 playing cards and you pick one at
random. They get to ask one question before trying to guess your card. Which of
the following questions should they ask to have the best chance of guessing your
card correctly?
a. Is it a black card?
b. Is it the 2 of spades?
c. Either, it makes no difference

Answer: c
It does not matter which question you ask.

Question (a) "Is it a black card?" gives two possibilities. We know that there are
26 red cards and 26 black cards, so any card drawn is one or the other. There is a
chance of 26 in 52, or equivalently, one half, that the card is indeed black. So, if
the answer to the question is “YES”, then the magician now has a one in 26
chance of correctly guessing your card. By a similar logic, the magician has the
same chance of success if the question was answered with “NO”.

Calculating the probability of some event occurring can be complicated. We must

account for all of the possible ways the event can occur. In this case, the
probability of the magician guessing your card correctly is the sum of the
probabilities of the two different ways they could achieve this. By our logic, these
ways correspond to whether the unknown card is black or red.

So, summing the probabilities, the magician has a

(1/2) * (1/26) + (1/2) * (1/26) = 1/26

Probability of YES Probability of NO

answer answer

Probability of
Probability of guessing the
guessing the correct RED card
correct BLACK
card

chance of guessing correctly. This is approximately a 4% chance.

(Q7 explanation continued)

In the case of Question (b) "Is it the 2 of spades?" the magician has a 1/52
(approximately 2%) chance of getting the right answer immediately. But of
course, they have a 51 / 52 chance (roughly 98%) of being wrong. In which case,
the magician has to guess from the 51 remaining cards, giving them a 1/51
chance of guessing correctly. Doing a calculation similar to that for question (a),
the total chance of guessing the card correctly is

(1/52) * (1/1) + (51/52) * (1/51) = 1/26

Probability of YES Probability of NO

answer answer

The card is now Probability of

known (guess is guessing the
certain to be correct card from
correct) 51 options

Which is the same as the chance of guessing correctly if the magician had asked
question (a)!

Note: Any question which restricts the set of possible answers to n choices gives
the same result. In the general case where a question may lead to choosing from
amongst n possible answers, the overall probability of the magician guessing the
card correctly is

(n/52 * 1/n) + ((52-n)/52 * 1/(52-n)) = 1/52 + 1/52 = 1/26

as before.
8.
What type of fire must you not try to extinguish with a carbon dioxide
extinguisher?
a. Burning gas
b. Burning metal
c. Burning fat

Answer: b
A metal fire results from burning magnesium, zirconium, lithium, potassium or
sodium. Let's take magnesium as an example: magnesium fires are extremely
bright and hard to quench. Attempting to use carbon dioxide to extinguish the
fire is a very bad idea. Magnesium and carbon dioxide react very strongly
according to the reaction
Mg + CO2 -> MgO + C.

This is an exothermic (heat releasing) reaction that produces temperatures

above 2000 degrees Celsius. This is significant as it causes the fire to burn even
more vigorously since the reaction rate increases with temperature.

Water also does not work because magnesium reacts with water to form
magnesium oxide and highly explosive hydrogen gas. The way to quench this
type of fire is to deprive it of oxygen, such as smothering it with sand, or
preferably, to use a so called “dry powder” (an extinguishing agent that works by
absorbing the heat as it smothers the fire). Because of its highly flammable
nature, magnesium was used in bombs dropped on cities in World War II.

But it is also used in safety flares, and you may have seen the Sydney 2000
Olympic Torch Relay in which a modified torch with Magnesium-based fuel
burned underwater near the Great Barrier Reef.
9.
You’re driving in a car with a helium balloon, and you turn a corner. What
happens to the balloon?
a. It moves to the inside of the corner
b. It moves to the outside of the corner
c. It doesn’t move

Answer: a
When the car goes around the bend, it acts as a type of centrifuge: the heaviest
particles are pushed to the outside under the influence of the centrifugal force,
lighter particles remain on the inside. Helium is lighter than air so the air in the
car will move towards the outside of the bend, and the helium (in the balloon)
will move to the inside.