99 Famous Scientific Experiments Trivia Questions with Answers
99 public questions with answers, drawn from the well. How many can you answer?
In the 1922 Stern–Gerlach experiment, what happened to a beam of silver atoms passing through a non-uniform magnetic field?
Answer
It split into two beams
In the 1943 Luria–Delbrück experiment, what did bacterial fluctuations show about virus resistance?
Answer
Mutations arise before selection
In Benjamin Franklin’s 1752 kite experiment, what did the electrical sparks indicate about lightning?
Answer
Lightning is electrical
In the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment, what did the investigators fail to detect?
Answer
Earth’s motion through the ether
In Young’s 1801 double-slit experiment, what pattern appeared when light passed through two narrow slits?
Answer
Interference fringes
In the 1849 Fizeau experiment, what did Hippolyte Fizeau measure using a rotating toothed wheel?
Answer
The speed of light
In Alain Aspect’s 1982 Bell-test experiment, what did the measurements violate?
Answer
Bell’s inequality
In the 1911 Rutherford gold-foil experiment, what did most alpha particles do when fired at thin gold foil?
Answer
Passed straight through
In the Pound–Rebka experiment of 1959, which effect on gamma rays was measured in Earth’s gravitational field?
Answer
Gravitational redshift
In the 1913 Franck–Hertz experiment, what did collisions between electrons and mercury atoms reveal about atomic energy?
Answer
Quantized energy levels
In the 1843 Joule experiment with falling weights, what did the measured water heating demonstrate?
Answer
Mechanical work converts to heat
In the 1886 Hertz experiment, what did sparks across a gap prove about James Clerk Maxwell’s theory?
Answer
Electromagnetic waves exist
In Ørsted’s 1820 experiment, what did a current-carrying wire deflect near a compass?
Answer
The compass needle
In the 1881 Pasteur anthrax experiment, what protected vaccinated sheep from the disease?
Answer
An anthrax vaccine
In the 1944 Avery–MacLeod–McCarty experiment, which bacterial substance was destroyed by DNase?
Answer
The transforming DNA
In Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, what authority figure instructed participants to continue the procedure?
Answer
An experimenter in a lab coat
In William Harvey’s heart-ligature experiments, what did tying blood vessels reveal about circulation?
Answer
One-way blood flow
In William Herschel’s 1800 prism experiment, what invisible radiation was detected beyond red light?
Answer
Infrared radiation
In Evangelista Torricelli’s 1643 barometer experiment, what force supported the column of mercury?
Answer
Atmospheric pressure
In Joshua Lederberg’s 1952 replica-plating experiment, what did bacterial colonies show about antibiotic resistance?
Answer
Resistance mutations pre-existed
In Hans Spemann’s 1928 salamander experiment, what process did the transplanted tissue help organize?
Answer
Embryonic development
In the 1941 Beadle–Tatum Neurospora experiment, what relationship did the results support?
Answer
One gene–one enzyme