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Chemistry is a complex and fascinating subject that explores the properties and interactions of matter. From the earliest experiments to modern-day innovations, chemistry has played a critical role in shaping our world and understanding of the natural world. Trivia questions about chemistry can provide a fun and engaging way to test your knowledge and deepen your appreciation for this important and diverse field.
Whether you're a seasoned chemist or just starting to explore the subject, chemistry trivia questions offer a glimpse into the wonders of matter and energy. From the properties of elements and compounds to the processes and reactions that make up our world, these questions can challenge you on the basics of chemical theory, the history of chemical discoveries, and the real-world applications of chemistry.
1. "No" is the negative-sounding chemical symbol that represents what element that was first produced in the U.S. in 1958? The element is named after a man who more famously lent his name to a series of prizes.
Answer: Nobelium (Alfred Nobel)
2. Mexico's Mario Molina picked up a 1995 Chemistry Nobel for his role in discovering that CFCs are a threat to what UV-absorbing portion of Earth's stratosphere?
Answer: Ozone
3. While not an actual guinea pig, who is the shy, long-suffering assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew from “The Muppet Show” who shares his name with a flat-bottomed cylindrical container used in chemistry?
Answer: Beaker
4. What element, atomic number 3 on the periodic table, is an essential component of batteries often used to store harvested solar energy?
Answer: Lithium
5. An organic chemist who received a B.A. in Chemistry from Harvard in 1909, and helped identify complex vegetable oils and plant alkaloids, including CBD in 1940, is Roger who?
Answer: Roger Adams
6. As its chemical symbol of Hg indicates, what liquid-at-room-temperature metallic element was once known as "hydrargyrum"?
Answer: Mercury
7. The chemical formula of water is H2O; the compound H2O2, which can be used in hair bleaches, is typically referred to by what two-word name?
Answer: Hydrogen peroxide
8. Also one of the nucleoside bases of DNA, what does the "A" in ATP, one of the most important molecules in biochemistry, stand for?
Answer: Adenosine
9. Winning for "their synthesis of new radioactive elements," the second woman to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry was the daughter of two other Nobel prize winners. What was the family's surname?
Answer: Curie
10. What A-word means an enzyme found in the body that breaks down starch and glycogen into simple sugars as part of the process of digestion?
Answer: Amylase
11. What synthetic chemical element, atomic number 104, is named after a famous New Zealand physicist?
Answer: Rutherfordium
12. Cannabinoids such as CBD and THC are lipophilic, otherwise known as what kind of soluble substance?
Answer: Fat
13. Two different employees of General Electric, Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973), have been awarded the Nobel Prize, one in Physics and one in which other scientific subject?
Answer: Chemistry
14. Carbon fixation, reduction, carbohydrate formation, and regeneration are the four basic phases of what photosynthesis cycle that's presumably pretty good friends with a comic strip tiger?
Answer: Calvin cycle
15. From 1862 to 1927, the FDA incorporated what scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter into its name? This “C” word can also be used to describe how people get along.
Answer: Chemistry
16. What six-letter word means an enzyme found in the pancreas that breaks down fats into fatty acids and glycerol or other alcohols?
Answer: Lipase
17. In chemistry, a cation is a positively charged ion; what is the corresponding five-letter term for a negatively charged ion?
Answer: Anion
18. Element 30 on the Periodic Table is often found in lotions and preparations to prevent sunburn and windburn. What is the two-letter chemical symbol (not the element's name) for Element 30?
Answer: Zn
19. Filtered from the blood by the liver, what orange-yellow pigment is a product of the breakdown of red blood cells, with high levels sometimes manifesting as jaundice?
Answer: Bilirubin
20. In chemistry, a covalent bond involves sharing of electrons between two atoms. What is the corresponding type of bond in which one atom fully gives electrons to another?
Answer: Ionic
21. What is the name of chemist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew's redheaded assistant on "The Muppet Show?"
Answer: Beaker
22. The law of which 17th century British chemist defines the proportional relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas?
Answer: Robert Boyle
23. What American biochemist, who became the first full-time professor of pharmacology ever at Johns Hopkins in 1893, worked in hormone extraction and founded the “Journal Of Biological Chemistry?” His last name is the same as a famous Biblical murder victim.
Answer: John Jacob Abel
24. "Better things for better living...through chemistry" was once an advertising slogan for what company, which merged with Dow Chemical in 2017?
Answer: DuPont
25. Martin Chalfie, an American scientist who got his PhD in neurobiology from Harvard in 1977, was a co-winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a fluorescent protein of what color? It’s often associated with envy and Kermit The Frog.
Answer: Green
26. After receiving his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Harvard University in 1947, Donald J. Cram was a co-winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in host-what chemistry?
Answer: Host-Guest Chemistry
27. The visible phenomenon of fire is the product of a combustion reaction, in which a fuel and an oxidant react to release heat in addition to what two compounds in gaseous form?
Answer: Carbon dioxide and water
28. What term from chemistry and the physical sciences is the only word in English that rhymes with the word "dockside?"
Answer: Oxide
29. What is the common name of the colorless, highly pungent gas whose chemical formula is NH3?
Answer: Ammonia
30. Named by Freiburg University chemist Clemens Winkler, what metalloid element was named after the scientist's home country and not some pretty pink flower?
Answer: Germanium
31. Emerging in 2011, a series of memes showing really bad science-related puns and jokes was known as “Chemistry” what animal?
Answer: Cat
32. Although Thomas Edison was famously self-educated, he did take a chemistry class at what NYC institution that was famous for giving all its students full-tuition scholarships from 1902 to 2014?
Answer: Cooper Union
33. On the periodic table, Francium is named for the country of France. Less obviously, what metallic element gets its name from the old Latin name for what is now France?
Answer: Gallium
34. Portland native Linus Pauling is renowned for being one of two people (the other being Marie Curie) to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields. Pauling's first was a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work with chemical bonds; his second was what?
Answer: Peace
35. Japanese chemist Akira Yoshino switched from low-yield polyacetylene to a carbonaceous material electrode in 1985, locking in what critical piece of cell phone tech?
Answer: Lithium-ion battery
36. In DNA, the nucleotide adenine pairs with thymine, whereas the nucleotide guanine pairs with what nucleotide abbreviated C?
Answer: Cytosine
37. First proposed by J.J. Thomson in 1904, a model of the atom in which electrons were embedded in a large positively-charged mass, with no nucleus, was popularly known by what alliterative food nickname?
Answer: Plum pudding
38. Five people have won two Nobel Prizes, but Linus Pauling is the only one to have won two that were not shared with anyone else. He won the first for Chemistry, but for what other non-science field did he win his second?
Answer: Peace
39. What 6-letter C-word is the name of the polysaccharide substance that makes up the hard outer armor of many insects, arachnids, and crustaceans?
Answer: Chitin
40. A joint experiment between Dubna and Oak Ridge scientists produced what 117-proton element named for what U.S. state?
Answer: Tennessine
41. Former Harvard professors William Lipscomb, Elias Corey, and Martin Karplus have all won Nobel Prizes in what category?
Answer: Chemistry
42. What 19th-century “P” French chemist discovered the enzyme diastase and the carbohydrate cellulose, leading to further exploration of chemical processes that happened at the cellular level?
Answer: Anselme Payen
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