162 Nerdy Trivia Questions (Ranked From Easiest to Hardest)

Nerdy trivia questions are always a fun way to challenge your knowledge of specific topics.

Whether you’re a tech-savvy whiz or an avid movie buff, these 162 nerdy trivia questions will put your skills to the test.

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Question: A buckyball is a stable and spherical molecule made up of what element?

Answer: Carbon

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162 Nerdy Trivia Questions Ranked From Easiest to Hardest (Updated For 2024)

1. According to the musical based on his adventures, which Nickelodeon cartoon is not just any kind of absorbent, multicellular, deep-sea organism, but specifically, Aplysina fistularis?
   
   Answer: SpongeBob Squarepants
   
   
2. Which appealing yellow fruit is slightly radioactive due to its high potassium content?
   
   Answer: Banana
   
   
3. Even though James Bond and Liz Taylor got it wrong when they said it’s forever, which substance is still the hardest to naturally occur on Earth?
   
   Answer: Diamond
   
   
4. What is the only number that has the same number of letters as its meaning?
   
   Answer: Four
   
   
5. Obelus is the name for the mathematical symbol that has a horizontal line with a dot above and a dot below it. Which arithmetic operation is the sign used for?
   
   Answer: Division
   
   
6. The quadriceps is, as the name suggests, a group of four prevailing mus les including the rectus femoris. This group of muscles covers the front and sides of what leg bone?
   
   Answer: Femur
   
   
7. What “P” simple machine is a wheel that carries a flexible rope, cord, or cable on its rim? It can be used to transmit energy and motion, often for lifting weights.
   
   Answer: Pulley
   
   
8. What geometric theorem allows for the calculation of the square of a hypotenuse of a triangle, by combining the squares of the two other sides? It gets its name from an ancient Greek philosopher.
   
   Answer: Pythagorean Theorem
   
   
9. On Earth, the recipe for them is water and light. If you were on another planet with a different atmosphere, what colorful post-precipitation meteorological phenomenon would you be less likely to see?
   
   Answer: Rainbow
   
   
10. In a 2017 survey by Hasbro, the Scottie Dog beat the T-Rex and the Hat to claim the title of most popular playing token in what board game?
    
    Answer: Monopoly
    
    
11. Although the exact origin is unknown, this piece of technology and calculating tool used beans or stones moved in grooves of sand to perform calculations. Although computers have mostly replaced it, this tool is still in use for teaching arithmetic to children in many parts of the world. What is it?
    
    Answer: Abacus
    
    
12. A meme expressing nerdy surprise features a teenage girl saying “Ermahgerd” while holding books from what children’s horror franchise?
    
    Answer: Goosebumps
    
    
13. "No" is the negative-sounding chemical symbol that represents an element that was first produced in the US in 1958. The element is named after a man who more famously lent his name to a series of prizes. With a single guess, name either the man or the element.
    
    Answer: Nobelium (Alfred Nobel)
    
    
14. Also part of cow farts, what simple hydrocarbon, chemical formula CH4, is the primary component of natural gas?
    
    Answer: Methane
    
    
15. The Mobius strip was the inspiration for a universal symbol first created in 1970 and composed of 3 arrows in a roughly triangular shape. This symbol stands for what action?
    
    Answer: Recycling
    
    
16. Which 2007 nerdy teen comedy starred Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Emma Stone, and Christoper Mintz-Plasse (as “McLovin’”)?
    
    Answer: Superbad
    
    
17. Turtles, toads, and tarantulas are all ectothermic animals, which is typically referred to by what more common term?
    
    Answer: Cold blooded
    
    
18. What science word technically means the amount of matter? Near the surface of Earth it's basically equivalent with weight.
    
    Answer: Mass
    
    
19. What scientific instrument measures air pressure in units known as 'atmospheres?'
    
    Answer: Barometer
    
    
20. You have a cube with has 7-inch sides. What is the surface area of the cube?
    
    Answer: 294 square inches
    
    
21. What “i” word describes a whole number that is not a fraction?
    
    Answer: Integer
    
    
22. In January 2021, phrases like “$GME,” “To the moon,” and “Stonks” became part of normal American parlance as which nerdy retail company’s share price skyrocketed unexpectedly?
    
    Answer: GameStop
    
    
23. Theoretically, Hawking radiation is emitted by what terrifying space things that come in stellar and supermassive varieties?
    
    Answer: Black Holes
    
    
24. What zodiac constellation found in the northern celestial hemisphere has a name which means "twins" in Latin? It is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux from Greek mythology.
    
    Answer: Gemini
    
    
25. Which is the only planet in our solar system whose rotation is almost at a right angle to its orbit (i.e., it spins on its side)? The largest moon of this planet is Titania.
    
    Answer: Uranus
    
    
26. Eight friends from a Chicago-area high school used a Kickstarter in 2011 to create what popular party game whose black-and-white cards feature politically incorrect fill-in-the-blanks?
    
    Answer: Cards Against Humanity
    
    
27. Although the word is often used in popular culture to reference a specific film franchise, technically the definition of a certain math term is "a rectangular array or table of numbers, symbols, or expressions, arranged in rows and columns." What is this term?
    
    Answer: Matrix
    
    
28. When playing Dungeons & Dragons, what is the name of the role played by the game organizer who controls all aspects of the game, including the story telling, except for the other player's actions?
    
    Answer: gamesmaster
    
    
29. What type of chemical bond is formed when two atoms each contribute one electron to a shared pair?
    
    Answer: Covalent bond
    
    
30. There was a boom in sales of frill-necked lizards as domesticated pets after the release of what 1993 film featuring a similar, very extinct critter?
    
    Answer: Jurassic Park
    
    
31. Often associated with horses but also used as an anesthetic on many types of animals, what drug is often nicknamed as "Special K"?
    
    Answer: Ketamin
    
    
32. Amethyst and citrine are extra-pretty varieties of what common mineral that's great for Scrabble?
    
    Answer: Quartz
    
    
33. The "main-sequence" stage of what type of large, hot object comes from the balance of gravity and nuclear reactions? Fun fact: main-sequence stages can last millions or billions of years.
    
    Answer: Stars
    
    
34. Iodine and Europium are two of the three chemical elements whose names start with 2 vowels. First identified in the 1950s, the third element to fit that category is named after what science guy?
    
    Answer: Albert Einstein
    
    
35. Titan is one of the few moons in the solar system known to have an atmosphere of any substance. Around which second-largest planet does Titan revolve?
    
    Answer: Saturn
    
    
36. Which organ in the human body is the only one that can float in water (not that it would help if you’re drowning)?
    
    Answer: Lungs
    
    
37. In the 1500s, a Welsh mathematician named Robert Recorde invented which mathematical symbol to “avoid to avoid the tedious repetition of these words: "is equal to’?”
    
    Answer: Equal sign
    
    
38. -459.67 Fahrenheit degrees (or 0 Kelvin) equals what two-word term for when all particles completely stop moving?
    
    Answer: Absolute Zero
    
    
39. What is the acronym for the correct sequence of steps to follow when using the order of operations for a math expression?
    
    Answer: PEMDAS
    
    
40. The most abundant sulfide mineral is pyrite. But this mineral's lustrous appearance is more commonly known by what two-word phrase?
    
    Answer: Fool's gold
    
    
41. Now displayed in Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History, 90 percent of the fossils from what massive theropod dinosaur was unearthed in South Dakota in 1990 and was nicknamed “Sue” after it was discovered by paleontologist Susan Hendrickson?
    
    Answer: Tyrannosaurus Rex
    
    
42. What is the two-word phrase for the set of ideas that suggest the universe is not made up of points, but rather tiny vibrating lengths? Note: cheese is not involved at all.
    
    Answer: String theory
    
    
43. Ohm's law of electricity, expressed as "V = IR," states that voltage is directly proportional to current, represented by I, and what quantity represented by the letter R?
    
    Answer: Resistance
    
    
44. In mathematical physics, Minkowski space is a four-dimensional space consisting of three-dimensional Euclidean space and which other quantity?
    
    Answer: Time
    
    
45. New Zealand famously has the highest density of sheep per unit area in the world. What was the name of the sheep who was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell?
    
    Answer: Dolly
    
    
46. Used to indicate a measurement of medicine, what does the abbreviation “cc” stand for?
    
    Answer: Cubic centimeter
    
    
47. Gustatory cells are primarily found on what sensory organ of the body?
    
    Answer: Tongue
    
    
48. In geometry, what S-adjective describes a triangle whose three sides all have different lengths?
    
    Answer: scalene
    
    
49. According to a popular theory, dinosaurs got wiped out by the Chicxulub crater impact in what back-half-of-the-alphabet Mexican peninsula?
    
    Answer: Yucatán
    
    
50. Though Thomas Edison primarily used carbon filaments, most incandescent light bulbs today are made with filaments of what element, whose atomic symbol is a W for its alternate name, "wolfram"?
    
    Answer: Tungsten
    
    
51. Which two organs are connected by the only veins that carry oxygenated blood in the body?
    
    Answer: Lungs and Heart
    
    
52. Mycologists often spend a lot of time digging through dirt as they study what type of natural organism?
    
    Answer: Fungi
    
    
53. What unit, equivalent to approximately 3.26 light years, has a name derived from a portmanteau of “parallax in one second?”
    
    Answer: Parsec
    
    
54. One novel way to retain thermal energy collected by a solar tower is through a mixture of sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and calcium nitrate. This method is often referred to as "molten ______." What dinner table-sounding word fills in the blank?
    
    Answer: Salt
    
    
55. A planned NASA mission will be the first to land astronauts on the moon since the Apollo program, including the first woman. This program is named, appropriately enough, for what sister of Apollo?
    
    Answer: Artemis
    
    
56. Acceleration is the change in an object's velocity with respect to time. The change of an object's acceleration with respect to time is called what, a name it shares with some chicken dishes, and some inconsiderate people?
    
    Answer: Jerk
    
    
57. What mathematical function can be defined as multiplying a number with all integers less than or equal to that number?
    
    Answer: Factorial
    
    
58. A gigaannum is a term that represents a very long time. One billion years in fact. About 3.5 gigaannumms ago was when what critical process used to convert light energy into chemical energy is estimated to have begun?
    
    Answer: Photosynthesis
    
    
59. Which of the four standard bases in DNA typically pairs with thymine?
    
    Answer: Adenine
    
    
60. In trigonometry, the cosecant ratio is the reciprocal of what other ratio often associated with waves?
    
    Answer: Sine
    
    
61. Linux uses all the letters of what operating system family that it was designed to imitate?
    
    Answer: Unix
    
    
62. It is likely that the first of these animals was the "Stellar" variety in which the male has a pronounced mane and is a fairly aggressive carnivore. This likely led to the misnomer for the creature. What is the name of these pinnipeds long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and a big chest and belly? They range from subarctic to tropical waters in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
    
    Answer: Sea lion
    
    
63. In DNA, the four nucleotide bases are adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine; in RNA, what base replaces thymine?
    
    Answer: Uracil
    
    
64. What is the type of number expressed as a pair of a real and an imaginary number? An example would be 3 + 6i where i = the square root of -1.
    
    Answer: Complex number
    
    
65. A box and ______ plot shows data in quartiles, with a vertical line splitting the box at the median. (Hint: The name makes it sound like something a math-savvy cat would use).
    
    Answer: Whisker
    
    
66. Which I-word applies to atoms of the same element that have the same atomic number but different mass numbers?
    
    Answer: Isotope
    
    
67. A teaspoon of what “N” type of star would weigh six billion tons? It is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star.
    
    Answer: Neutron Star
    
    
68. A perfect number is a positive integer that is equal to the sum of its positive divisors, apart from the number itself. What is the smallest perfect number?
    
    Answer: Six
    
    
69. In geometry, a curve known as a "lemniscate" most closely approximates the shape of what single-digit number?
    
    Answer: eight
    
    
70. A regular hexagon has a side length of 6 feet. What is the area of the hexagon? We'll accept responses within 2 square feet of the correct answer.
    
    Answer: 92
    
    
71. In a controversy that lasts to this day, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz both claim to have developed what mathematical discipline?
    
    Answer: Calculus
    
    
72. The direct conversion of sunlight into electricity started in 1954, via solar cells using silicon. These cells are alternatively referred to by what longer "P" name?
    
    Answer: Photovoltaic cells
    
    
73. What is the four-letter name for the jelly-like substance obtained from red algae that is often used as a solid growth medium in Petri dishes to culture microorganisms?
    
    Answer: Agar
    
    
74. The lightest of the noble gases, which element is the second most abundant in the universe? The most common use of this element is in cryogenics. SCRAPPING DUE TO A WORDING ERROR IN ORIGINAL VERSION
    
    Answer: Helium
    
    
75. A buckyball is a stable and spherical molecule made up of what element?
    
    Answer: Carbon
    
    
76. In geometry, which C-term refers to two objects that are the same shape and size—in other words, you could superimpose one on the other and they’d line up exactly or be the mirror image of one another?
    
    Answer: Congruence
    
    
77. What is the smallest number greater than 1 that has an integer square root and an integer cube root?
    
    Answer: 64
    
    
78. The smallest known owl is only 5-6 inches tall and weighs less than two ounces. It has a name reminiscent of Middle Earth or Will Ferrell. What is this owl?
    
    Answer: Elf Owl
    
    
79. Engineer Gilbert Levin insisted that a Viking Lander discovered life on what planet in 1976?
    
    Answer: Mars
    
    
80. What 16th-century Italian physician and botanist with a “G” last name created the first recorded herbarium in the world, as well as the first botanical garden in Europe?
    
    Answer: Luca Ghini
    
    
81. What “B” term refers to a line that divides an angle into two equal angles?
    
    Answer: Bisector
    
    
82. What city in southern France's Languedoc area is the namesake of a tile-placement game in which players can turn their "meeple" into monks, knights, robbers, and farmers?
    
    Answer: Carcassonne
    
    
83. Which popular board game has an apologetic name taken from the card you might draw that would let you send another player back to the start?
    
    Answer: Sorry
    
    
84. What 1954 board game, known for encouraging players to make and betray alliances, was reportedly the favorite of both John F. Kennedy and Henry Kissinger?
    
    Answer: Diplomacy
    
    
85. Tabletop role playing games often require a set of dice with different numbers of sides. How many sides are on the die mathematicians would identify as a "dodecahedron?"
    
    Answer: Twelve
    
    
86. In 1993, Milton Bradley released a murderous board game where players attempt to off one another in pursuit of an old woman’s estate. What was the vaguely Hitchcockian name of the game? (Hint: Players are also trying to outrun a detective waiting outside the mansion, and the number of steps it’ll take them to get to the door is part of the game’s name).
    
    Answer: 13 Dead End Drive
    
    
87. "Everyone is a fan of something!" is a slogan for what pop culture collectibles company? The company's Pop! line of figurines includes thousands of items, ranging from Prince Harry to the Pillsbury Doughboy to Baby Yoda and everything in between.
    
    Answer: Funko
    
    
88. Like a more family-friendly version of Cards Against Humanity, what popular and "fruity" 1999 board game involves judges taking turns deciding which red cards, which have nouns, best match a green card with an adjective?
    
    Answer: Apples to Apples
    
    
89. With a name that refers to Arthurian legend, what subsidiary of Hasbro produces strategy games like HeroQuest and Axis & Allies?
    
    Answer: Avalon Hill
    
    
90. In the classic children’s board game, you roll the dice to find out if you’ll be able to climb a ladder or be doomed to slide down which slithering creature?
    
    Answer: Snakes
    
    
91. Scoring points by rolling five dice is the goal of which game by Milton Bradley? (Hint: The name is also what you call getting a roll where all five dice are the same—it’s worth 50 points!).
    
    Answer: Yahtzee
    
    
92. Which Parker Brothers party game frazzles teams as they try to list as many things in a certain category as they can before time runs out?
    
    Answer: Scattergories
    
    
93. What two resources, along with wool, grain, and lumber, make up the five resources in the game Settlers of Catan?
    
    Answer: Brick and Ore
    
    
94. The popular board game Blokus includes Tetris-like pieces in four bright colors: Red, yellow, blue, and what color that you can make from a combination of two of the others?
    
    Answer: Green
    
    
95. What American publishing company is responsible for Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, as well as the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game franchise?
    
    Answer: Wizards of the Coast
    
    
96. What TWO letters are worth the maximum ten points in a regulation Scrabble bag?
    
    Answer: Q, Z
    
    
97. The Emu and the Laughing Kookaburra are two cards added in the Oceania Expansion to what best-selling board game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave?
    
    Answer: Wingspan
    
    
98. Which “truth or dare” inspired board game was a big hit with teen females in the ‘90s (unless you spent the game sporting a zit sticker)?
    
    Answer: Girl Talk
    
    
99. Intrigue, Dark Ages, Renaissance, and Seaside are all expansions for what award-winning deck-building game?
    
    Answer: Dominion
    
    
100. The legendary 2007 player-placement game "Agricola" gets its name from the Latin word for what time-honored profession?
     
     Answer: Farmer
     
     
101. A British scientist gave his name to what familiar four-by-four square, used to illustrate the probability that the offspring of two individuals will have a given genotype?
     
     Answer: Punnett Square
     
     
102. What do you call the longest side of a right triangle (that is, the side that’s opposite the right angle)?
     
     Answer: Hypotenuse
     
     
103. What prestigious medical journal founded in 1823, gets its name from a type of window as well as another term for a scalpel?
     
     Answer: The Lancet
     
     
104. The total amount of greenhouse gas emissions created by human activity is better known by what two-word term which originated from a concept conceived by environmentalists William E. Rees and Dr. Mathis Wackernagel during the 1990s?
     
     Answer: Carbon footprint
     
     
105. Prior to Hayley Arceneaux’s 2021 flight on SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission, who was the youngest American astronaut to fly into space at 32 years old – who also became the first American woman to fly into space in 1983?
     
     Answer: Sally Ride
     
     
106. If you dip a paper towel in water, the water will climb up the towel, appearing to ignore gravity. This is an example of ______ action. The same action is what helps plants pull water up their roots. What C-word fills in the blank?
     
     Answer: Capillary
     
     
107. What colorful word is used to describe a special ratio (approximately equal to 1.618) that appears frequently in architecture, nature, and geometry? The number was the subject of Mario Livio's book, subtitled "The World's Most Astonishing Number."
     
     Answer: Golden
     
     
108. USGS is a bureau within the US Department of the Interior with the motto "science for a changing world." What do the initials of this organization stand for? The group is headquartered in Reston, Virginia and is a fact-finding organization with no regulatory responsibility.
     
     Answer: United States Geological Survey
     
     
109. Mathematician Leonard Euler solved a famous problem named for seven of what kind of structures in the city of Konigsberg?
     
     Answer: Bridges
     
     
110. In a feat of inter-species biotechnology, researchers at the University of Wyoming were able to insert the silk-producing gene from spiders into what mammal which enabled them to harvest long strands of spider milk from the animal's milk?
     
     Answer: Goats
     
     
111. The first 3-digit number in the Fibonacci sequence is also the largest square number to appear in the sequence - what is it?
     
     Answer: 144
     
     
112. What is the "R" name for DNA created by combining fragments from different sources? These are occasionally referred to as "chimeric" DNA and are considered a key feature in much of DNA biotechnology applications.
     
     Answer: Recombinant DNA
     
     
113. There are three basic shapes of bacteria: round, called "coccus," spiral, called "spirilla," and cylindrical, whose technical name is what B-word?
     
     Answer: Bacillus
     
     
114. What is the sum of the only number that is spelled with its letters in alphabetical order and the only number that is spelled with its letters in reverse alphabetical order?
     
     Answer: 41
     
     
115. Commonly found on live oaks and bald-cypresses, what is the name of the flowering plant with a doubly-inaccurate name that is referred to as "grandpas beard" in French Polynesia and is generally considered to be in a commensalistic relationship with the trees on which it lives?
     
     Answer: Spanish moss
     
     
116. Symbolized as “PW," 1000 terawatts is equivalent to one of what unit of measurement commonly used to measure the potency of solar electricity?
     
     Answer: Petawatt
     
     
117. What math-y word is considered a foundational working tool in calculus and can be geometrically interpreted as the slope of the curve of a mathematical function?
     
     Answer: Derivative
     
     
118. What is the most common name for the geometric term which is the part of a straight line that originates at one point on the line and extends in one direction indefinitely from that point?
     
     Answer: Ray
     
     
119. The four conic sections are the nondegenerate curves generated by the intersections of a plane with one or two nappes of a cone. A hyperbola is a conic section. An ellipse is a conic section. And some consider a circle a conic section. What conic section is missing from this list?
     
     Answer: Parabola
     
     
120. The James Webb Space Telescope, launched by NASA in 2022, observes deep space objects using what form of electromagnetic radiation, which has wavelengths longer than those of visible light?
     
     Answer: Infrared
     
     
121. Group 17 on the periodic table of elements, which includes fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine, are also commonly referred to by what term, which comes from Greek roots meaning "salt-producing?"
     
     Answer: Halogens
     
     
122. What is the (quite fun to say or spell) name for an infection disease caused by an agent that has jumped from a non-human animal to a human?
     
     Answer: Zoonosis
     
     
123. Which type of elementary particle that carries a fractional electronic charge shares its name with a dairy product made by warming sour milk?
     
     Answer: Quark
     
     
124. At only one-half of one millimeter long, tardigrades are considered a microanimal found in marine environments that also happen to be one of the most resilient animals known. What is the more common two-word name for these animals based on their resemblance to a certain land-bound animal?
     
     Answer: Water bear (or moss piglet)
     
     
125. Silver iodide is a favorite "seeding agent" that is used in meteorological professions largely because it has a crystalline structure very similar to a natural ice crystal. What are the everyday objects that silver iodide is used to "seed"?
     
     Answer: Clouds
     
     
126. According to a famous theorem, one of the first to be proven by computation, no more than how many colors are needed to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions share the same color?
     
     Answer: Four
     
     
127. In what year did the Manhattan project start? We'll accept responses within one year of the correct answer. As a reminder, this is the project that led to the development of the atomic bomb.
     
     Answer: 1939 (1938 - 40 accepted)
     
     
128. Rotational symmetry is the property in which a shape looks the same after a partial rotation or turn. When applied to biology such as in sea anemones, what other "R" term is used to describe this characteristic?
     
     Answer: Radial symmetry
     
     
129. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. Which of the giant planets of the solar system is its least dense planet?
     
     Answer: Saturn
     
     
130. Because it is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava, it's often known as magmatic rock. But it has a more common name as well. What is it?
     
     Answer: igneous rock
     
     
131. A Type II error in statistics is a failure to reject a false null hypothesis in a test procedure. What is the two-word phrase by which type II error's are more popularly known in day-to-day vernacular?
     
     Answer: False negative
     
     
132. Two consecutive elements on the periodic table have the same atomic number as the number of letters in their English names. What are they? We need the names of both.
     
     Answer: Boron (5) and Carbon (6)
     
     
133. Microbiology has many branches including virology (studies viruses), parasitology (studies parasites), and nematology (you guessed it -- studies nematodes). What is the more common compound-word name for a nematode?
     
     Answer: Roundworm
     
     
134. Also NPR's Puzzlemaster since 1987, who has served as crossword editor of the New York Times since 1993?
     
     Answer: Will Shortz
     
     
135. What biome is also known as the boreal forest or snow forest? The biome is identifiable through its coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Although sparsely populated compared to other biomes, it is the world's largest apart from the oceans. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska.
     
     Answer: Taiga
     
     
136. What is the "T" name given to fossils that consist not of animal body parts but rather their footprints, nests, poop, and other associated objects?
     
     Answer: Trace fossils
     
     
137. Beginning nearly 12,000 years ago (after the last glacial period), what is the name of the current geological epoch? It's also the name of a song on Bon Iver's self-titled 2011 album.
     
     Answer: Holocene
     
     
138. Talc is a one and Diamond is a ten on what qualitative scale that uses “scratching” to discern differences between minerals?
     
     Answer: Mohs Scale of Hardness
     
     
139. German mathematician Felix Klein was the first to describe the object seen here, a "non-orientable" surface that, despite appearances, has only one side. This object is usually referred to as a Klein ____, where the blank is filled with what kind of common household object?
     
     Answer: Bottle
     
     
140. In chemistry, what 10-letter A-word means the adhesion of atoms or molecules from a gas or liquid to a surface, creating a thin film on the surface?
     
     Answer: Adsorption
     
     
141. Which element (number 100 on the periodic table) is the only one named after an Italian?
     
     Answer: Fermium
     
     
142. Although at least 500 naturally-occurring amino acids are known, a much smaller subset are considered the "essential" amino acids. How many of these necessary compounds exist?
     
     Answer: Nine
     
     
143. Written around 300 BC, "The Elements" is a famous treatise on geometry by what legendary ancient Greek mathematician?
     
     Answer: Euclid
     
     
144. Stat 101: what is the term in statistics for the number of standard deviations by which the value of a raw score is above or below the mean value of the measured data? These can be positive or negative and are often used as a step in determining statistical significance.
     
     Answer: Z-score
     
     
145. Who is the only woman in history to win an unshared Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine? She received the award in 1983 for the discovery of mobile genetic elements.
     
     Answer: Barbara McClintock
     
     
146. In chemistry, what E-word means two molecules whose atomic arrangements are mirror images of each other, and that cannot be superimposed on each other just by turning them in space?
     
     Answer: Enantiomers
     
     
147. One of the most common and least-costly practical applications of solar power is through a solar cooker. In particular, the p______ solar cookers which concentrate sunlight to a single point and require no fuel or operating costs. What geometric word fills in the blank in the preceding sentence?
     
     Answer: Parabolic
     
     
148. An ancient algorithm for finding prime numbers is known as the _____ of Eratosthenes, where the blank is filled with what kind of tool you might find in your kitchen?
     
     Answer: Sieve
     
     
149. Trepanging is the harvesting of what elongated, leathery Pacific creature you probably don't want in your gyro?
     
     Answer: Sea cucumber
     
     
150. What “A” science refers to the scientific approach to crop production?
     
     Answer: Agronomy
     
     
151. On July 5, the Earth will be the farthest from the Sun that it will be for all of 2022—that’s 94,510,886 miles, to be exact. What astronomy term is used to describe this phenomenon?
     
     Answer: Aphelion
     
     
152. In what decade did scientists observe seafloor spreading at mid-ocean ridges and start accepting the earlier proposed theory that Earth’s lithosphere is separated into tectonic plates?
     
     Answer: 1960s
     
     
153. If you just drooled after smelling cold cream, your saliva was activated by what part of your brainstem with what P-word name from the Latin for "bridge"?
     
     Answer: Pons
     
     
154. The Italian method, the Chinese method, gelosia multiplication, and shabakh are all alternate names for what popular method of multiplication to multiply multiple multiple-digit numbers?
     
     Answer: Lattice multiplication
     
     
155. Which synthetic chemical element with the symbol Sg was the first chemical element to be named after a person alive at the time?
     
     Answer: Seaborgium
     
     
156. What kind of "motion," the random movement of particles in a liquid or gas, is named for a Scottish botanist?
     
     Answer: Brownian Motion
     
     
157. The Sieve of Erastothenes is an ancient algorithm used to find what?
     
     Answer: Prime Numbers
     
     
158. What “P” organic compound is represented by the chemical formula “C 5H 5N”? It is highly flammable, so it makes sense that it’s prefix is from the Greek for “fire.”
     
     Answer: Pyridine
     
     
159. What "effect"--by which a rotating object experiences a force perpendicular to the direction of motion--is the reason toilets flush clockwise in the Northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern hemisphere?
     
     Answer: Coriolis Effect
     
     
160. What “A” bacterium uses horizontal gene transfer to cause plant tumors? Its name is reminiscent of a prefix used to refer to plant production.
     
     Answer: Agrobacterium
     
     
161. Formed of leaflike parts called sepals, what five-letter word means the bottom part of a flower, which provides support for the petals?
     
     Answer: Calyx
     
     
162. The solstice is defined as the start of summer because it is the date when the Earth gets the most exposure to the Sun’s rays. What “i” term is a technical measurement of this exposure?
     
     Answer: Insolation
     
     

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