Earth & Space
This specific type of plate boundary is famously responsible for creating both deep ocean trenches and volcanic mountain ranges on land.
What is a convergent boundary?
Due to energy lost primarily as metabolic heat, only about this percentage of energy moves up from one trophic level to the next higher level in an ecological pyramid.
What is 10 percent? (Accept: The 10% Rule)
Calculated by dividing an object's mass by its volume, this physical property explains why a tiny iron nail sinks in water while a massive wooden log floats.
What is density?
An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion, because of this property of matter that resists changes in motion.
What is inertia?
Native to Australia, this aquatic creature with a duck-like bill and webbed feet is one of only two living mammals in the world that lays eggs instead of giving live birth.
What is a platypus?
Occurring twice a year in March and September, these specific days happen when Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in exactly equal hours of day and night across the entire planet.
What is an equinox? (Also accept: vernal/autumnal equinox)
Unlike most arteries that carry oxygen-rich blood, this specific artery is the only one in the human body that carries oxygen-poor blood away from the heart and directly to the lungs.
What is the pulmonary artery?
When a liquid has dissolved so much solute that adding even one more crystal results in it sinking to the bottom, the solution has reached this state.
What is saturated?
While mixing red, yellow, and blue paint creates dark brown, overlapping the three primary colors of light—red, green, and blue—on a screen creates this color.
What is white?
Appearing like ordinary, plain rocks on the outside, breaking open these hollow geological formations reveals a sparkling interior lined with quartz or amethyst crystals.
What are geodes?
Earth's regular ocean tides are primarily caused by the gravitational pull of the moon, but these extra-high tides occur specifically when the Earth, Moon, and Sun align in a straight line during full and new moons.
What are spring tides?
An organism's observable physical appearance, such as blue eyes or tall height, is known by this term, as opposed to its underlying genetic code.
What is a phenotype?
When two clear liquid solutions are mixed together and a solid suddenly forms and settles out, that new solid is known by this term.
What is a precipitate?
When two equal forces pull on an object in exactly opposite directions, they cancel each other out, resulting in a net force of zero and putting the object into this state of balance.
What is static equilibrium? (Accept: Equilibrium or Balanced forces)
Before collapsing into a black hole or neutron star, a massive star ends its life in this gigantic, blinding explosion that outshines entire galaxies.
What is a supernova?
This narrow band of strong winds in the upper troposphere flows from west to east, heavily influencing regional weather systems and flight times.
What is the Jet Stream?
This specialized plant tissue acts like tiny internal drinking straws, carrying water and dissolved minerals upward from the roots all the way to the leaves.
What is xylem?
Enzymes in your saliva act as this type of chemical compound, which speeds up a chemical reaction without being consumed or permanently changed in the process.
What is a catalyst?
A ramp is an example of this simple machine, which reduces the effort force needed to lift a heavy object by increasing the distance it travels.
What is an inclined plane?
In 1928, Alexander Fleming accidentally left a petri dish uncovered and noticed a fuzzy blue mold killing his bacteria colonies, leading to the discovery of this game-changing antibiotic.
What is pencillin?
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union officially demoted Pluto to a "dwarf planet" because it failed to satisfy this specific requirement of a true planet.
What is clearing its orbit? (Also accept: clearing its neighborhood)
This nitrogenous base pairs with adenine in DNA, but is replaced by uracil in RNA.
What is Thymine?
This term describes the minimum amount of energy required to remove an electron from a neutral atom in its gaseous state.
What is Ionization Energy?
Meaning "center-seeking" in Latin, this inward force is required to keep an object moving in a curved path or circle, preventing it from flying off in a straight line.
What is centripetal force?
Governed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, this fundamental property measures the degree of disorder, randomness, or unusable energy within a closed system, which naturally increases over time.
What is entropy?