Optics
What causes a spoon to appear distorted in water?
Refraction
What is the first law of thermodynamics?
The law of conservation of energy, energy cannot be created nor destroyed
What is the difference between subsonic and supersonic flight?
Subsonic flight is moving slower than the speed of sound (below Mach 1), while supersonic flight is moving faster than the speed of sound (above Mach 1)
Does a boat float higher in fresh water or salt water?
Salt water
Why don't electrons fall into the nucleus?
They exist in quantized energy levels (orbitals) and can't lose energy to spiral inward
Which phenomenon can occur with light but not with sound?
Doppler Effect, Interference, Polarization, Refraction
Polarization
What is a fundamental property that measures a system's disorder, randomness, or energy dispersal, quantifying how much energy is unavailable for work?
Entropy
How do you apply fluid dynamics to aircraft design?
By using a computational fluid dynamic simulation to simulate airflow, optimizing shape for lift, controlling flow, and minimizing drag
At its peak, what is the net external force on an upward thrown ball?
Gravity
What is wave-particle duality?
Things like light and electrons behave as both waves (spreading out) and particles (localized points) depending on how we observe them
What is light propagation?
The movement of light as an electromagnetic wave or ray through space.
Name a temperature scale that doesn't have negative numbers.
Kelvin
What are the four fundamental forces that act on an airplane in flight?
Thrust, Drag, Lift, Weight
Two marbles roll off a table at the same time but at different speeds, which one hits the ground first?
They both hit the floor at the same time
What is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle?
You can't know a quantum particle's exact position and exact momentum (speed and direction) at the same time
What principle explains how light can be trapped inside a medium?
Total Internal Reflection
Is the universe's entropy increasing or decreasing?
Increasing
What is the main difference between jet and rocket engines?
Jet engines "breathe" air for oxygen (making them unable to work in space), while rocket engines carry their own fuel and oxidizer, allowing them to operate in the vacuum of space
Why is the moon tidally locked to earth?
Earth's powerful gravity slowed the Moon's initial spin, locking it into synchronous rotation where its orbital period equals its rotation period. This happened because Earth's gravity stretched the Moon into a slightly oblong shape, creating tidal bulges that Earth's pull constantly tugged on, acting like brakes until the Moon settled into a stable, slow spin.
What is quantum entanglement?
Two or more particles become linked so their fates are correlated, regardless of the distance separating them, measuring one instantly affects the other
Who's Law defines the relationship between the path taken by a ray of light in crossing the boundary or surface of separation between two contacting substances and the refraction indexes of each?
Snell's Law
How do heat transfer and internal energy differ? In particular, which can be stored as such in a system and which cannot?
Internal energy is the total energy stored within a system, while heat is energy in transit due to temperature difference; heat cannot be stored, but adding heat increases a system's internal energy.
Name 3 materials commonly used for heat dissipation in aerospace.
Graphene & Graphite composites, Carbon fiber composites, Aluminum alloys, Ceramics
What is the matter-antimatter problem?
The Big Bang theoretically was supposed to produce equal parts matter and antimatter, leading to the annihilation of both, but a small amount of matter survived, leading to the surplus we have today
How can a particle pass through a barrier it classically shouldn't have enough energy to overcome?
Quantum tunneling, its wave function has a non-zero amplitude on the other side, meaning there's a probability of finding it there