Science & Technology Trivia Quiz

Social phobia, also called social anxiety disorder, is indeed the fear of social situations where one may be judged or scrutinized by others. This is a recognized anxiety disorder in the DSM-5. It goes beyond normal shyness and can significantly impact daily functioning.

Mysophobia is the correct term for fear of germs or dirt. It's also known as germophobia. The Greek prefix 'myso-' means filth or uncleanness. This phobia often leads to excessive cleaning or washing behaviors and is related to OCD in some cases.

Arachnophobia is the correct term for fear of spiders. The prefix 'arachne-' comes from Greek meaning 'spider' (also from the myth of Arachne). This is one of the most common specific phobias and affects a significant percentage of the population.

Astraphobia is indeed the fear of thunder and lightning. The prefix 'astra-' relates to stars or celestial phenomena, but in this context refers to lightning storms. It's also called brontophobia (fear of thunder specifically). This phobia is common in children and some adults.

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This U.S. government agency is responsible for the civilian space program and aeronautical research. Option B incorrectly uses 'Nature' instead of 'Space,' while option D uses 'Aerospace' instead of 'Aeronautics.' The correct name has been in use since NASA's founding in 1958.

LASER stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, which describes the process of generating coherent light through stimulated emission. Option A incorrectly says 'Static' instead of 'Stimulated', while B and C have major errors in the wording.

RADAR is an acronym for Radio Detection and Ranging, which uses radio waves to detect and locate objects. Options A and B incorrectly say 'Rays' instead of 'Radio', while D has a typo saying 'Defection'.

Shakuntala Devi (1929-2013) was known as the 'Human Computer' for her extraordinary mathematical calculation abilities. She could perform complex mental calculations instantly and famously beat computers in mathematical demonstrations, earning a place in Guinness World Records.

Rudyard Kipling was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1865 and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907, making him the first person born in India to receive a Nobel Prize. Rabindranath Tagore won in 1913, C.V. Raman in 1930, and Mother Teresa in 1979 - all later than Kipling. Note the question asks about birthplace, not nationality.

'CAIRO' was the codename for Microsoft Windows 95 during its development. Mac OS X was codenamed various names but not Cairo, Unix is not associated with a Cairo codename, and Windows XP was codenamed 'Whistler'. Cairo was an ambitious project that became Windows 95.

Marie Curie, along with her husband Pierre Curie, discovered radium in 1898. She was a pioneering physicist and chemist who conducted extensive research on radioactivity. Isaac Newton worked on gravity and calculus, Albert Einstein developed relativity theory, and Benjamin Franklin studied electricity.

Galileo Galilei is credited with inventing the thermometer in 1593, specifically a rudimentary water thermometer called a thermoscope. While he didn't invent the modern mercury thermometer (that came later), he established the principle. The barometer was invented by Torricelli, pendulum clock by Huygens, and microscope by Janssen/leeuwenhoek.

Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876, which places the invention in the 1870s. The 1850s and 1860s are too early for the telephone's development, while the 1880s came after the telephone was already patented and being commercialized.

Early parachute development and testing resulted in numerous fatalities as inventors tested different designs without full understanding of aerodynamics. Many early jumps were unsuccessful. While dynamite, race cars, and ladders can be dangerous, parachutes had the highest death rate during their testing phase.