competitions & quizzes...pit your wits & win with Planet Science

march military quiz

March - named after Mars, the Roman God of War, and of agriculture apparently. Well, maybe he ran a farm when he was off duty from warring. And what do you do when you go to war? You er... march.

So be prepared to do battle for victory in this most magnificent of quizzes. Military technology has found peacetime uses, and vice-versa as it happens. How much do you know? Answer the following questions correctly and you go into the draw for one of two magnificent Stealth (shaped) model speed boats.

Gladiators! Are you ready? Release the quiz!

Click here for the answers...

01	In 1867 Alfred Nobel patented a material made by mixing nitroglycerine with kieselguhr (a mineral containing a large amount of silica). This turned the liquid into a paste which could be shaped into rods - and which only exploded when they were detonated. It was used for blasting tunnels, cutting canals and building railways and roads all over the world. Its name comes from the Greek word meaning 'power'. What is it?
	Gunpowder
	TNT
	Dynamite

02	Snoring is a common problem but in the armed forces this may have significant effects. Stop that snoring you ‘orrible little man! Yes sah! A paper has been written on the general management of snoring in the military environment and in particular, one surgical procedure – known as
	Rhinoplasty
	Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty
	Punchinthechopsoplasty

03	The invention of radar by Watson-Watt was vital to the RAF during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It was thanks to the cavity magnetron which produced a compact source of short-wave radio waves. This led to the invention of the microwave oven when, during a radar-related research project around 1946, Dr. Percy Lebaron Spencer, an engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual.
	The chocolate bar in his pocket melted
	His cup of tea boiled over
	His bow tie exploded

04	GPS was invented by the US Department of Defence as a military aid to navigation. Now we find it in cars, boats, even laptops. It works by trilateration - calculating the distance to four or more satellites then deducing a GPS receiver location. What do we know GPS better as?
	Big Nav
	Sat Dish
	Sat Nav

05	Still on the subject of GPS - the satellites broadcast on a shared group of frequencies according to a pre-determined pattern. The receiver must know the exact sequence of broadcast frequencies. This is known as frequency hopping or spread spectrum. It was invented by a movie star to aid the US in the Second World War. Who was she?
	Hedy Lamarr
	Cary Grant
	Tracy Spencer

06	The Internet was invented by the US Department of Defense in 1969 as a means of communication if it was attacked by Russia. The World Wide Web is an information system that links data from several Internet servers. Tim Berners-Lee, an Englishman, invented the WWW in Switzerland in what year?
	1969
	1979
	1989

07	Night vision technology has already brought huge benefits to the military and more recently to the media with wartime reporting and wildlife programmes. Thermal imaging senses heat radiated by things and produces a video picture of the heat. What sort of radiation is it sensing?
	Infrared
	Ultraviolet
	Visible light

08	Urea formaldehyde glue was used during the WW2 to produce parts for the ‘Wooden Wonder’ bomber. It became the adhesive of the 50's, 60’s and 70’s. Now PVA is the most common modern adhesive. What was the other name for the Wooden Wonder?
	The Stealth Bomber
	The Mosquito
	The Flying Rat

09	In 1933 one foggy night on a cobbled, unlit road with a perilous precipice on its right, a 43-year-old road repairer from West Yorkshire called Percy Shaw had his "eureka" moment. When the blackout rules were enforced during WW2 his invention came into its own. What was it?
	Catseyes
	Neon lights
	Double yellow lines

10	The world's first mass production factory was created in Southampton by Brunel to mass-produce blocks for ships' rigging for the Royal Navy. Henry Ford was so impressed by the idea; he used it to manufacture what car?
	Ford Fiesta
	Fiat Panda
	Model T

Answers

1= Dynamite • 2= Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty • 3= The chocolate bar in his pocket melted • 4= Sat Nav • 5= Hedy Lamarr • 6= 1989 • 7= Infrared • 8= The Mosquito • 9= Catseyes • 10= Model T

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competitions & quizzes...pit your wits & win with Planet Science

march military quiz

March - named after Mars, the Roman God of War, and of agriculture apparently. Well, maybe he ran a farm when he was off duty from warring. And what do you do when you go to war? You er... march.

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