History of Science

What this exam is like

The History of Science exam has 24 multiple-choice questions across these levels: Secondary (12), Sixth Form (24). Each attempt draws 10 at random from the level you choose. You get two tries per question, and each answer is explained afterwards. At the end you see your grade.

Sample questions

1. 1. What did Archimedes discover, according to legend, when he got into the bath?

   • That the Earth is round
   • The circulation of the blood
   • The law of gravity
   • The upthrust on a body immersed in a liquid
   Show the answer

   ✅ The upthrust on a body immersed in a liquid

   Seeing the bath water rise, he understood that a submerged body displaces its own volume of water and is pushed upwards by a force equal to the weight of that water. Legend says he ran out shouting "Eureka!" ("I've found it!").

2. 2. What is the name of the model of the universe that put the Earth at the centre and lasted until the 16th century?

   • Dalton's atomic model
   • Ptolemy's geocentric model
   • The Big Bang
   • The heliocentric model
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   ✅ Ptolemy's geocentric model

   Ptolemy (2nd century) explained it with circles within circles to make the planets' motion fit. The Church accepted it and it lasted almost 1,400 years, until Copernicus.

3. 3. Which of these discoveries is the oldest?

   • Darwin's theory of evolution
   • Fleming's penicillin
   • Mendeleev's periodic table
   • Newton's law of universal gravitation
   Show the answer

   ✅ Newton's law of universal gravitation

   Newton, 1687; Darwin, 1859; Mendeleev, 1869; Fleming, 1928. Gravitation came almost two centuries before evolution.