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Public engagement resources for the Monday April 8, 2024 Solar Eclipse
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Nano Trivia for NanoDays!

Vrylena Olney

Looking for an icebreaker for the beginning of a science café? Or trivia to use on social media sites to help promote your NanoDays events?

The NISE Net's Science Café Guide included a number of trivia questions, and with so many of you in the midst of NanoDays or about to host NanoDays events, I thought the questions might be particularly useful this week. These questions include pop culture references in addition to more scientific questions. I've pasted the questions from the guide below, plus the bonus question that we at the Museum of Science asked our Facebook fans to raffle off two exhibit hall passes for NanoDays.

Correct answers are marked with and bolded.

1. The word "nano" comes from the Greek word for:
 a) Small
 b) Minor
 c) Brief
 d) Dwarf
 
2. Which of the following is NOT true about nanotechnology?
a) Research in nanotechnology includes work in many fields, such as
chemistry, biology, physics, and medicine
b) Nano-sized particles often have very different properties than their
larger-sized counterparts
c) Nanotechnology is being used to produce tiny robots that will
complete tasks like cleaning up oil spills
d) Nanotechnology may lead to self-cleaning toilets
 
3. A nanometer is approximately how many copper atoms long?
 a) 2
 b) 8
 c) 23
 d) 47
 
4. If you lined up copper atoms in a row across the diameter of a penny,
approximately how many atoms would there be?
 a) 105 million
 b) 137 million
 c) 152 million
 d) 173 million
 
5. Who sang the song, "Tiny Bubbles"?
 Don Ho
 
6. Buckyballs are molecules that are made of 60 carbon atoms. About one
nanometer in diameter, buckyballs are extremely strong and very slippery, and
scientists are studying how we might be able to use them. Who are buckyballs
named after?
 Buckminster Fuller
 
7. In addition to yellow, gold nanoparticles can be what color?
 a) Blue
 b) Purple
 c) Red
 d) Orange
 e) All of the above
 
8. How does the nano fabric used clothing (like pants from L.L. Bean) keep
liquids from sticking?
 a) The fabric is coated in nano-sized particles of teflon
 b) The fabric has nano-sized threads or "whiskers" sticking out that
prevent  the liquid from penetrating
 c) The fabric has nano-sized threads of goretex woven into it
 d) The fabric has nano-sized threads of silver woven into it
 
9. In "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens, what was Tiny Tim's last name?
 Cratchit
 
10. Which one of the following "nano" products is fake?
 a) Antibacterial nano socks
 b) Nano ceramic curling irons
 c) Nanorama-Gold toothpaste
 d) Nano pacifier
 e) NanoSlim, the world’s smallest weight-loss solution
 f) Nano chopsticks
 g) Nanogaine hair growth formula
 h) None are fake, they’re all real

And to help promote our Museum of Science NanoDays events, we asked our Facebook fans the following open-ended question:
If you could build anything at the nanoscale (the size of an atom or molecule), what would you create and why?