ROUND 1

1. Which famous scientist introduced the idea of natural selection?

ANSWER: Charles Darwin
2. What name is given to Animals which eat both plants and other animals?
ANSWER: Omnivores
3. What name is given to a change of the DNA in an organism that results in a new trait?
ANSWER: Mutation
PREAMBLE: Convert the given unit to a unit containing only SI base units.
4. J s
ANSWER: kg m2 s−1
5. W h
ANSWER: kg m2 s−2
6. N s
ANSWER: kg m s−1
7. Give an isomer of 1–pentanol that is a butanol and also a tertiary alkanol.
ANSWER: 2 – methyl – 2 – butanolor 2 – methylbutan – 2 – ol
8. Give one positional isomer of cyclohexene.
ANSWER: It has no positional isomer
9. Give the stereoisomer of 1,3–dichlorocyclopentane that will not show optical isomerism
ANSWER: cis–1,3–dichlorocyclopentane (has a plane of symmetry, trans has no
plane of symmetry).
PREAMBLE: Give as an algebraic expression
10. twenty less than the product of a number and two,
ANSWER: 2x – 20
11. one half subtracted from the quotient of a and b,
ANSWER: a/b – ½
12. The difference of three times a number and 4.
ANSWER: 3x – 4
PREAMBLE: Give the Phylum of the following fungi
13. Yeast
ANSWER: Ascomycota
14. Rhizopus
ANSWER: Zygomycota
15. Penicillium
ANSWER: Ascomycota
16. A converging lens has focal length 0.20 m . Find the image distance when the object distance is 0.45 m.
ANSWER: 0.36 m v=fu / ( u−f ) =0.36 m
17. Find the object distance for an image distance of 15 cm in a converging lens of focal length 5.0 cm .
ANSWER: 7.5 cm u=fv / ( v−f )=7.5 cm
18. Determine the focal length of a converging lens in which an image distance of 0.10 m corresponds to an
object distance of 0.025 m .
ANSWER: 0.020 m=2.0 cm
f =uv / ( u+ v )=2.0 cm
PREAMBLE: A steel vessel containing 3 moles of nitrogen, 5 moles of helium and 7 moles of oxygen
is found to have a total pressure of 600kPa at 30oC.
19. Calculate the mole fraction of the nitrogen gas.
ANSWER: mole fraction of N2 = 3/(3 + 5 + 7) = 3/15 = 1/5 or
0.2
20. Calculate the partial pressure of the oxygen gas.
ANSWER: mole fraction of oxygen = 7/(3 + 5 + 7) = 7/15
Partial pressure of O2 = 7/15 * 600 = 280 kPa
21. Calculate the combined partial pressure of helium and oxygen.
ANSWER: mole fraction of He and O2 = (5 + 7)/ (15) = 12/15
Combined partial pressure of He and O2 = 12/15 * 600 = 480kPa
PREAMBLE: Find the solution set for x for the given inequality:
22. |3x – 4 | < 5
ANSWER: {x : -1/3 < x < 3 }
[ -5 < 3x – 4 < 5, - 1 < 3x < 9, -1/3 < x < 3]
23. | x + 4 | < 9
ANSWER: { x : -13 < x < 5 }
[-9 < x + 4 < 9, - 13 < x < 5 ]
24. | x – 3 | > 1
ANSWER: { x : x < 2, or x > 4 }
[ x – 3 > 1, or x – 3 < -1; x > 4 or x < 2 ]
 ROUND 2 - SPEED ROUND

1. Who was the first to discover oxygen?

ANSWER: Scheel
2. Who prepared oxygen for the first time?
ANSWER: John Priestley (by heating mercury (II) oxide)
3. Oxygen can also be prepared in the laboratory by heating solid KMnO4. Apart from K2MnO4, what
other by-product is formed?
ANSWER: MnO2. (2 KMnO4 → K2MnO4 + MnO2 + O2(g))
4. Convert 75° to radian measure.
ANSWER: 5π/12 radian [(75/180) π = 25π/60 = 5π/12]
5. Evaluate 2752 - 2252
ANSWER: 25,000
[(275 - 225)(275 + 225) = 50(500) = 25000]
6. Solve the quadratic inequality (x – 3)(x + 2) < 0.
ANSWER: {x : -2 < x < 3}
7. What name is given to all the different molecular forms of the same gene?
ANSWER: Allele
8. What name is given to the particular genes that an individual carries?
ANSWER: Genotype
9. What name is given to the experimental crosses between two parents that are homozygous for
different versions of a single trait?
ANSWER: Monohybrid cross
10. How is the kelvin, the SI unit of thermodynamic temperature, defined?
ANSWER: The fraction 1/273.16 of the thermodynamic temperature of the triple point of water
11. How long does a particle projected vertically upward from the ground with speed 20 m s−1 remain airborne if
air drag is negligible?
ANSWER: 4 s
−1 −2
t=2 u/ g=2 ×20 m s ÷10 m s =4 s
12. A 2 kg object is dropped onto a floor from a height of 5 m. Find its kinetic energy when it hits the floor.
ANSWER: 100 J
−2
T =Δ U =mgh=2 kg × 10 m s ×5 m=100 J

ROUND 3
 TRUE OR FALSE

1. Mitochondria are green because of the chlorophyll they contain.

ANSWER: False
2. Energy-rich compounds from the cytosol are oxidised in the chlorophyll.
ANSWER: False
3. The outermost region of the mitochondrion folds to form cristae.
ANSWER: False (The innermost and not outermost)
4. A parallelogram with a right angle is a rectangle.
ANSWER: True
5. A rectangle is a parallelogram.
ANSWER: True
6. A rectangle is a square.
ANSWER: False
7. The limiting thermal efficiency of a heat engine depends on the temperatures of the
hot and cold thermal reservoirs between which it operates.
ANSWER: True
8. A real heat engine cannot convert all the thermal energy it receives into work.
ANSWER: True
9. Because adiabatic processes occur without heat exchange, a heat engine cannot
operate on a cycle that includes an adiabatic process.
ANSWER: False
10. Both CO2 and SO2 molecules have the same shape.
ANSWER: False CO2 is linear, SO2 is bent
11. CH4 and NH3 have different shapes; this is as a result of the difference in the hybridization of the
bonding orbitals of carbon and nitrogen.
ANSWER: False Both C and N are sp3 hybridized
12. In cyclohexane all the 6 carbons are in the same plane.
ANSWER: False
13. Sleeping sickness, one of the most dreaded diseases in Africa, is caused by a flagellate.
ANSWER: True
14. The vector for sleeping sickness is a type of worm.
ANSWER: False (An insect)
 15. The vector for sleeping sickness can infect only humans but not any other mammal.
ANSWER: False
16. 0.49 is an exact square.
ANSWER: True
17. (36/15) is an exact square.
ANSWER: False
18. 0.9 is not an exact square.
ANSWER: True
19. The resistance of a circuit containing two identical resistors in parallel equals twice
the resistance of one of the resistors.
ANSWER: False
20. The current in a circuit containing two identical resistors in series equals twice the
current in one of the resistors.
ANSWER: False
21. The resistance of a circuit containing two identical resistors in series equals twice the
resistance of one of the resistors.
ANSWER: True
22. The electron affinity in kJmol-1 of sulphur is larger than that of oxygen.
ANSWER: True (S = -200, O = -141)
23. Whilst beryllium and magnesium have positive values of electron affinity, lithium and sodium
have negative values.
ANSWER: True Energy is given out when an electron is added to the neutral
Li/Na atom but energy is required to add an electron to the neutral Be/Mg
24. The more negative the value of the electron affinity for an element, the more stable the anion
formed.
ANSWER: True

RIDDLES
RIDDLE 1
 1. I am an element discovered in 1826.
2. I am one of those elements whose smallest units are not atoms but molecules.
3. I have a boiling point of about 59oC.
4. I am used in making fumigants, flame proofing agents, water purification compounds, sanitizers
and many more useful products.
5. I am the only liquid non–metallic element and my colour is reddish–brown.
Who am I?
ANSWER: Bromine

RIDDLE 2
1. I am a composite organism.
2. My properties are very different from the properties of my component organisms.
3. I come in many colours, sizes, and forms.
4. I normally grow on the bark of trees, leaves, mosses, bare rock, walls, gravestones, roofs and
exposed soil surfaces.
5. I arise from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of a fungus in a symbiotic
relationship.
Who am I?
ANSWER: Lichen

RIDDLE 3
1. I am a type of gas.
2. I exhibit a tendency to condense.
3. So I am not an ideal gas.
4. My equation of state is similar to that of an ideal gas;
5. But the volume term is smaller by a quantity that takes the actual volume of my molecules into
account.
Who am I?
ANSWER: van der Waals gas
RIDDLE 4

1. I am a 2-digit number.
2. Both digits are prime.
3. I am an even number.
4. My first digit exceeds the second digit by 5.
5. I am six dozens.
Who am I?
ANSWER: 72