Science guide
Updated
Science prompts look intimidating, but they have a secret advantage: science loves lists with structure. If you know the structure, you can generate correct answers instead of recalling them.
Space
For “name a moon”, almost everyone says the Moon, Titan or Europa. Go planet by planet:
- Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, then the small inner moons Amalthea, Thebe and Metis.
- Saturn: Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, then Iapetus, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, Hyperion, Phoebe, Janus.
- Uranus: moons named after Shakespeare and Pope characters: Miranda, Titania, Oberon, Ariel, Umbriel, Puck.
- Neptune: Triton, Nereid, Proteus.
- Dwarf planets: Pluto’s Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos and Styx; Eris’s Dysnomia.
Chemistry
The periodic table is a map. Hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and gold are crowded. Walk a row or column instead: the noble gases, the lanthanides (cerium, praseodymium, neodymium…), the heavy synthetic elements named after scientists and places (curium, einsteinium, darmstadtium, livermorium).
The human body
Bones, muscles and organs have Latin-ish names that sound obscure but are perfectly standard: the hyoid, stapes, scaphoid and patella; the sartorius and trapezius. Work from head to toe.
Earth science
- Rocks and minerals: sort into igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
- Gemstones: beyond diamond and ruby lie tanzanite, alexandrite, spinel and tourmaline.
- Weather and clouds: cloud names combine a few Latin roots, so altostratus and cirrocumulus are easy to build.
Watch the boundary
Science prompts are strict. A mineral is not always a gem, a dwarf planet is not a moon, and an alloy (bronze, steel) is not an element. When in doubt, use safe vs. rare answers thinking.
Practise
Work through the prompts below, especially Name a moon in our solar system, then test yourself in unlimited dives.