50 free Physical Therapy trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
40 free physical therapy trivia questions with answers. This physical therapy quiz was built for the people who actually work in the field: PTs, PTAs, students and the office managers roped into running a game for National Physical Therapy Month. It covers the profession's history (the Swedish fencing master who started it, the four British nurses who founded a society in 1894, the World War I 'reconstruction aides', the Australian bush nurse whose polio methods rewrote rehabilitation) and the modern profession, from DPT programs and board specialties to telerehabilitation. The clinical questions stay light and fun rather than exam-grade: what a goniometer measures, why the RICE acronym's own inventor turned against it, how much of the gait cycle is stance phase, which knee test is the most sensitive for an ACL tear. About a third are easy enough for a patient in the waiting room; a handful will make an experienced clinician pause. Every answer has been checked against a primary source, and the citation sits under each explanation, so you can settle the break-room debate on the spot.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which ancient Greek physicians are credited as the first practitioners of physical therapy?
Hippocrates and Galen
The date usually given is around 460 BC. Both also believed in the healing power of exercise, an idea that took two millennia to become a profession.
Q 02In which country did Per Henrik Ling found the 1813 gymnastics institute seen as the origin of physical therapy?
Sweden
The Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics in Stockholm trained instructors in his 'medical gymnastics'. Ling had been a fencing master at Lund University.
Q 03Per Henrik Ling, 'the Father of Swedish Gymnastics', held what job at Lund University from 1805?
Master of fencing
He is often also called the father of Swedish massage, but massage was never actually part of his gymnastic system.
Q 04In which year did Sweden become the first country to give physical therapists official registration?
1887
Britain followed with a professional society in 1894 and New Zealand opened a physiotherapy school at the University of Otago in 1913.
Q 05The UK's Chartered Society of Physiotherapy was founded in 1894 by four members of which profession?
Nurses
It began as the Society of Trained Masseuses, partly to distinguish respectable practitioners from massage parlours, and received a royal charter from George V in 1920.
Q 06Under what name was the UK's physiotherapy body originally established in 1894?
The Society of Trained Masseuses
By 1920 it was the Chartered Society of Massage and Remedial Gymnasts. Today it has around 65,000 members.
Q 07The first physiotherapy school outside Europe opened in 1913 at Otago, in which country?
New Zealand
The United States followed a year later when Reed College in Portland, Oregon began graduating 'reconstruction aides'.
Q 08Which Portland, Oregon institution began graduating 'reconstruction aides', forerunners of physical therapists, in 1914?
Reed College
The Portland, Oregon college's program fed the war effort. From 1918 'Reconstruction Aide' was the formal term for people practising physical therapy.
Q 09The first US school of physical therapy was established during World War I at which army medical centre?
Walter Reed
The Washington, D.C. hospital needed to rehabilitate thousands of wounded soldiers. The polio outbreak of 1916 had already pushed the same techniques forward.
Q 10The body now known as the APTA was founded in 1921 under what name?
The American Women's Physical Therapeutic Association
The profession was almost entirely female then. Today the Alexandria, Virginia-based APTA represents more than 100,000 physical therapists.
Q 11Who was the first president of what became the American Physical Therapy Association?
Mary McMillan
'Mollie' McMillan had trained in England and led the reconstruction aides at Walter Reed. She is often called the mother of American physical therapy.
Q 12Which disease outbreak in 1916 drove early adoption of physical therapy techniques in the United States?
Polio
The epidemic left thousands of children paralysed. Physical therapists became central to polio care until the vaccine arrived in the 1950s.
Q 13Sister Elizabeth Kenny, whose polio methods shaped modern physical therapy, came from which country?
Australia
Q 21How long does the entry-level degree for US physical therapists typically take after a bachelor's?
Three years
Graduates then sit a national licensure exam. In many states patients can now see a PT by 'direct access', without a physician referral.
Q 22What does 'fysioterapeut', the Swedish title that replaced 'sjukgymnast' in 2014, mean?
Physiotherapist
The old word literally meant 'sick-gymnast', a direct legacy of Ling's medical gymnastics.
Q 23What is 'direct access' in physical therapy?
Seeing a PT without a physician referral
'Sister' was her wartime nursing rank, not a religious title. She treated polio with hot compresses and movement rather than the splints and immobilisation doctors preferred.
Q 14What did Sister Kenny apply to polio patients' limbs before moving them, defying medical consensus?
Hot compresses
She aimed to relieve what she called 'spasm'. Her institute opened in Minneapolis in 1942, and in 1951 she topped Gallup's most-admired list, displacing Eleanor Roosevelt.
Q 15The Sister Kenny Institute, now Courage Kenny Rehabilitation, opened in 1942 in which US city?
Minneapolis
Rosalind Russell played Kenny in a 1946 Hollywood biopic and was Oscar-nominated for it.
Q 16In the late 1950s, US physical therapists began moving out of hospitals into what kinds of settings?
Outpatient clinics, schools and nursing facilities
The shift created the outpatient orthopaedic clinic most people now picture when they hear 'PT'.
Q 17The APTA's first specialty section, formed in 1974, covered physical therapists in which area?
Orthopaedics
Board certification for clinical specialists followed, recognising advanced knowledge in areas from cardiopulmonary to women's health.
Q 18How many national organisations founded the World Confederation for Physical Therapy in 1951?
Eleven
It is headquartered in Southwark, London. Since 1996 it has designated 8 September as World PT Day.
Q 19On what date is World PT Day celebrated each year?
8 September
The date was designated in 1996 and marks the founding of the world confederation. In the US, October is National Physical Therapy Month.
Q 20Since 2016, US entry-level physical therapist programs have awarded what level of degree?
A doctorate
The DPT typically takes three years after a bachelor's degree. As of 2025 there were 322 accredited programs with nearly 40,000 students enrolled.
It is now permitted in some form in every US state, though many insurers still require a referral for payment.
Q 24Which specialty covers the reproductive system, childbirth and the post-partum period?
Women's health / pelvic floor
Pelvic floor therapy has grown rapidly and now treats men too, particularly after prostate surgery.
Q 25Which of these is a form of physical therapy delivered remotely?
Telerehabilitation
The pandemic pushed it into the mainstream. Therapists coach exercise over video and monitor progress through apps and wearables.
Q 26What instrument does a physical therapist typically use to measure a joint's range of motion in degrees?
A goniometer
It is essentially a protractor with two arms. Passive ROM is when the therapist moves the joint; active ROM is when the patient does it unaided.
Q 27In physical therapy, what is 'passive range of motion'?
Movement produced by the therapist with no patient effort
Active ROM is the patient moving the joint alone. Comparing the two helps separate stiffness from weakness.
Q 28In a mature walking pattern, roughly what share of the gait cycle is spent in the stance phase?
60%
The remaining 40% is swing phase. Because both feet are on the ground part of the time, walking has periods of 'double support' that running does not.
Q 29The RICE mnemonic for treating soft-tissue injuries was introduced in 1978 by which physician?
Gabe Mirkin
Decades later Mirkin publicly recanted, saying both ice and complete rest may delay healing. Alternatives like POLICE and PEACE & LOVE now stress early loading.
Q 30In the updated injury protocol POLICE, what does the 'OL' stand for?
Optimal Loading
Protection, Optimal Loading, Ice, Compression, Elevation. It replaces 'Rest' with the idea that controlled early movement heals tissue faster.