Q 01/05

Dick Fosbury's back-first 'flop', seen by the world at the 1968 Olympics, transformed which athletics event?

A) Pole vault

B) Long jump

C) High jump

D) Triple jump

Answer · why

C) High jump

High jump has been ruled by the flop ever since: arching backwards over the bar can let a jumper's centre of mass pass beneath it while the body clear...

Q 02/05

The hundreds of dimples covering a golf ball help it fly much farther mainly by doing what?

A) Reducing air drag

B) Lowering its weight

C) Softening club impact

D) Stopping it spinning

Answer · why

A) Reducing air drag

Reducing air drag is the trick: dimples make the thin layer of air around the ball turbulent, so it clings on longer and leaves a narrower wake behind...

Q 03/05

Which sports drink did University of Florida scientists create in 1965 for the school's own athletes?

A) Powerade

B) Gatorade

C) Lucozade

D) Pocari Sweat

Answer · why

B) Gatorade

Gatorade is named after the Florida Gators, whose players drank it to replace the carbohydrates they burned and the water and electrolytes they sweate...

Q 04/05

Tommy John surgery, first performed on a baseball pitcher in 1974, rebuilds a ligament in which joint?

A) Shoulder

B) Knee

C) Wrist

D) Elbow

Answer · why

D) Elbow

Elbow ligament reconstruction was devised by Dodgers team doctor Frank Jobe, who put the odds of the first operation succeeding at one in 100.

Q 05/05

Which phenomenon, named after a German physicist, makes a spinning football or baseball curve through the air?

A) Doppler effect

B) Magnus effect

C) Coriolis effect

D) Venturi effect

Answer · why

B) Magnus effect

The Magnus effect puts a sideways lift force on a spinning ball and bends its flight, and the same physics has been used to propel rotor ships.