Q 01/05

Strontium salts give fireworks which brilliant color, the same one that identifies the element in a flame test?

A) Red

B) Green

C) Blue

D) Violet

Answer · why

A) Red

Red fireworks get their color from strontium salts, and the same crimson flame told chemists in the 1790s that they had found a new element.

Q 02/05

Strontium is named after Strontian, a mining village where its ore was discovered in 1790, in which country?

A) Ireland

B) Scotland

C) England

D) Switzerland

Answer · why

B) Scotland

Scotland can claim the only element named after a place in the United Kingdom. Strontian lies on the north shore of Loch Sunart.

Q 03/05

Cold War scientists in St. Louis collected over 320,000 of which childhood castoffs to measure strontium-90 fallout?

A) Locks of hair

B) Tonsils

C) Nail clippings

D) Baby teeth

Answer · why

D) Baby teeth

Baby teeth mailed in by schoolchildren, who got a button in return, showed strontium-90 levels climbing through the 1950s, evidence that helped end ab...

Q 04/05

Strontium aluminate, a pigment developed in Japan in the 1990s to replace zinc sulfide, is prized for doing what?

A) Repelling water

B) Blocking sunlight

C) Glowing in the dark

D) Conducting electricity

Answer · why

C) Glowing in the dark

Glowing in the dark is what it does about ten times brighter and ten times longer than the pigment it replaced, which is why watch brands licensed it ...

Q 05/05

Strontium 90, a short-lived 1977 band, featured all three members of the classic line-up of which British rock group?

A) The Jam

B) Dire Straits

C) The Police

D) The Clash

Answer · why

C) The Police

The Police took on guitarist Andy Summers soon after he played with Sting and Stewart Copeland in the project, put together by former Gong bassist Mik...