Midwinter looking bleak? Have some festive cheer with this physics quiz – Physics World

4. The Jewish festival of Hanukkah (celebrated this year from 10–18 December) commemorates an occasion in the 2^nd century BCE when a single jar (1 Greek amphora ~ 38.3 L) of sacred olive oil burned for eight days instead of one. What was the approximate carbon footprint of this miracle? A 117 kg CO₂ B 306 kg CO₂ C 720 kg CO₂ D 948 kg CO₂

5. Which famous physicist was (according to the old Julian calendar) born on Christmas Day? A Galileo Galilei B Johannes Kepler C Isaac Newton D Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

6. Physicists love to quantify things – six quarks, four fundamental forces, three flavours of neutrino, etc. etc. But how many “hallelujahs” are there in Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus? A 18 B 23 C 54 D 72

7. If a holiday fruitcake were as dense as a white dwarf star, what would be its approximate mass? A 1 x 10⁴ kg B 1 x 10⁶ kg C 1 x 10⁸ kg D 1 x 10¹⁰kg

8. If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, but the (dry bulb) temperature outside is hovering around 2 °C, how low must the humidity fall before snow can be made artificially? A 5% B 25% C 40% D 50%