General Science and Everyday Science
Everyday Science tests whether you can explain ordinary phenomena, not recite advanced theory. Expect SI units, human body systems, vitamins and deficiency diseases, the solar system, states of matter, heat and electricity, and chemistry in daily life.
Core facts
- SI base units: metre, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela.
- Blood: haemoglobin in red cells carries oxygen; O negative is the red-cell universal donor and AB positive the universal recipient.
- Vitamins: A for vision (night blindness when deficient), C for scurvy, D for rickets, B1 for beriberi, K for clotting.
- Planet order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
- Water is densest at about 4 degrees Celsius, which is why ice floats on it.
Worked example
'Why does a steel ship float while a steel nail sinks?' Reason from density, not material. Floating depends on the average density of the whole object against the fluid. A hollow hull displaces water whose weight exceeds the ship's own weight, and the upward buoyant force described by Archimedes' principle balances it. A solid nail displaces very little water relative to its weight, so it sinks.
Traps
Confusing mass with weight - weight is mg and is measured in newtons. Stating that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius without adding 'at sea-level pressure'. Mixing up a cause with a symptom: night blindness is a deficiency sign, not a disease in itself. Forgetting that gases are compressible and liquids are not.