IMO Practice Test — Coal and Petroleum
6 Questions • 15 min • Olympiad level
15:00
Question 1 of 6
Why does it take care over thousands of years to use coal and petroleum 'sustainably', unlike sunlight?
They take millions of years to form and cannot be quickly replaced
They are made fresh daily
They never run out
They are renewable
Explanation: Fossil fuels form over millions of years, so they cannot be replaced on a human timescale.
Question 2 of 6
Different fractions of petroleum (petrol, diesel, kerosene) are separated during refining because they have different:
Boiling points
Colours only
Magnetic strengths
Tastes
Explanation: Fractional distillation separates the fractions according to their different boiling points.
Question 3 of 6
Switching to CNG buses in a city mainly helps to:
Reduce air pollution
Increase petrol use
Make more coal tar
Use more diesel
Explanation: CNG burns more cleanly than petrol or diesel, reducing air pollution.
Question 4 of 6
Coke is preferred over raw coal in extracting iron because coke:
Is a purer, hotter-burning form of carbon
Is a liquid
Contains no carbon
Is a non-metal oxide
Explanation: Coke is almost pure carbon and burns to give a strong reducing action for extracting metals.
Question 5 of 6
A driver who switches off the engine at a long red light is practising:
Fuel conservation
Carbonisation
Refining
Displacement
Explanation: Switching off the engine saves fuel, which is fuel conservation.
Question 6 of 6
Burning fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the air. Too much of it is a problem because it:
Contributes to global warming
Cools the Earth
Cleans the air
Makes fuels renewable
Explanation: Carbon dioxide from burning fuels is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.