Trivia Questions

Octagon — US stop signs are red octagons, a shape reserved for that sign.

Winnie-the-Pooh — Winnie-the-Pooh, created by A. A. Milne, lives in the Hundred Acre Wood.

366 — A leap year adds February 29 to the usual 365 days, making 366.

Bricks — The wolf blows down the straw and stick houses but cannot blow down the house of bricks.

China — Papermaking was developed in ancient China, traditionally credited to the Han dynasty around 105 CE.

Microwave oven — Percy Spencer of Raytheon filed a patent for microwave cooking in 1945 after noticing a magnetron had melted his candy bar.

Cobbler — A cobbler mends shoes, while a cooper makes barrels and a chandler makes candles.

A murder — A group of crows is traditionally called a "murder" of crows.

Tittle — The dot above a lowercase i or j is called a tittle.

Sapphire — Blue corundum is sapphire, while red corundum is ruby.

Penguin — Penguins use their flipper-like wings to swim instead of fly.

Hive — Honeybees live together in a hive, where they build wax honeycomb.

Grass — Cows are herbivores that spend much of the day eating grass.

Telescope — A telescope gathers light to make distant objects in space look bigger and brighter.

Noun — Nouns are naming words, like "teacher", "park" or "pencil".

South America — Brazil is the largest country in South America.

Autumn (fall) — Many trees drop their leaves in autumn to save water and energy before winter.

5 — Most starfish, also called sea stars, have five arms, though some kinds have more.

Photosynthesis — In photosynthesis, plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar.

About 8 minutes — Light from the Sun takes about 8 minutes to cross the 150 million km to Earth.

121 — 11 x 11 = 121.

75 — 150 / 2 = 75.

8 — 48 / 6 = 8, since 6 x 8 = 48.

100 — The prefix "centi" means one hundredth, so 1 meter = 100 centimeters.

Equilateral — An equilateral triangle has three equal sides and three equal 60-degree angles.

Hypotenuse — The hypotenuse is the side opposite the right angle and is always the longest side.

1440 — A day has 24 hours of 60 minutes each, and 24 x 60 = 1440.

13 — 13 x 13 = 169, so its square root is 13.

1024 — Doubling 1 ten times gives 2^10 = 1024.

10 — Binary 1010 means 8 + 0 + 2 + 0, which equals 10.

Sodium — Na comes from natrium, the Latin name for sodium.

32 °F — Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, which equals 0 degrees Celsius.

Evaporation — Evaporation is the change of a liquid into a gas at its surface.

Carbon dioxide — Plants combine carbon dioxide and water using light energy to make glucose during photosynthesis.

Nocturnal — Nocturnal animals are active at night, while diurnal animals are active by day.

Ag — Silver's symbol Ag comes from its Latin name, argentum.

Mitochondria — Mitochondria carry out cellular respiration, which generates most of a cell's ATP.

Hydrogen — Hydrogen makes up roughly three quarters of the ordinary matter in the universe by mass.

Perihelion — Perihelion is the closest approach to the Sun, while aphelion is the farthest point.

Amylase — Salivary amylase breaks starch down into smaller sugars in the mouth.

Wright brothers — Orville and Wilbur Wright flew their powered Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in December 1903.

Johannes Gutenberg — Johannes Gutenberg developed a movable-type printing press in Mainz around 1440.

Hot air balloon — The Montgolfier brothers launched the first crewed hot air balloon flights in France in 1783.

Rome — The Colosseum is an amphitheater completed in Rome around AD 80.

Great Pyramid of Giza — The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders and the only one that survives largely intact.

Pierre de Coubertin — Pierre de Coubertin organized the 1894 Paris congress that created the International Olympic Committee and revived the Olympic Games.

Nicolaus Copernicus — Copernicus published his heliocentric model in On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres in 1543.

The wheel — Some of the earliest known wheels come from Mesopotamia around 3500 BC.

Christiaan Huygens — Christiaan Huygens designed and had built the first working pendulum clock in 1656.

Archimedes — Archimedes' principle states that a submerged body is pushed up by a force equal to the weight of fluid it displaces.

Italy — The Italian peninsula extends into the Mediterranean in a shape resembling a boot.

Africa — Egypt lies in northeastern Africa, with only the Sinai Peninsula extending into Asia.

Seine — The Seine flows through the center of Paris on its way to the English Channel.

Tokyo — Tokyo is the capital of Japan and the seat of its national government.

Rabat — Rabat, on the Atlantic coast, is Morocco's capital, though Casablanca is larger.

Pyrenees — The Pyrenees run from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean between France and Spain.

Wellington — Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island, is New Zealand's capital.

Peru and Bolivia — Lake Titicaca sits high in the Andes, shared by Peru and Bolivia.

Congo River — The Congo River arcs north across the equator and then back south on its way to the Atlantic.

Venezuela — Angel Falls plunges about 979 meters in Canaima National Park, Venezuela.

Woody — Sheriff Woody is the pull-string cowboy doll at the center of Toy Story.

Snakes — Indiana Jones has a well-known fear of snakes, shown in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Mufasa — Mufasa is the king of the Pride Lands and Simba’s father.

An ogre — Shrek is a green ogre who lives alone in a swamp.

The Return of the King — The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Picture at the 76th Academy Awards.

Orson Welles — Orson Welles co-wrote, directed and played Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane.

1993 — Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park was released in June 1993.

Steamboat Willie — Steamboat Willie premiered in November 1928 and was a landmark synchronized-sound cartoon.

Laika — Coraline was the first feature film produced by Laika.

Shrek — Shrek won the inaugural Best Animated Feature award, presented for films of 2001.

Six — A standard acoustic or electric guitar has six strings.

Double bass — The double bass is the largest and lowest member of the orchestral string family.

Trumpet — Louis Armstrong was a jazz trumpeter as well as a singer.

Elvis Presley — Elvis Presley is commonly called the King of Rock and Roll, or simply the King.

George Gershwin — George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premiered in New York in 1924.

Australia — AC/DC was formed in Sydney, Australia, in 1973.

1967 — Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in 1967.

Nirvana — Nevermind was Nirvana’s second studio album, released in September 1991.

The Who — Tommy was written mostly by Pete Townshend and released by The Who in 1969.

A minor — A minor shares the same key signature as C major, with no sharps or flats.

18 — A standard round of golf is played over 18 holes.

Six — Ice hockey teams play five skaters plus a goaltender.

Curling — In curling, players sweep the ice to guide stones toward a target called the house.

50 meters — Olympic swimming events are held in 50-meter long-course pools.

St Andrews — St Andrews in Fife has hosted golf for centuries and is called the home of golf.

Two — A safety awards two points to the defensive team.

Six — A standard cricket over consists of six legal balls.

Five — A try scores five points in rugby union, and four in rugby league.

Hurling — Hurling is a Gaelic game played with a hurley and a sliotar.

Chamonix — The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France, in 1924.

Yolk — The yolk is the yellow center of an egg, while the clear part around it is the albumen, or white.

Cacao — Chocolate is made by fermenting, roasting and grinding the seeds of the cacao tree.

Strawberry — The little specks on a strawberry's surface are achenes, each holding a single seed.

Avocado — Guacamole is a Mexican dip made by mashing ripe avocados, usually with lime, onion and salt.

Citrus juice — The acid in lime or lemon juice firms up and turns the fish opaque in ceviche without heat.

Sheep's milk — Roquefort is a French blue cheese made from sheep's milk and aged in caves near Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.

Cabbage — Wasabi is a member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, which also includes cabbage and broccoli.

England — Cheddar cheese takes its name from the village of Cheddar in Somerset, England.

Lycopene — Lycopene is a red carotenoid pigment that builds up in tomatoes as they ripen.

Allicin — Crushing garlic lets an enzyme convert alliin into allicin, which creates its sharp smell.