Copyleft: feel free to use these questions in your quizzes. This is not a game, there’s no scoring, and questions are provided as a service only. Some answers are a little lengthy as players requested clarification. “NEW” means less than a month old. Spanish flags denote Spanish-based questions.
Science & Technology
232 questions in this category
Who discovered that all objects, heavy or light, fall at the same rate (with the same acceleration)?
Galileo Galilei
With thanks to Charles Ongeri for correcting the question
A variety of Apple (but spelled McIntosh)
With thanks to Rolland Willa for correcting the answer to this question
10 to the power of 10 to the power of 2 ( 10102 which is also 10 to the power of one hundred and can be written as 10100).
With thanks to Graham Jones for correcting the answer to this question
Kiwi or kiwifruit
With thanks to Suzy Fewtrell of New Zealand for expanding the answer
One tonne (or metric ton)
With thanks to David Heslop for correcting this question
10,000 (100×100 metres)
Mars (Olympus Mons, over 25,000m or 82,000 ft)
The killer whale (Orcinus orca), also known as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish
Cloud cover (0 oktas is completely clear to 8 oktas completely overcast).
The Kelvin (not degree Kelvin)
It’s a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid (optimally in a molar ratio of 1:3)
Fungus (ergot, a grain fungus that typically grows on rye)
The Onager (Equus hemionus) is a large member of the genus Equus of the family Equidae (horse family) native to the deserts of Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, and Tibet. It is sometimes known as the Wild Asian Ass
Corundum (also known as ruby or sapphire when transparent)
Living together of unlike organisms
Yuri Gagarin
Isobath (or more mundanely, depth contours, or simply contour lines)
The wolverine (Gulo gulo) is a member of the weasel family (Mustelidae).
Pixel (picture element)
On a beach. It’s the skeleton of a species of burrowing sea urchins belonging to the order Clypeasteroida. Also known as a sea cookie or snapper biscuit in New Zealand, or pansy shell in South Africa.
Carbon monoxide
The World Wide Web at CERN in Geneva
Yes (but no weight)
Migraine (hemicrania)
A high speed train. Shinkansen (新幹線) means “new main line”.
Perth and Sydney
Pitch and yaw
An auto-rickshaw
The stratosphere (with the Tropopause between them)
Great circle (or orthodrome).
The Mini (the Morris Mini Minor)
Saturn Ⅴ (Energia would in theory be more powerful but was launched with less power).
Amplitude Modulation
Red, green and blue
The Spirit of Ecstacy
Sails (A small triangular sail set above the skysail in order to maximize effect in a light wind.)
For pumping, usually water
Directly beneath it, it‘s the point of origin of an earthquake.
A double helix
Computer languages
Your stomach making noises
Sublimation
Single Lens Reflex.
North Carolina
Compact Disk Read Only Memory
The Granny Smith apple
Nothing. After September 2, the next day was September 14, due to the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
Spirits (alcohol). A pony is half a shot. A jigger is a shot and a half. 16 shots in a pint.
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Quarks
With thanks to Lucy Boulding for correcting the question
Dromedary and Bactrian
It’s a white odourless crystalline powder
Bright yellow or orange with reflective surfaces.
The Photoelectric effect
Television
Computerised Axial Tomography
Structure, function and life of cells
Digital Versatile Disc
Morris Garages
Vertical Take Off and Landing
Frequency modulation
Absolute zero.
Wind powered
To test for colour blindness
Electric current
Fear of everything
With thanks to Sam Jones PhD, South Wales, for correcting this question
A helicopter has powered rotors
The duckbill platypus, some shrews and the solenodon
With thanks to Jeff Hicks for correcting the answer to this question
Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) which has replaced Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
With thanks to Chris O'Byrne for correcting this question
The Asteroid Belt
Luna 9 (Луна-9) launched on January 31, 1966 (Luna Ⅱ struck the moon in 1959).
In a microwave oven
Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe
Burj Khalifa in Dubai, since 2010
The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy discovered in 2003 is classified as an irregular galaxy and is now thought to be the closest neighboring galaxy to the Earth, being located about 25,000 light-years (7.7 kiloparsecs) away.
Actinium (atomic number 89)
The skin, accounting for about 15% of body weight
Zirconium (atomic number 40)
Aluminium
Physiology and Medicine
An inch
Vitamin B1
The de Havilland Comet
Linus Pauling
With thanks to Russ Hall for correcting this question
Anders Celsius
James Prescott Joule
Mercury and Venus
Yes, 1.41 times as dense
A venom is injected by biting or stinging.
A resin, commiphora myrrha.
Ultra High Frequency
Meteor showers (third week in April, July – August, and mid-November).
The musculoskeletal system
Tungsten at 3,683K (3,410℃), Carbon doesn’t melt under normal pressure, it sublimes.
Whale shark
Barbary Macaques in Gibraltar
Talc or talcum powder
A sheet of A4 paper (80g ∕ m2)
Blood groups
Synthetic plastic
It uses a blue laser instead of red
Once the assembly line was developed, only black dried fast enough. It was offered in other colours before that.
Icebreaking (NS Lenin in 1959)
Adam’s Apple
Sir Francis Beaufort
According to Wendy Northcutt, the Awards honour people who ensure the long-term survival of the human race by removing themselves from the gene pool in a sublimely idiotic fashion.
Milk (γαλαξίας)
USA and China
Kiwi or kiwifruit
An apple
The Catalan-speaking community
International Business Machines
Dolly the sheep in 1997
Smoke detectors
The reduction in body temperature following death (Latin: algor – coolness; mortis – of death).
Delivers an electric shock to the heart and allows normal heart rhythm to be re-established
Fish have vertical tail fins and mammals have horizontal tail fins.
Andromeda Galaxy
The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence
Nitrogen (N2).
Vitamins (B2, B3, and B9).
Planets (and asteroids, considered planets at the time)
Hydrogen
Playing dead (playing possum)
Lanolin (adeps lanae)
In the palm of your hand or just above the genitals
Termites
The kidneys
Six: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon.
Graphite and clay (mainly)
That the earth rotates
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma
The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung).
A salamander
The positron
The lethal injection used to execute prisoners in the USA
Duraluminium (also know as duraluminum, duralumin, or dural)
James Watson
John Napier
Rutherfordium
Fish farming
A lizard
Pluto (Eris is the ninth)