Popular Trivia Questions and Answers

 

 

Popular Trivia Questions Part 1

 

1) The small Republic of San Marino is surrounded by?
A) Italy
B) Spain
C) Morocco
D) France

Answer: A

 

2) In what year did the U.S. invade Grenada?

Answer: 1983

 

3) What is the largest freshwater lake in the world?
A) Lake Baikal
B) Lake Huron
C) Lake Michigan
D) Lake Victoria

Answer: A

 

4) Which telescope was the largest in the world when it was built in 1948?
A) Mayall
B) Hubble
C) Sagan
D) Hale
E) Shapley

Answer: D
The Hale telescope is at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California.

 

5) Which country contains most of the Kalahari desert?
A) Angola
B) Botswana
C) Congo
D) Djibouti

Answer: B

 

6) In science, the “L” in the acronym LASER stands for what?

Answer: Light

 

7) In 336 B.C., Alexander the Great succeeded his father as the leader of what kingdom?
A) Macedonian
B) Assyrian
C) Ottoman
D) Phoenician

Answer: A

 

8) In which country would one find the Tees-Exe line?
A) France
B) Denmark
C) United Kingdom
D) Sweden

Answer: C

 

9) Parthia was an ancient empire located in what is now:
A) Greece
B) Algeria
C) Iran
D) Spain
E) Italy

Answer: C
The Parthians were successful in stopping the westward expansion of the Roman Empire.

 

10) Which branch of mathematics does topology fall under?
A) Computer science
B) Calculus
C) Physics
D) Geometry
E) Statistics

Answer: D
It is the study of those properties of geometric figures that remain unchanged.

 

11) Which city does the statue of Jesus Christ, better known as Christ the Redeemer, overlook?

Answer: Rio de Janeiro

 

12) In years, what was the lifespan of the Berlin Wall?

Answer: 1961 – 1989
The Berlin Wall was constructed in August 1961 to stop the flood of East Germans escaping to West Berlin. The wall was dismantled in 1989.

 

13) In politics, which Conservative Party leader became the British prime minister in 1979?

Answer: Margaret Thatcher

 

14) What food is traditionally served during Christmas festivities in Japan?
A) Salmon roe
B) Microwave popcorn
C) A decorated cake
D) Miso soup

Answer: C
Japanese families traditionally serve a decorated cake to celebrate Christmas, which usually acts as a prelude to the more important New Year’s festival.

 

15) The astronomer Percival Lowell is best remembered for championing this theory:
A) Intelligent life on Mars
B) Ours is the only galaxy
C) Sun will last forever
D) Black holes
E) Sun circles Earth

Answer: A
He thought the Martian “Canals” were an irrigation system built by a race of aliens.

 

Popular Trivia Questions Part 2

 

16) In 1901, Albert Einstein became a citizen of which country?

Answer: Switzerland

 

17) In beverages, what “G” is an Italian brandy distilled from post pressed grape residue?

Answer: Grappa

 

18) Who did Eva Braun marry in April of 1945?

Answer: Adolf Hitler

 

19) What is the largest island in the world?

Answer: The island of Greenland, in the North Atlantic Ocean, is the world’s largest island, covering 840,000 square miles. Greenland is a dependency of Denmark. The island of Australia is larger than Greenland, but it is considered a continent.

 

20) In Greek legend, who turned everything he touched to gold?

Answer: Midas

 

21) French actress “The Divine Sarah” Bernhardt was known for this bizarre habit:
A) Ate spiders
B) Impromptu strip dances
C) Slept in a coffin
D) Wore live animals
E) Bathed once a year

Answer: C
In 1912, she became the first great stage actress to appear in the new medium of film.

 

22) What color is on the inside of a rainbow?

Answer: Violet

 

23) Rock Steady: A Story of Noah’s Ark was written by
A) Sting
B) The Rock
C) David Crosby

Answer: A
Using the lyrics to one of his songs, Grammy Award-winning singer and songwriter Sting, with the help of illustrator Hugh Whyte, offers a modern take on the classic story of Noah’s Ark in Rock Steady: A Story of Noah’s Ark.

 

24) What animal’s nose is so powerful that it can smell a seal 20 miles away?

Answer: The polar bear. Their hair is made of clear hollow tubes filled with air. Polar bears have evolved to retain heat so well in their cold environment that they sometimes need to cool off in the freezing waters!

 

25) Which country controls Aruba?
A) United Kingdom
B) Netherlands
C) United States
D) France

Answer: B

 

26) An explosion of a star where the outer layers are blown off is a:
A) Pulsar
B) Supernova
C) Protostar

Answer: B

 

27) Who developed the modern system of classifying plants and animals?

Answer: Linnaeus

 

28) Air pressure is less than that of liquids. This is because:
A) Gases exert no pressure at all
B) Air is less dense and takes up a greater volume and area
C) Liquids are less buoyant fluids than are gases

Answer: B

 

29) Some factors that affect the rates of all chemical reactions are:
A) Temperature and concentration
B) Melting and boiling points
C) Catalysts only

Answer: A

 

30) An example of the chemical breakdown of food is:
A) Chewing
B) Enzymes
C) Stomach churning

Answer: B

 

Popular Trivia Questions Part 3

 

31) What are the 5-note pentatonic, the 6-note whole-tone, the 7-note diatonic and the 12-note chromatic?

Answer: Scales

 

32) Which law states that at a constant temperature, the pressure of a gas is inversely proportionate to its volume?

Answer: Boyle’s law.

 

33) What US president’s news conferences were called “Best matinee in Town”?
A) John F. Kennedy
B) Jimmy Carter
C) Franklin D. Roosevelt
D) Lyndon B. Johnson

Answer: A

 

34) Which Spanish explorer discovered that Papua New Guinea was an island in 1595?

Answer: Luis de Torres

 

35) Which mountain system is sometimes referred to as `the backbone of England’?

Answer: Pennines

 

36) Memphis was the name of the early capital of Egypt.
A) True
B) False

Answer: A

 

37) What do you call a grouping of larks?

Answer: An Ascension & Exaltation of larks

 

38) Which US president stuck in a White House bathtub?

Answer: William Howard Taft
It’s said that it took six White House staffers to extricate the 332-pound president. He had a larger bathtub installed shortly after the incident.

 

39) largest piece of granite in the world is what tourist attraction near Atlanta, Georgia?

Answer: Stone Mountain, carved with images of Confederate heroes Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and “Stonewall” Jackson

 

40) The US president during the Mexican war:
A) Jackson
B) Monroe
C) Polk
D) Johnson

Answer: C

 

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