50 Fun Facts About Trivia for 8 Year Olds

Which sea animal has three hearts, a sharp beak and a soft body that squeezes through tiny gaps?

An octopus uses one heart to send blood around its body and two more to pump it through the gills.

Which Arctic animal has fur that looks white but is really made of clear, hollow hairs?

A polar bear has see-through, hollow hairs that trap heat and help the animal float while it swims.

Which tiny bird can hover like a helicopter and is the only kind able to fly backwards?

A hummingbird gets its name from the humming sound of its wings, which beat dozens of times every second while it hovers at a flower.

Which planet, the largest in the solar system, has a giant storm called the Great Red Spot?

Jupiter is so huge that it outweighs all the other planets in the solar system put together, more than twice over.

Who became the first person to walk on the Moon after landing with Apollo 11 in 1969?

Neil Armstrong took that first step as hundreds of millions of people watched on television, and he called it "one giant leap for mankind."

Which meat-eating dinosaur had tiny two-fingered arms but the strongest bite of any land animal?

Tyrannosaurus had short arms that were surprisingly powerful for their size, and each hand ended in just two clawed fingers.

What is the largest organ of the human body, making up roughly 16 percent of a person's weight?

Skin is a waterproof wrap that keeps water inside the body and stops germs from getting in.

Which ocean, the largest and deepest in the world, covers about one-third of Earth's whole surface?

The Pacific is bigger than all of Earth's land put together, and its Mariana Trench holds the deepest known point in any sea.

Which US president led the nation through the Civil War and kept letters inside his stovepipe hat?

Abraham Lincoln made the stovepipe style of top hat popular in America, and he often tucked documents and letters inside it.

Which wooden puppet, carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto, has a nose that grows when he lies?

Pinocchio comes from an Italian children's novel by Carlo Collodi, who first printed the tale in a kids' magazine in 1881.

Which ocean giant, the largest animal ever known to have lived, feeds almost entirely on tiny krill?

The blue whale can reach about 30 metres (98 feet) in length, and it catches krill by charging at them with its mouth wide open.

Which spotted wild cat is the fastest animal on land, sprinting at around 60 miles per hour?

A cheetah makes a bird-like chirping call when it gets excited, for instance when a group gathers around a meal.

Which African animal, the tallest living on land, grabs leaves with a tongue about 18 inches long?

A giraffe can tip its head right back to reach branches directly overhead, then pull the leaves in with its long tongue.

What name is given to a baby kangaroo, which finishes growing inside its mother's pouch?

A joey is about the size of a lima bean at birth, then spends around nine months growing in the pouch.

Which lizard can change color and swivel each of its eyes in a different direction?

A chameleon can watch two different things at once, because each eye turns and focuses on its own.

Which insect performs a waggle dance to tell its nest-mates where to find flowers?

A honeybee dances in a figure-eight, and its moves tell the hive which direction to fly and how far away the food is.

Which seabird, the tallest and heaviest of its family, has fathers that warm the egg on their feet?

The emperor penguin father eats nothing for about four months while he keeps the egg warm through the dark, freezing winter.

Which plant-eating dinosaur had a large bony frill behind its head and long horns on its face?

Triceratops means "three-horned face" in Greek, and it was one of the last dinosaurs alive before the great extinction.

Which group of eight-legged animals includes spiders, scorpions and ticks but no insects?

Arachnids have no wings or antennae, and their extra pair of legs is the quickest way to tell them from six-legged bugs.

What do we call a scientist who studies fossils to learn about dinosaurs and other ancient life?

A paleontologist uses fossils to work out how old rocks are and how long-gone animals and plants once lived together.

Which galaxy contains our solar system and shows up as a pale band of light across the night sky?

The Milky Way holds somewhere between 100 and 400 billion stars, and the Sun is just one of them.

What invisible force pulls dropped objects toward the ground and keeps the Moon circling Earth?

Gravity on the Moon is only about one-sixth as strong as Earth's, so everything there weighs about six times less.

What do we call a rock from space that survives its fiery fall and lands on Earth's surface?

A meteorite is the piece that reaches the ground; while it is still blazing through the sky it is called a meteor, or shooting star.

Which continent, the coldest and windiest on Earth, is almost entirely covered by thick ice?

Antarctica holds about 70 percent of the world's fresh water as ice, and its only residents are people staying at research stations.

Which mountain, first climbed by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, is the highest above sea level?

Mount Everest is known in Nepal as Sagarmatha, and its peak stands about 8,849 metres (29,032 feet) above the sea.

Which river, home to pink dolphins and piranhas, carries more water than any other on Earth?

The Amazon supplies about one-fifth of all the fresh river water that flows into the world's seas.

Which desert, the largest hot one on Earth, stretches across North Africa to the Red Sea?

The Sahara has not always been dry: over thousands of years it has switched back and forth between desert and grassland.

Which country is home to the Great Pyramid of Giza, the only ancient wonder still standing?

Egypt's Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu, and it stayed the tallest thing made by people for more than 3,700 years.

Which country built a Great Wall thousands of miles long to guard its northern border?

China's Great Wall is really many walls: the first went up more than 2,500 years ago, and later rulers joined them together and added more.

Which country gave the Statue of Liberty to the United States as a gift of friendship?

France built the statue first, then shipped it across the sea in crates to be put together in New York Harbor.

Which bone, found in your thigh, is the longest in the whole human body?

The femur is the only bone in the upper leg, running all the way from the hip down to the knee.

Which two organs fill with air as you breathe, the left one smaller to leave room for the heart?

The lungs are not a matching pair: the right one has three sections, called lobes, while the left has only two.

What is the name of the hardest substance in the human body, which coats the outside of every tooth?

Enamel is even harder than bone, but unlike most body tissues it has no way to grow back once it is damaged.

What is the process called in which plants use sunlight, water and air to make their own food?

Photosynthesis happens mostly in leaves, where a pigment called chlorophyll soaks up the sunlight.

Which gas, released into the air by plants, do people and animals need to breathe to stay alive?

Oxygen makes up only about one-fifth of the air around us; most of every breath is actually nitrogen.

Which metal sticks strongly to magnets and is the main ingredient of steel?

Iron slowly turns into brownish rust in damp air, and the rust flakes away to leave fresh metal exposed underneath.

Which sparkling gemstone, made of pure carbon, is the hardest natural material on Earth?

A diamond is built from the same element as the soft graphite in pencils, yet it forms more than 150 kilometres underground.

What is melted rock called once it has erupted from a volcano and flows over the ground?

Lava is the same melted rock that is called magma while it is still underground; the name changes when it reaches the surface.

Which spinning storm forms a funnel of wind stretching from a thundercloud down to the ground?

A tornado is also known as a twister, and in rare cases one can grow to more than a mile wide.

What is the name for a flat six-sided shape, like the white panels on a classic soccer ball?

A hexagon panel is white on the classic ball, and each five-sided panel is black: 20 of one and 12 of the other.

In a fraction such as three-quarters, what is the number written above the line called?

The numerator counts how many equal parts you have, while the number underneath says how many parts make one whole.

Which month gains an extra day in a leap year, growing from 28 days to 29?

February gets the extra day because a trip around the Sun takes about 365 and a quarter days, so the calendar catches up every fourth year.

What do we call a word that means the opposite of another word, as hot is to cold?

An antonym pair such as big and small is the reverse of a synonym pair such as big and large, which share one meaning.

Which Leonardo da Vinci portrait of a woman with a mysterious smile hangs in the Louvre museum?

The Mona Lisa owes part of its fame to a thief: it was stolen in 1911, and the hunt to get it back made headlines around the world.

Which two siblings, owners of an Ohio bicycle shop, built and flew the first successful airplane?

The Wright brothers made their first powered flight in 1903, and it lasted only 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.

Which sport did gym teacher James Naismith invent in 1891 to keep his class active indoors during winter?

Basketball first used peach baskets with the bottoms left in, so someone had to fetch the ball by hand after every score.

Which composer wrote his Ninth Symphony, with its Ode to Joy, after going almost completely deaf?

Ludwig van Beethoven could not hear the applause at the first performance, and a singer is credited with turning him to face the cheering crowd.

Which school of witchcraft and wizardry does Harry Potter attend after learning he is a wizard?

Hogwarts has four houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, each named after one of the school's founders.

Which yellow mouse Pokémon with a lightning-bolt tail is the companion of trainer Ash Ketchum?

Pikachu is the mascot of the whole Pokémon franchise, and its name joins two Japanese sound words: pika for a spark and chu for a mouse's squeak.

Which author wrote The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax and Green Eggs and Ham?

Dr. Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat with only 236 different words, as a more entertaining replacement for the primers used to teach reading.