Topaz
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
6correct to beat the crowd
40 free Topaz trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Topaz is one of the hardest gems you can buy and one of the most misunderstood. For centuries the name was pinned on almost any golden stone, and even today the colour most shoppers picture is rarely the one the crystal had when it came out of the ground. This quiz gathers the best fun facts about topaz: where it is mined, how treatments change its colour, the legends attached to it, the record-size specimens on display, and the thrillers, camps, cars and birds that borrowed its name. It suits gem lovers, rockhounds, birthstone shoppers and anyone who likes a science fact with a story behind it. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Portugal's Braganza stone, long famed as which far costlier gem, is said to be probably a topaz?
Diamond
Diamond was the claim, but a colourless topaz cut as a brilliant can pass for one, and the two gems share almost the same density.
Q 02Which director made the 1969 spy thriller Topaz, about a French agent in the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock first ended the thriller with a duel in a French football stadium, but test audiences panned it and he shot a replacement ending.
Q 03The Topaz camp of World War II, named after a nearby mountain, held Americans of which ancestry?
Japanese
Japanese Americans were held there from 1942 to 1945, and with some 9,000 internees and staff the camp became the fifth-largest city in its state.
Q 04The crimson topaz and fiery topaz, both found in the Amazon Basin, are large species of which bird?
Hummingbird
Hummingbird males of the genus Topaza are by far the largest in their range, and only the giant hummingbird of the Andes is bigger.
Q 05The island of Topazios, usually credited with naming topaz, actually yielded which green gem?
Peridot
Peridot was mined on the Red Sea island now called Zabargad, and before modern mineralogy the two stones were routinely confused.
Q 06Sir David Brewster, who found liquid-filled cavities in topaz, also invented which optical toy?
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope fame came to Brewster around 1815; the fluid he found sealed inside topaz is still called brewsterlinite.
Q 07Topaz Mountain crystals are amber-coloured when dug but turn clear after exposure to what?
Sunlight
Sunlight fades the amber tint to colourless, and the brown topaz of Siberia is known for bleaching in the same way.
Q 08Some scholars trace the name topaz back to an ancient Sanskrit word, 'tapas', meaning what?
Fire
Fire fits the gem's warm orange glow, though most authorities favour a Greek origin in the island name Topazios.
Q 09Which US state, where the gem is found in Mason County, made blue topaz its official state gem?
Texas
Texas adopted blue topaz in 1969 and also has an official state gemstone cut, the Lone Star Cut.
Q 10From the 1300s to the 1600s, Europeans thought a topaz could dispel anger and break what?
Magic spells
Magic spells were one worry; in the Middle Ages a topaz tied to the left arm was also believed to ward off the evil eye.
Q 11On the modern birthstone list, golden-orange topaz belongs to people born in which month?
November
November's stone is also a traditional symbol of friendship, and jewellers' lists pair it with a second golden gem.
Q 12Which cheaper golden gem shares topaz's birthstone month and was confused with it for centuries?
Citrine
Citrine weighs noticeably less than a topaz of the same size, which is one way gem dealers tell the two apart.
Q 13Topaz Mountain, a Thomas Range summit where rockhounds may collect the gem, rises in which US state?
Utah
Utah made topaz its state gem in 1969, and the mountain sits on public land where collecting rocks and minerals is permitted.
Q 21Topaz is a silicate mineral built from aluminium and which highly reactive halogen element?
Fluorine
Fluorine escapes when topaz is roasted for industrial use, a byproduct that raises health and environmental concerns.
Q 22A hard knock can split a topaz cleanly along one flat plane, a weakness mineralogists call what?
Cleavage
Cleavage in topaz is perfect in one direction, so despite its hardness the gem needs gentler handling than other very hard stones.
Q 23Which metal, replacing aluminium in the crystal, gives rare untreated topaz red and violet colours?
Chromium
Chromium colours one of the most sought-after topaz hues: red stones make up less than half of one percent of the facet-grade material found.
Q 14Imperial topaz is said to honour the 1800s rulers of which country, who kept the finest stones?
Russia
Russia's Ural Mountains were then the leading source of topaz, and ownership of the prized gem was restricted to the royal family.
Q 15The ancient Greeks, according to gem lore, believed that topaz gave them which quality?
Strength
Strength was the Greek belief, while the ancient Romans trusted topaz to protect them from danger on their travels.
Q 16In India, a centuries-old belief holds that topaz brings long life when worn above which organ?
The heart
The heart is the spot, and the same belief promises beauty and intelligence along with the long life.
Q 17The trade name for yellowish-brown to orange topaz borrows the name of which wine?
Sherry
Sherry topaz is also sold as precious topaz, a label that sets it apart from cheaper look-alike gems.
Q 18The American Golden Topaz, a 172-facet gem of over ten pounds, was given in 1988 to which museum?
The Smithsonian
The Smithsonian displays it in Washington; its cutter spent two years shaping it from a 26-pound stream-rounded cobble.
Q 19Topaz ranks 8 on the Mohs hardness scale, one step above which very common mineral at 7?
Quartz
Quartz floats in heavy test liquids such as bromoform while topaz sinks, a trick used to tell the two apart.
Q 20Most blue topaz in shops began colourless, then was heated and given which other treatment?
Irradiation
Irradiation has fed a mass market since the 1970s, and oversupply dragged wholesale prices from $20 to $40 a carat down to a few dollars.
Q 24The gem sold as Mystic Topaz is a colourless stone that owes its rainbow shimmer to what?
A thin artificial coating
A thin artificial coating creates the rainbow effect, and it is delicate: abrasive cleaners or a buffing wheel will strip it off.
Q 25Which American novelist wrote Topaz, the 1967 spy bestseller set around the Cuban Missile Crisis?
Leon Uris
Leon Uris drew loosely on a real espionage scandal inside French intelligence, and the book topped the New York Times list.
Q 26The Topaz, a compact car sold as the twin of the Ford Tempo, wore the badge of which brand?
Mercury
Mercury sold the Topaz for the 1984 to 1994 model years, after which the Mystique took over from the four-door version.
Q 27TOPAZ was a lightweight nuclear reactor first flown on satellites in 1987 by which country?
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union designed it for long space missions; the name is an acronym for a thermionic experiment, not a nod to the gem.
Q 28Colourless topaz pebbles were known in Brazil as 'pingos d'agoa', a Portuguese phrase meaning what?
Drops of water
Drops of water was the local nickname for clear pebbles that, once cut as brilliants, have been mistaken for far pricier gems.
Q 29In 1750 a Parisian jeweller found that gently heating yellow Brazilian topaz turns it which colour?
Pink
Pink stones made this way were sold as 'Brazilian ruby', and the treatment spread so widely that most rosy topaz in antique jewellery is heated.
Q 30The Ostro Stone, a 9,381-carat blue topaz, first went on public show at which British institution?
Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum put it on show in 2016, three decades after the rough crystal was found in the Amazon rainforest.