Q 01/05

Which claim from a 1637 margin note did Andrew Wiles announce he had proved at a Cambridge lecture in June?

A) Fermat's Last Theorem

B) The Riemann Hypothesis

C) Goldbach's Conjecture

D) The Poincaré Conjecture

Answer · why

A) Fermat's Last Theorem

Fermat's Last Theorem had resisted every attempt for three and a half centuries, and a flaw found in Wiles's argument that August took him and Richard...

Q 02/05

Why did Intel name its new flagship chip Pentium rather than continuing the 286, 386, 486 sequence?

A) AMD already owned the 586 name

B) It had five processing cores

C) Numbers can't be trademarked

D) Customers found numbers confusing

Answer · why

C) Numbers can't be trademarked

Numbers can't be trademarked, a judge had ruled when Intel lost a 1991 dispute over '386', so the company hired Lexicon Branding to coin a word instea...

Q 03/05

What did the Purple Rain star adopt as his stage name during his contract dispute with Warner Bros.?

A) A string of seven digits

B) An unpronounceable symbol

C) His mother's maiden surname

D) A single Roman numeral

Answer · why

B) An unpronounceable symbol

An unpronounceable symbol became his name in protest at Warner's insistence on releasing his backlog slowly, leaving the press to call him 'The Artist...

Q 04/05

Which pink, yellow-spotted Noel's House Party character topped the UK singles chart at Christmas?

A) Roland Rat

B) Zig and Zag

C) Gordon the Gopher

D) Mr Blobby

Answer · why

D) Mr Blobby

Mr Blobby held number one for three weeks and is regarded by many as the worst single ever released, which did not stop a flood of Blobby dolls, slipp...

Q 05/05

Which race was voided for the only time in its history when 30 of 39 runners ignored a false start?

A) The Grand National

B) The Cheltenham Gold Cup

C) The Epsom Derby

D) The King George VI Chase

Answer · why

A) The Grand National

The Grand National's 'race that never was' saw Esha Ness cross the line first in the second-fastest time ever recorded, while bookmakers refunded an e...