Q 01/05

Which conquistador's men built a trebuchet at the siege of Tenochtitlan, only for its first stone to hit the machine?

A) Francisco Pizarro

B) Hernando de Soto

C) Hernán Cortés

D) Vasco Núñez de Balboa

Answer · why

C) Hernán Cortés

Hernán Cortés tried the old-fashioned weapon in 1521 because his gunpowder was running low, and the attempt reportedly wrecked it at once.

Q 02/05

The Roman onager, a one-armed stone-throwing catapult, was named after which animal for the way it kicked?

A) War horse

B) Wild ass

C) Mountain goat

D) Wild boar

Answer · why

B) Wild ass

Wild ass is what onager means: the machine bucked so hard on release that it could not be mounted on stone walls without shaking them loose.

Q 03/05

At an American contest held each autumn, teams build catapults and air cannons to hurl what as far as possible?

A) Watermelons

B) Bowling balls

C) Pumpkins

D) Frozen turkeys

Answer · why

C) Pumpkins

Pumpkins must stay whole until they land for a throw to count, and one that bursts in mid-air is jokingly scored as pie.

Q 04/05

Vincent Connare, who named a 1996 typeface after the trebuchet, also designed which font included in Windows 95?

A) Papyrus

B) Brush Script

C) Impact

D) Comic Sans

Answer · why

D) Comic Sans

Comic Sans came first, in 1994; he named Trebuchet MS after a workplace puzzle about flinging a person a mile across the Microsoft campus.

Q 05/05

Which Renaissance artist designed a catapult driven by a large wooden leaf spring, wound up on a drum?

A) Michelangelo

B) Leonardo da Vinci

C) Albrecht Dürer

D) Filippo Brunelleschi

Answer · why

B) Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci left no sign that the machine was built in his lifetime, but modern enthusiasts have since reconstructed it.