Q 01/05

What did Yang Liwei, China's first astronaut, report about seeing the Great Wall of China from orbit?

A) He saw it clearly

B) He saw only its shadow

C) He could not see it

D) He photographed it twice

Answer · why

C) He could not see it

He could not see it, and NASA agrees: the wall is barely visible from low orbit even in perfect conditions and no more conspicuous than many other man...

Q 02/05

Napoleon stood roughly 1.67 metres; how did that compare with Frenchmen of his era, despite the cartoons?

A) About average

B) Well below average

C) Well above average

D) Far below average

Answer · why

A) About average

About average is right: 5 feet 2 inches in old French measure was just under 5 feet 6 inches imperial, the period's typical adult male height. British...

Q 03/05

Why does a matador's red cape not enrage the bull, which charges at the movement of the cloth?

A) Cattle see red as black

B) Cattle are dichromats

C) Cattle are totally colour-blind

D) Cattle see only ultraviolet

Answer · why

B) Cattle are dichromats

Cattle are dichromats, functionally colour-blind where red is concerned, so the muleta is red by tradition and, it is thought, to mask the bull's bloo...

Q 04/05

Goldfish, said to forget everything within seconds, actually have a memory span of at least how long?

A) A few minutes

B) About a day

C) About a week

D) Three months

Answer · why

D) Three months

Three months is the floor: goldfish remember shapes, colours and sounds for at least that long, and MythBusters' fish still ran a maze correctly after...

Q 05/05

Albert Einstein, far from failing maths, taught himself algebra and which subject at age twelve?

A) Calculus

B) Latin

C) Chemistry

D) Astronomy

Answer · why

A) Calculus

Calculus came so easily that he found an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem before his thirteenth birthday, and had mastered integral and diffe...