Q 01/05

When a phone's compass seems off, Google Maps asks you to move the phone in what shape?

A) Circle

B) Zigzag

C) Figure 8

D) Square

Answer · why

C) Figure 8

A figure 8 recalibrates the phone's compass: Maps suggests it when your blue dot's beam is wide or points the wrong way, and you repeat it until the b...

Q 02/05

The luopan is a Chinese magnetic compass used in which traditional practice?

A) Mahjong

B) Acupuncture

C) Feng shui

D) Tai chi

Answer · why

C) Feng shui

Feng shui practitioners use the luopan to find the precise direction of a building, and China first used magnetic compasses for such spiritual purpose...

Q 03/05

Lodestone, used in the earliest Chinese compasses, is a natural form of which mineral?

A) Hematite

B) Magnetite

C) Pyrite

D) Magnesite

Answer · why

B) Magnetite

Magnetite is the mineral, and pieces of its naturally magnetised form, lodestone, hung so they could turn, served as the first magnetic compasses.

Q 04/05

What is the leading theory for how lodestones become magnetised in nature?

A) Volcanic heat

B) Lightning strikes

C) Meteorite impacts

D) Slow exposure to Earth's field

Answer · why

B) Lightning strikes

Lightning strikes are the leading explanation: the intense, brief magnetic field around a bolt can magnetise surface ore near the strike, whereas Eart...

Q 05/05

What did the name 'lodestone' literally mean when it was coined?

A) Leading stone

B) Heavy stone

C) Black stone

D) Star stone

Answer · why

A) Leading stone

Leading stone is the sense: 'lode' meant a way or course, and the stone got its name from its use by sailors to find their way.