Q 01/05

On a Mercator map Greenland looks as big as Africa; in reality Africa is about how many times larger?

A) 4

B) 14

C) 45

D) 140

Answer · why

B) 14

Africa is about 14 times as large as Greenland, yet Mercator's 1569 projection stretches the far north until the two look equal on the page.

Q 02/05

What lies directly beneath the geographic North Pole, which unlike the South Pole sits on no continent?

A) Sea ice over deep water

B) A frozen island chain

C) Greenland's northern ice cap

D) Bedrock under thin ice

Answer · why

A) Sea ice over deep water

Sea ice over deep water is all there is: the ocean under the pole is more than 4,000 m deep and the ice above it never stops drifting, which is why no...

Q 03/05

Which Pacific nation skipped 30 December 2011 entirely, hopping west across the date line toward its trading partners?

A) Tonga

B) Samoa

C) Fiji

D) Tuvalu

Answer · why

B) Samoa

Samoa was undoing an old switch: 119 years earlier it had moved to the American side of the date line to help trade with the United States, long befor...

Q 04/05

Which country stretches across five geographical time zones yet officially keeps just one, set to its capital?

A) India

B) Russia

C) Brazil

D) China

Answer · why

D) China

China runs on Beijing time from the coast to its western border, so far-western Xinjiang keeps an unofficial clock of its own, two hours behind, and p...

Q 05/05

Which island pair between Siberia and Alaska, one Russian and one American, sits 3.8 km apart across the date line?

A) Aleutian Islands

B) Kuril Islands

C) Diomede Islands

D) Pribilof Islands

Answer · why

C) Diomede Islands

The Diomede Islands are nicknamed Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island, because the date line between them puts Big Diomede almost a full day ahead of...