Q 01/05

Which bone of the middle ear is the smallest and lightest bone in the entire human body?

A) Malleus

B) Incus

C) Stapes

D) Modiolus

Answer · why

C) Stapes

The stapes takes its name from the Medieval Latin for stirrup, which it resembles. Classical Latin had no such word, since stirrups did not exist in t...

Q 02/05

The cochlea, the inner ear's spiral hearing chamber, is named after the Greek word for which animal?

A) Snail

B) Nautilus

C) Seahorse

D) Viper

Answer · why

A) Snail

Snail is the meaning of the Greek kokhlias, a nod to the coiled shell shape. Monotremes such as the platypus are the exception among mammals, with a c...

Q 03/05

Which Dutch painter took a razor to his own left ear after a row with Paul Gauguin?

A) Johannes Vermeer

B) Rembrandt van Rijn

C) Piet Mondrian

D) Vincent van Gogh

Answer · why

D) Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh wrapped the ear in paper and delivered it to a woman at a brothel. He later painted himself wearing the bandages.

Q 04/05

Which boxer was disqualified from a 1997 title fight for biting off part of Evander Holyfield's ear?

A) Lennox Lewis

B) Mike Tyson

C) Riddick Bowe

D) Michael Moorer

Answer · why

B) Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson bit both of Holyfield's ears in the third round in Las Vegas. The bout has been known ever since as The Bite Fight.

Q 05/05

The decibel, the unit of sound level, honours which inventor whose mother and wife were both deaf?

A) Alexander Graham Bell

B) Thomas Edison

C) Hermann von Helmholtz

D) Guglielmo Marconi

Answer · why

A) Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell gave his name to the bel, and a decibel is one tenth of that. His mother's deafness is what first led him to study acoustics.