Q 01/05

Graphite was once mistaken for an ore of which metal, the mix-up that gave pencil cores their name?

A) Tin

B) Zinc

C) Lead

D) Silver

Answer · why

C) Lead

Lead ores such as galena look much like graphite, so miners named the mineral after the metal. No pencil core has ever contained any.

Q 02/05

At room temperature, graphite is more stable than which gemstone made of the same atoms?

A) Ruby

B) Diamond

C) Emerald

D) Sapphire

Answer · why

B) Diamond

Diamond is only metastable at the Earth's surface and is, in theory, turning into graphite, though far too slowly for anyone to notice.

Q 03/05

Before pencils existed, what did locals in England's Borrowdale valley first use graphite for?

A) Marking sheep

B) Blacking boots

C) Dyeing wool

D) Curing meat

Answer · why

A) Marking sheep

Marking sheep was the first job for the soft black mineral found near Seathwaite in the 1500s. The deposit was so pure it could be sawn straight into ...

Q 04/05

England's Crown guarded a Borrowdale graphite mine because the mineral lined the moulds for what?

A) Church bells

B) Silver coins

C) Ship anchors

D) Cannonballs

Answer · why

D) Cannonballs

Cannonballs made in graphite-lined moulds came out rounder and smoother, so they flew farther. That made one small mine a military asset.

Q 05/05

Two physicists won a Nobel Prize after peeling atom-thin flakes off graphite with which office item?

A) Rubber bands

B) Paper clips

C) Adhesive tape

D) Blotting paper

Answer · why

C) Adhesive tape

Adhesive tape pulled ever-thinner flakes off a lump of graphite until a single layer was left. Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov shared the 2010 phy...