Q 01/05

Legend says the ambidextrous James A. Garfield could write Latin with one hand and which language with the other?

A) Hebrew

B) Greek

C) French

D) Sanskrit

Answer · why

B) Greek

Greek is the language in the tale, though biographer Allan Peskin said the evidence does not support it. Garfield did teach classical languages, and h...

Q 02/05

While serving as a congressman, James A. Garfield published his own original proof of which famous result in geometry?

A) The triangle inequality

B) The parallel postulate

C) The Pythagorean theorem

D) The inscribed angle theorem

Answer · why

C) The Pythagorean theorem

The Pythagorean theorem got a fresh proof from Garfield in 1876, worked out while trading maths puzzles with fellow members of Congress. An education ...

Q 03/05

Which famous inventor built an early metal detector to hunt for the bullet lodged inside President James A. Garfield?

A) Alexander Graham Bell

B) Thomas Alva Edison

C) George Westinghouse Jr.

D) Nikola Tesla

Answer · why

A) Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell hurried his new device to the White House, yet it never found the bullet. The chief physician let him search only the side of th...

Q 04/05

The lead physician who treated the wounded James A. Garfield, Willard Bliss, had which unusual given first name?

A) Judge

B) Colonel

C) Doctor

D) Bishop

Answer · why

C) Doctor

Doctor really was his first name: his parents named him Doctor Willard Bliss after a New England surgeon. He then earned the title, and took personal ...

Q 05/05

James A. Garfield, raised in poverty in rural Ohio, was the last US president born in what kind of home?

A) A sod house

B) A frontier fort

C) A stone farmhouse

D) A log cabin

Answer · why

D) A log cabin

A log cabin in Orange Township was his birthplace, and no president since has been born in one. His father died before James turned two, leaving the f...