Q 01/05

Molybdenum is named after the ancient Greek word for which metal, whose ores looked similar?

A) Tin

B) Lead

C) Silver

D) Iron

Answer · why

B) Lead

Lead, molybdos in Greek, lent its name because miners could not tell soft grey molybdenite from galena, the common ore of that heavier metal.

Q 02/05

Which author made molybdenum's atomic number famous as a supercomputer's answer to everything?

A) Isaac Asimov

B) Arthur C. Clarke

C) Douglas Adams

D) Terry Pratchett

Answer · why

C) Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams picked 42 for Deep Thought's answer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy purely as a joke. Every molybdenum atom happens to carry 42 ...

Q 03/05

Molybdenum-99 generators, 'milked' for a hospital isotope, are nicknamed after which animal?

A) Goat

B) Sheep

C) Camel

D) Cow

Answer · why

D) Cow

Cow is the nickname, usually 'moly cow', because the decaying molybdenum keeps refilling the generator, which can be milked again about every six hour...

Q 04/05

Molybdenum steel went into which giant German howitzer of World War I?

A) Paris Gun

B) Big Bertha

C) Heavy Gustav

D) Long Max

Answer · why

B) Big Bertha

Big Bertha hurled shells of about a ton, and its makers chose molybdenum steel because the heat of the propellant was too much for ordinary gun steel.

Q 05/05

A 14th-century sword from which country reportedly holds molybdenum, long before the metal was known?

A) Syria

B) Spain

C) India

D) Japan

Answer · why

D) Japan

Japan forged the blade around 1330. If its molybdenum was added on purpose, as reported, the practice never spread and was later lost.