Q 01/05

Which host city opened its Summer Olympics at 8 pm on the eighth day of the eighth month for luck?

A) Tokyo

B) Seoul

C) Barcelona

D) Beijing

Answer · why

D) Beijing

Beijing began its 2008 opening ceremony at 8 pm on 8 August because the number is considered auspicious and is associated with prosperity in Chinese c...

Q 02/05

In Chinese, Japanese and Korean, the number four is widely avoided because it sounds like the word for what?

A) Death

B) Debt

C) Illness

D) Ghost

Answer · why

A) Death

Death is such a close match in sound that hospitals in South Korea almost always skip the fourth floor and room number four.

Q 03/05

Which former US president had the street number of his new Bel-Air home changed from 666 to 668?

A) Gerald Ford

B) Richard Nixon

C) Ronald Reagan

D) Jimmy Carter

Answer · why

C) Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy moved to St. Cloud Road in Los Angeles in 1989, just after he left office, and had the address renumbered to dodge th...

Q 04/05

Which pop star calls 13 her lucky number and has made prominent use of it throughout her career?

A) Lady Gaga

B) Taylor Swift

C) Katy Perry

D) Ariana Grande

Answer · why

B) Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift was born on 13 December 1989 and has worked the number into her various works, the opposite of the many people who go out of their way to...

Q 05/05

Which Greek philosopher from Samos founded a mystical school that taught the whole world is built on numbers?

A) Plato

B) Pythagoras

C) Aristotle

D) Archimedes

Answer · why

B) Pythagoras

Pythagoras founded his school in the 6th century BC, and one modern system that gives the letters A to Z the values 1 to 9 is still called the Pythago...