Q 01/05

Why did the NFL brand its February 2016 championship game Super Bowl 50 rather than Super Bowl L?

A) Fans kept misreading the numerals

B) A sponsor's contract required digits

C) An L-only logo looked bad

D) Broadcasters asked for plain digits

Answer · why

C) An L-only logo looked bad

An L-only logo looked bad, the NFL's creative director admitted: the asymmetrical letter fought the standard template and risked reading as the 'loser...

Q 02/05

Which famous London clock writes four o'clock as IV rather than the IIII most Roman-numeral dials use?

A) Big Ben

B) Shepherd Gate Clock

C) Salisbury Cathedral clock

D) St Pancras station clock

Answer · why

A) Big Ben

Big Ben, whose dial was designed in 1852, runs I to XII with a subtractive IV, while most Roman-numeral clock faces keep the older IIII for four yet s...

Q 03/05

Roman fractions were counted in unciae, twelfths whose Latin name gave English which pair of units?

A) Foot and pound

B) Inch and ounce

C) Mile and ton

D) Yard and stone

Answer · why

B) Inch and ounce

Inch and ounce both descend from uncia, the Roman twelfth: on coins, fractions below six twelfths were shown as one dot per uncia, so a five-twelfths ...

Q 04/05

Which number does the Roman numeral MIX stand for, a numeral that happens to spell an English word?

A) 1,900

B) 1,011

C) 1,090

D) 1,009

Answer · why

D) 1,009

1,009 is M plus IX with nothing written for the empty hundreds and tens: the Roman system has no zero symbol, so a missing place is simply left out, a...

Q 05/05

Roman numerals descend directly from the number symbols of which people, Rome's neighbours in north-central Italy?

A) Greeks

B) Etruscans

C) Phoenicians

D) Egyptians

Answer · why

B) Etruscans

Etruscans supplied the symbols for 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100, and like the Romans they wrote them from higher to lower value, though in their script that r...