Q 01/05

Why was the NFL's 2016 title game branded 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 head of brand said the letter 'isn't as pleasing to the eye', a worry her designers had carried ever since drawin...

Q 02/05

Which famous clock, its dials designed in 1852, writes four as IV rather than the IIII most clock faces use?

A) Big Ben

B) Prague Orloj

C) Bern Zytglogge

D) Munich Glockenspiel

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: the Roman inch was a twelfth of a foot, and the Roman ounce a twelfth of a pound.

Q 04/05

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

A) 1,009

B) 1,011

C) 1,090

D) 1,900

Answer · why

A) 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 early neighbours and rivals?

A) Greeks

B) Etruscans

C) Phoenicians

D) Egyptians

Answer · why

B) Etruscans

Etruscans supplied the signs for 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100, which were not letters at first: the sign for 50 only settled into an L around the time of Augu...