Q 01/05

What is the chemical formula of common salt?

A) CaCl2

B) NaCl

C) KCl

D) NaOH

Answer · why

B) NaCl

NaCl. Its two ingredients are a soft metal that fizzes violently in water and a poison gas used as a weapon in the First World War, yet bonded togethe...

Q 02/05

What is the mineral name for natural crystalline salt?

A) Gypsum

B) Calcite

C) Quartz

D) Halite

Answer · why

D) Halite

Halite. The name comes from hals, the Greek for salt, and its crystals grow as cubes because the atoms inside stack in a cubic grid, which is why even...

Q 03/05

Sea-salt evaporation ponds often glow pink, red or green when seen from the air because of what?

A) Iron-rich clay beneath

B) Tiny algae and microbes

C) Dyes added by producers

D) Minerals from volcanic ash

Answer · why

B) Tiny algae and microbes

Tiny algae and microbes. The colour tracks the saltiness: green algae rule the weaker ponds and red, salt-loving microbes the strongest, so the colour...

Q 04/05

Solnitsata, a salt-making town often called Europe's oldest, lies in which modern country?

A) Greece

B) Bulgaria

C) Hungary

D) Serbia

Answer · why

B) Bulgaria

Bulgaria. Around 4500 BC its 350 or so people boiled spring brine into salt bricks to trade and ringed the town with stone walls; that wealth may expl...

Q 05/05

Roughly how much salt is produced worldwide each year?

A) 3 million tonnes

B) 30 million tonnes

C) 300 million tonnes

D) 3 billion tonnes

Answer · why

C) 300 million tonnes

300 million tonnes. Shared out, that is more than 30 kg a year for every person alive, far more than anyone could eat.