How it works
Which coal is the hardest, and why did medieval Londoners call theirs seacoal? These trivia questions about coal go from the swamp to the furnace, and each answer names the page it was read on.
Read the full guide
Under the ground
How coal forms starts with peat and ends with the coal gap. Ranks and kinds sorts lignite from anthracite and asks what Hilt's law says about depth. Down the mine has bell pits, the Davy lamp and longwall faces.
Above it
Coal before the steam engine runs from Neanderthal hearths to Marco Polo's hot baths and the coal shipped to the builders of Westminster Abbey. Coke covers beehive ovens and the rule that put coke in the first locomotives. Power, gas and custom ends with town gas and a Scottish gift for New Year's Day.
- Coal before the steam engine works alone as a round for a history night; it asks no chemistry.
Questions and answers
What are some easy trivia questions about coal?
Which kind of rock is coal? Which is the highest rank of coal? In a power station, what does the heat turn water into? The answers are sedimentary, anthracite and steam.
How is coal formed?
Dead plants in wetlands decay into peat. Buried deep, the peat loses water, methane and carbon dioxide under heat and pressure over millions of years, and the share of carbon rises until it is coal.
What are the four types of coal?
By rising rank: lignite, or brown coal; sub-bituminous coal; bituminous coal; and anthracite, the hardest. Peat comes before them all, and the second round also asks about cannel coal.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 7, 2026 in one of four English Wikipedia articles, linked under the question: Coal, History of coal mining, Coke (fuel) and Coal mining. Country rankings, prices, mining accidents and the sections on health are left out.