15 is what percent of 60?Answer: 25%. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
A basketball player makes 18 of her 24 free throws. What percent does she make?Answer: 75%. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
A car drives at 30 miles per hour. How many miles does it cover each minute?Answer: Half a mile. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Speed
A car travels 150 miles in 3 hours at a steady speed. What is its speed?Answer: 50 miles per hour. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Speed
A class has 12 girls and 18 boys. What is the ratio of girls to all students, in simplest form?Answer: 2:5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
A map's scale is 1 inch to 50 miles. Two towns are 3.5 inches apart on the map. How far apart are they really?Answer: 175 miles. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Scale (map)
A model car is built to a scale of 1:24. The model is 8 inches long. How long is the real car?Answer: 16 feet. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Scale model
A nurse counts 18 heartbeats in 15 seconds. What is the heart rate in beats per minute?Answer: 72. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Rate (mathematics)
A ratio compares two amounts. Which of these is another way to write the ratio 3 to 4?Answer: 3:4. Source: Wikipedia: Ratio
A recipe uses 2 cups of flour for every 3 cups of oats. How much flour goes with 12 cups of oats?Answer: 8 cups. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
A restaurant bill comes to $60. How much is a 15% tip?Answer: $9. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
A shirt costs $40 and is marked 25% off. What is the sale price?Answer: $30. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
A supermarket shelf tag shows the cost per pound or per quart, so shoppers can compare package sizes. What is that figure called?Answer: The unit price. Source: Wikipedia: Unit price
A town grows from 2,000 people to 2,500 people. What is the percent increase?Answer: 25%. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
Five pencils cost $2.00. At the same rate, how much do 15 pencils cost?Answer: $6.00. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Rate (mathematics)
Four notebooks cost $10. What does one notebook cost?Answer: $2.50. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Unit price
How is the decimal 0.4 written as a percent?Answer: 40%. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
In a bag, the ratio of red marbles to blue marbles is 3:5. There are 40 marbles in all. How many are red?Answer: 15. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
The number pi is a ratio. Which two measurements of a circle does it compare?Answer: The circumference to the diameter. Source: Wikipedia: Pi
Three out of every 4 students in a class ride the bus. The class has 28 students. How many ride the bus?Answer: 21. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
To solve the proportion a/b = c/d, you can multiply a by d and b by c. What is this method called?Answer: Cross-multiplication. Source: Wikipedia: Cross-multiplication
Two quantities are directly proportional when their ratio always stays what?Answer: The same. Source: Wikipedia: Proportionality (mathematics)
What is 10% of 250?Answer: 25. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
What is 25% of 80?Answer: 20. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
What is the ratio 12:18 in simplest form?Answer: 2:3. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
What is the ratio of 2 hours to 30 minutes, in simplest form?Answer: 4:1. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
Which fraction is equal to 75%?Answer: 3/4. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
Which is larger: 3/5 or 55%?Answer: 3/5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Percentage
Which is the better buy: 12 ounces of cereal for $3.00, or 20 ounces for $4.00?Answer: 20 ounces for $4.00. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Unit price
Which of these ratios is equivalent to 4:10?Answer: 6:15. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Ratio
Ancient civilizations 30
A legend says a runner carried news of a Greek victory over Persia to Athens in 490 BC. Which battle gave the long race its name?Answer: Marathon. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Marathon
According to legend, which twin brothers, nursed by a she-wolf, founded the city of Rome?Answer: Romulus and Remus. Source: Wikipedia: Romulus and Remus
The ancient Olympic Games were held at Olympia in honor of which god?Answer: Zeus. Source: Wikipedia: Ancient Olympic Games
The earliest known body of Chinese writing was scratched on bones and turtle shells in the Shang dynasty. What were the bones used for?Answer: Asking questions about the future. Source: Wikipedia: Oracle bone
Egyptian scribes wrote on sheets made from a plant that grew thickly in the Nile Delta. What was the material called?Answer: Papyrus. Source: Wikipedia: Papyrus
The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for which pharaoh?Answer: Khufu. Source: Wikipedia: Great Pyramid of Giza
Hatshepsut ruled ancient Egypt for about twenty years. What made her reign unusual?Answer: She was a woman who ruled as pharaoh. Source: Wikipedia: Hatshepsut
In the Roman Republic, two leaders were elected to share power for one year. What were they called?Answer: Consuls. Source: Wikipedia: Roman consul
In which Greek city-state did boys begin military training at the age of seven?Answer: Sparta. Source: Wikipedia: Sparta
In which Greek city-state did democracy develop about 2,500 years ago?Answer: Athens. Source: Wikipedia: Athenian democracy
The Kingdom of Kush lay along the Nile to the south of Egypt. In which modern country was its heartland?Answer: Sudan. Source: Wikipedia: Kingdom of Kush
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa were great cities of which ancient civilization?Answer: The Indus Valley civilization. Source: Wikipedia: Indus Valley Civilisation
The Olmecs were an early civilization of Mexico. What are they best known for carving?Answer: Colossal stone heads. Source: Wikipedia: Olmecs
The Parthenon in Athens was a temple to which goddess?Answer: Athena. Source: Wikipedia: Parthenon
The Romans built Hadrian's Wall to guard the edge of their empire. Across the north of which modern country does it run?Answer: England. Source: Wikipedia: Hadrian's Wall
Rome fought the three Punic Wars against which rival city in North Africa?Answer: Carthage. Source: Wikipedia: Punic Wars
The sayings of which Chinese thinker were collected in a book called the Analects?Answer: Confucius. Source: Wikipedia: Confucius
Starting nearly 12,000 years ago, people in several parts of the world began to settle in one place. Which change made that possible?Answer: Farming. Source: Wikipedia: Neolithic Revolution
What did Roman aqueducts carry into towns and cities?Answer: Water. Source: Wikipedia: Roman aqueduct
What title did the rulers of ancient Egypt hold?Answer: Pharaoh. Source: Wikipedia: Pharaoh
What was a ziggurat?Answer: A huge stepped temple tower in Mesopotamia. Source: Wikipedia: Ziggurat
What was the Colosseum in Rome mainly used for?Answer: Gladiator fights and public shows. Source: Wikipedia: Colosseum
What were the Twelve Tables of ancient Rome?Answer: The city's first written code of laws. Source: Wikipedia: Twelve Tables
Which city in Egypt held one of the largest and most important libraries of the ancient world?Answer: Alexandria. Source: Wikipedia: Library of Alexandria
Which general from Carthage crossed the Alps with war elephants to attack Rome?Answer: Hannibal. Source: Wikipedia: Hannibal
Which language did the ancient Romans speak?Answer: Latin. Source: Wikipedia: Latin
Which Persian king founded the Achaemenid Empire and went on to conquer Lydia and Babylon?Answer: Cyrus the Great. Source: Wikipedia: Cyrus the Great
Which seafaring traders of the eastern Mediterranean had an alphabet that the Greeks adapted to make their own?Answer: The Phoenicians. Source: Wikipedia: Phoenician alphabet
Which volcano buried the Roman town of Pompeii in AD 79?Answer: Mount Vesuvius. Source: Wikipedia: Pompeii
Which young pharaoh's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter's team in 1922?Answer: Tutankhamun. Source: Wikipedia: Tutankhamun
Cells 30
A leading theory says that mitochondria are descended from what?Answer: Free-living bacteria taken in by a larger cell. Source: Wikipedia: Symbiogenesis
An amoeba changes shape and moves by stretching out and pulling back parts of its body. What are these parts called?Answer: Pseudopods. Source: Wikipedia: Amoeba
Apart from the nucleus, which two cell parts carry some DNA of their own?Answer: Mitochondria and chloroplasts. Source: Wikipedia: Mitochondrial DNA
Cell theory says that all living things are made of cells. Which two scientists of the 1830s usually get the credit for it?Answer: Schleiden and Schwann. Source: Wikipedia: Cell theory
The cell walls of plants are made mostly of which tough substance?Answer: Cellulose. Source: Wikipedia: Cellulose
Cells that keep their DNA inside a nucleus belong to which group?Answer: Eukaryotes. Source: Wikipedia: Eukaryote
In a many-celled body, what is a group of similar cells that work together on one job called?Answer: A tissue. Source: Wikipedia: Tissue (biology)
In a mature plant cell, one large sac filled mostly with water can take up most of the space. What is it called?Answer: The central vacuole. Source: Wikipedia: Vacuole
Mature human red blood cells are unusual among the body's cells. What do they lack?Answer: A nucleus. Source: Wikipedia: Red blood cell
Particles spread out from where they are crowded to where they are scarce. What is this called?Answer: Diffusion. Source: Wikipedia: Diffusion
Plant cells have a stiff outer layer that animal cells do not have. What is it called?Answer: The cell wall. Source: Wikipedia: Cell wall
Rudolf Virchow summed up one rule of cell theory in the Latin phrase "Omnis cellula e cellula". What does it mean?Answer: All cells come from cells. Source: Wikipedia: Rudolf Virchow
Some cells swim with a long tail that lashes like a whip. What is the tail called?Answer: A flagellum. Source: Wikipedia: Flagellum
What are the tiny pores in a leaf's surface, which let gases in and out, called?Answer: Stomata. Source: Wikipedia: Stoma
What do we call a living thing that is made of just one cell?Answer: A unicellular organism. Source: Wikipedia: Unicellular organism
What is a nerve cell called?Answer: A neuron. Source: Wikipedia: Neuron
What is the basic building block of every living thing?Answer: The cell. Source: Wikipedia: Cell (biology)
What is the general name for a tiny structure inside a cell that does one special job, as an organ does in a body?Answer: An organelle. Source: Wikipedia: Organelle
What is the jelly-like material that fills a cell and surrounds its parts called?Answer: Cytoplasm. Source: Wikipedia: Cytoplasm
What is the process in which the nucleus of a cell divides to make two nuclei with identical sets of chromosomes?Answer: Mitosis. Source: Wikipedia: Mitosis
Which cell part packages proteins for delivery and is named after the Italian scientist who found it in 1898?Answer: The Golgi apparatus. Source: Wikipedia: Golgi apparatus
Which cell part works as the cell's breakdown center, where enzymes take apart proteins, fats and sugars?Answer: The lysosome. Source: Wikipedia: Lysosome
Which cells can divide again and again and also turn into other, more specialized types of cell?Answer: Stem cells. Source: Wikipedia: Stem cell
Which Dutch lens maker of the 1670s was the first to see living single-celled creatures, which he called animalcules?Answer: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. Source: Wikipedia: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
Which English scientist coined the word "cell" in his 1665 book Micrographia?Answer: Robert Hooke. Source: Wikipedia: Robert Hooke
Which part of a cell is often called its powerhouse?Answer: The mitochondrion. Source: Wikipedia: Mitochondria
Which part of a plant or animal cell holds most of its DNA?Answer: The nucleus. Source: Wikipedia: Cell nucleus
Which process do cells use to release the energy stored in sugar?Answer: Cellular respiration. Source: Wikipedia: Cellular respiration
Which thin layer surrounds every cell and controls what passes in and out?Answer: The cell membrane. Source: Wikipedia: Cell membrane
Which tool did scientists need before anyone could discover cells?Answer: The microscope. Source: Wikipedia: Cell (biology)
Plate tectonics 30
About how fast do tectonic plates move?Answer: A few centimeters a year. Source: Wikipedia: Plate tectonics
Alfred Wegener is remembered today for continental drift. For which science was he mainly known during his own lifetime?Answer: Meteorology, the study of weather. Source: Wikipedia: Alfred Wegener
The Andes were pushed up as which ocean plate slid under South America?Answer: The Nazca Plate. Source: Wikipedia: Nazca plate
At which kind of plate boundary do two plates move apart?Answer: A divergent boundary. Source: Wikipedia: Divergent boundary
At which kind of plate boundary do two plates move toward each other?Answer: A convergent boundary. Source: Wikipedia: Convergent boundary
At which kind of plate boundary do two plates slide sideways past each other?Answer: A transform boundary. Source: Wikipedia: Transform fault
The boundary between the Earth's crust and its mantle has a nickname. What is it?Answer: The Moho. Source: Wikipedia: Mohorovičić discontinuity
The epicenter is the point on the ground right above the place where an earthquake starts. What is the starting point itself called?Answer: The hypocenter, or focus. Source: Wikipedia: Earthquake
Fossils of Mesosaurus, an extinct water reptile, were found in eastern South America and in which other place?Answer: Southern Africa. Source: Wikipedia: Mesosaurus
The Hawaiian Islands sit in the middle of a plate, far from any boundary. What made them?Answer: A hotspot under the moving plate. Source: Wikipedia: Hawaii hotspot
The Himalayas were pushed up by the collision of which two plates?Answer: The Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. Source: Wikipedia: Himalayas
Magnetic stripes on the ocean floor record something that has reversed many times in Earth's history. What is it?Answer: Earth's magnetic field. Source: Wikipedia: Seafloor spreading
The northern part of Pangaea is called Laurasia. What is the southern part, which began to separate from it during the Triassic, called?Answer: Gondwana. Source: Wikipedia: Gondwana
The northern part of the San Andreas Fault broke in a great earthquake in 1906. Which city is that earthquake named after?Answer: San Francisco. Source: Wikipedia: San Andreas Fault
S waves from an earthquake cannot travel through one of Earth's layers, because it is molten. Which layer?Answer: The outer core. Source: Wikipedia: S wave
Tectonic plates ride on a weak layer of the upper mantle that can bend and flow. What is it called?Answer: The asthenosphere. Source: Wikipedia: Asthenosphere
The very center of the Earth is a ball made mostly of iron and nickel. Is it solid, liquid or gas?Answer: Solid. Source: Wikipedia: Earth's inner core
What is the rigid outer shell of the Earth, made of the crust and the top of the mantle, called?Answer: The lithosphere. Source: Wikipedia: Lithosphere
What slow movement inside the Earth causes the plates to move around the surface?Answer: Convection in the mantle. Source: Wikipedia: Mantle convection
Where is a continent slowly splitting in two, along a rift where the Somali plate and the Nubian plate are pulling apart?Answer: East Africa. Source: Wikipedia: East African Rift
Which American geologist and Navy officer set out seafloor spreading in 1960 and published it in 1962 as History of Ocean Basins?Answer: Harry Hess. Source: Wikipedia: Harry Hammond Hess
Which Danish scientist discovered in 1936 that the Earth has a solid inner core inside its molten outer core?Answer: Inge Lehmann. Source: Wikipedia: Inge Lehmann
Which dark, fine-grained rock makes up more than 90 percent of all the volcanic rock on Earth?Answer: Basalt. Source: Wikipedia: Basalt
Which is the largest tectonic plate?Answer: The Pacific Plate. Source: Wikipedia: Pacific plate
Which is thicker, the crust under the continents or the crust under the oceans?Answer: The crust under the continents. Source: Wikipedia: Continental crust
Which island country sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on a rift between two plates?Answer: Iceland. Source: Wikipedia: Iceland
Which kind of earthquake wave travels fastest and reaches a recording station first?Answer: P waves. Source: Wikipedia: P wave
Which layer makes up most of the Earth's volume?Answer: The mantle. Source: Wikipedia: Earth's mantle
Which long underwater mountain chain runs down the Atlantic Ocean floor and rises above the sea in Iceland?Answer: The Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Source: Wikipedia: Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Which scale has become the standard for reporting large earthquakes, replacing the older Richter scale?Answer: The moment magnitude scale. Source: Wikipedia: Moment magnitude scale
World capitals 30
Bolivia's seat of government is La Paz. Which other city is the country's capital by law?Answer: Sucre. Source: Wikipedia: Sucre
Buda, Óbuda and Pest joined in 1873 to form which capital on the Danube?Answer: Budapest. Source: Wikipedia: Budapest
Francisco Pizarro founded it in 1535 as the City of Kings. What is this capital of Peru?Answer: Lima. Source: Wikipedia: Lima
Monrovia is named after the US president James Monroe. Which country is it the capital of?Answer: Liberia. Source: Wikipedia: Monrovia
The Netherlands has an unusual arrangement. Amsterdam is the capital, but the government sits in which other city?Answer: The Hague. Source: Wikipedia: The Hague
Pakistan built a new capital in the 1960s to replace Karachi. What is it called?Answer: Islamabad. Source: Wikipedia: Islamabad
Switzerland's federal government sits in a city that is smaller than Zurich or Geneva. Which city?Answer: Bern. Source: Wikipedia: Bern
What is the capital of Cuba?Answer: Havana. Source: Wikipedia: Havana
What is the capital of Fiji, on the island of Viti Levu?Answer: Suva. Source: Wikipedia: Suva
What is the capital of Finland, on the Gulf of Finland's shore?Answer: Helsinki. Source: Wikipedia: Helsinki
What is the capital of India?Answer: New Delhi. Source: Wikipedia: New Delhi
What is the capital of Jamaica?Answer: Kingston. Source: Wikipedia: Kingston, Jamaica
What is the capital of Norway?Answer: Oslo. Source: Wikipedia: Oslo
What is the capital of Russia?Answer: Moscow. Source: Wikipedia: Moscow
What is the capital of Spain?Answer: Madrid. Source: Wikipedia: Madrid
Which capital began in 1639 as a nomadic Buddhist monastic center and later took a name meaning "City of the Red Hero"?Answer: Ulaanbaatar. Source: Wikipedia: Ulaanbaatar
Which capital of Colombia stands on a high plateau in the Andes, about 2,600 meters above sea level?Answer: Bogotá. Source: Wikipedia: Bogotá
Which capital of Ecuador is the capital nearest the equator?Answer: Quito. Source: Wikipedia: Quito
Which capital of Ethiopia serves as the headquarters of the African Union?Answer: Addis Ababa. Source: Wikipedia: Addis Ababa
Which capital of Ireland stands on a bay where the River Liffey meets the sea?Answer: Dublin. Source: Wikipedia: Dublin
Which capital of Jordan was called Philadelphia in ancient Greek and Roman times?Answer: Amman. Source: Wikipedia: Amman
Which capital of Kenya takes its name from a Maasai phrase meaning "place of cool waters"?Answer: Nairobi. Source: Wikipedia: Nairobi
Which capital of Poland stands on the Vistula River?Answer: Warsaw. Source: Wikipedia: Warsaw
Which capital of Portugal lies on the Atlantic Ocean, on the northern shore of the River Tagus?Answer: Lisbon. Source: Wikipedia: Lisbon
Which capital of Senegal stands on the Cap-Vert peninsula, mainland Africa's westernmost point?Answer: Dakar. Source: Wikipedia: Dakar
Which capital of Thailand is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, or Krung Thep for short?Answer: Bangkok. Source: Wikipedia: Bangkok
Which city has been the official capital of Tanzania since 1996?Answer: Dodoma. Source: Wikipedia: Dodoma
Which city is the northernmost capital of a sovereign state in the world?Answer: Reykjavík. Source: Wikipedia: Reykjavík
Which city was made Ivory Coast's legal capital in 1983, taking over from Abidjan?Answer: Yamoussoukro. Source: Wikipedia: Yamoussoukro
Which Scandinavian capital is spread across 14 islands where a lake meets the Baltic Sea?Answer: Stockholm. Source: Wikipedia: Stockholm
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer, and each extra fact in the line under it, was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question. The article text was retrieved on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked; their source line names the article that explains the method. Questions were dropped or reworded when the article did not state the fact in plain words (the height of the Hammurabi stele, where the word paper comes from, who founded Alexandria, the length of the Ring of Fire). Left out on purpose: records and rankings that change, populations, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. No question appears under two grade buttons. No question repeats word for word in the site's other grade, crowd, subject or occasion trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19; the same fact may be asked elsewhere in other words. On 2026-09-20 four capital questions that matched the site's trivia cards word for word (Ireland, Peru, Kenya, Portugal) were given a clue from their own articles, read that day. The topics for each grade are our choice and the levels are our estimate; neither is an official curriculum. Licence: own work
Grade 7: all 150 questions with answers
Negative numbers 30
A bank account holds $40. The owner pays a bill of $65. What is the balance now?Answer: -$25. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
A diver is 30 feet below the surface and swims down 25 more feet. Which integer shows the diver's new position?Answer: -55. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
An elevator starts on floor 3 and goes down 5 floors. If ground level is floor 0, which floor is it on now?Answer: -2. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
At dawn it is -5 degrees. By noon it is 12 degrees warmer. What is the temperature at noon?Answer: 7 degrees. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
At which temperature do the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales show the same number?Answer: -40 degrees. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Fahrenheit
The average of -6, -2 and 5 is which number?Answer: -1. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Arithmetic mean
Badwater Basin in California is North America's lowest point. About how far below sea level is it?Answer: 282 feet. Source: Wikipedia: Badwater Basin
Is zero a positive number or a negative number?Answer: It is neither. Source: Wikipedia: 0
Mathematicians use a bold letter Z to stand for the set of all integers. Which language does the Z come from?Answer: German. Source: Wikipedia: Integer
The Nine Chapters, an ancient Chinese math book, used counting rods in two colors for positive and negative. Which color meant positive?Answer: Red. Source: Wikipedia: Negative number
On a coordinate plane, in which quadrant are both the x value and the y value negative?Answer: Quadrant III. Source: Wikipedia: Quadrant (plane geometry)
On a horizontal number line, where do the negative numbers sit?Answer: To the left of zero. Source: Wikipedia: Negative number
What do you get when you add any number to its opposite?Answer: Zero. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Additive inverse
What is (-2) to the third power?Answer: -8. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Exponentiation
What is -2 x 3 x -5?Answer: 30. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -3 x 7?Answer: -21. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -4 x -6?Answer: 24. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -6 - 3?Answer: -9. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -7 + 4?Answer: -3. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -20 divided by 4?Answer: -5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is -36 divided by -9?Answer: 4. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is 5 - 9?Answer: -4. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Negative number
What is 8 - (-5)?Answer: 13. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Additive inverse
What is the absolute value of -12?Answer: 12. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Absolute value
What is the distance between -7 and 5 on a number line?Answer: 12. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Absolute value
What is the opposite of 15?Answer: -15. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Additive inverse
What is |-9| - |4|?Answer: 5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Absolute value
Which list runs from least to greatest?Answer: -9, -2, 0, 5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Number line
Which number is greater, -8 or -3?Answer: -3. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Number line
Which of these numbers is not an integer?Answer: -2.5. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Integer
The first 20 elements 30
A molecule of water is written H2O. How many hydrogen atoms does it contain?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: Properties of water
An element's atomic number tells you how many of which particle are in each atom?Answer: Protons. Source: Wikipedia: Atomic number
Atoms of one element that have different numbers of neutrons are called what?Answer: Isotopes. Source: Wikipedia: Isotope
Beryllium, magnesium and calcium sit together in the second column of the periodic table. What is this family called?Answer: The alkaline earth metals. Source: Wikipedia: Alkaline earth metal
Compounds of which element are added to toothpaste to help prevent tooth decay?Answer: Fluorine. Source: Wikipedia: Fluorine
Emerald and aquamarine are both forms of the mineral beryl. Which light metal, element 4, does beryl contain?Answer: Beryllium. Source: Wikipedia: Beryllium
Fluorine and chlorine belong to which family, whose name means "salt-producing" or "salt former"?Answer: The halogens. Source: Wikipedia: Halogen
Helium was detected in the light of the Sun in 1868, years before anyone found it on Earth. What is it named after?Answer: Helios, Greek for the Sun. Source: Wikipedia: Helium
Helium, neon and argon sit in the last column of the periodic table. What is this family of unreactive gases called?Answer: The noble gases. Source: Wikipedia: Noble gas
Hydrogen's name comes from Greek words with which meaning?Answer: Water former. Source: Wikipedia: Hydrogen
In 1669 the Hamburg alchemist Hennig Brand discovered a new element that glowed in the dark. Which element was it?Answer: Phosphorus. Source: Wikipedia: Phosphorus
Lithium, sodium and potassium belong to the same family of soft, very reactive metals in the first column. What is it called?Answer: The alkali metals. Source: Wikipedia: Alkali metal
The name of argon, element 18, comes from a Greek word. What does the word mean?Answer: Lazy or inactive. Source: Wikipedia: Argon
The symbol for potassium is K. Which name does the K come from?Answer: Kalium. Source: Wikipedia: Potassium
The symbol for sodium is Na. Which Latin name does it come from?Answer: Natrium. Source: Wikipedia: Sodium
What are the horizontal rows of the periodic table called?Answer: Periods. Source: Wikipedia: Period (periodic table)
What happens when a small piece of sodium metal is dropped into water?Answer: It reacts violently and gives off hydrogen gas. Source: Wikipedia: Sodium
What is the atomic number of carbon?Answer: 6. Source: Wikipedia: Carbon
What is the chemical symbol for magnesium?Answer: Mg. Source: Wikipedia: Magnesium
Which element is most plentiful in the Earth's crust?Answer: Oxygen. Source: Wikipedia: Oxygen
Which element is number 1 on the periodic table, with a single proton in each atom?Answer: Hydrogen. Source: Wikipedia: Hydrogen
Which element is second only to hydrogen in abundance in the universe?Answer: Helium. Source: Wikipedia: Helium
Which element, number 3, is the lightest of all the metals?Answer: Lithium. Source: Wikipedia: Lithium
Which element, number 14, is the semiconductor that most computer chips are made from?Answer: Silicon. Source: Wikipedia: Silicon
Which metal is most plentiful in the Earth's crust?Answer: Aluminum. Source: Wikipedia: Aluminium
Which metal, element 12, burns with a brilliant white light and is used in flares and fireworks?Answer: Magnesium. Source: Wikipedia: Magnesium
Which noble gas, element 10, gives off a reddish-orange glow in advertising signs?Answer: Neon. Source: Wikipedia: Neon
Which Russian chemist presented his periodic table in 1869?Answer: Dmitri Mendeleev. Source: Wikipedia: Dmitri Mendeleev
Which yellow element, number 16, was known in old writings as brimstone?Answer: Sulfur. Source: Wikipedia: Sulfur
Which yellow-green gas, element 17, is used to disinfect swimming pools and drinking water?Answer: Chlorine. Source: Wikipedia: Chlorine
Medieval history 30
A boy training for knighthood first served as a page. What was he called next, when he served a knight as shield bearer and helper?Answer: A squire. Source: Wikipedia: Squire
Angkor Wat, one of the largest religious monuments in the world, was built in the 1100s in which present-day country?Answer: Cambodia. Source: Wikipedia: Angkor Wat
The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman conquest of England. About how long is it?Answer: About 70 meters. Source: Wikipedia: Bayeux Tapestry
Before printing, books were copied by hand, and the finest were decorated with gold leaf and bright colors. What are such books called?Answer: Illuminated manuscripts. Source: Wikipedia: Illuminated manuscript
The Black Death was caused by a bacterium. It was spread mainly by the bites of which insects?Answer: Fleas. Source: Wikipedia: Black Death
The English uprising of 1381 began after officials tried to collect unpaid poll tax. Who led the Kentish rebels who advanced on London?Answer: Wat Tyler. Source: Wikipedia: Peasants' Revolt
Gothic cathedrals have tall walls and stone vaults. Which outside supports carry the sideways push of the vaults down to the ground?Answer: Flying buttresses. Source: Wikipedia: Flying buttress
The Hundred Years' War between England and France ran from 1337 to 1453. How many years is that?Answer: 116. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Hundred Years' War
In 1086 William the Conqueror ordered a great survey of much of England. What is the record of it called?Answer: The Domesday Book. Source: Wikipedia: Domesday Book
In a medieval town, what was an association of craftsmen or merchants in one trade called?Answer: A guild. Source: Wikipedia: Guild
In medieval Europe, what was a peasant who was tied to the lord's land, and could not leave without permission, called?Answer: A serf. Source: Wikipedia: Serfdom
In old Japan, which title was held by the military rulers who usually ran the country, although the emperor appointed them in name?Answer: Shogun. Source: Wikipedia: Shogun
In which year did William of Normandy win the Battle of Hastings and begin the Norman Conquest of England?Answer: 1066. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Hastings
Magna Carta was sealed in a water-meadow beside the River Thames, near Windsor. What is the place called?Answer: Runnymede. Source: Wikipedia: Magna Carta
On Christmas Day in the year 800, the pope crowned which Frankish king as emperor?Answer: Charlemagne. Source: Wikipedia: Charlemagne
Under feudalism, what was a fief?Answer: Land given in return for service. Source: Wikipedia: Fief
The Vikings sailed out to raid, trade and settle from which part of Europe?Answer: Scandinavia. Source: Wikipedia: Vikings
The Vikings were expert sailors. What were their fast warships, which used oars as well as a sail, called?Answer: Longships. Source: Wikipedia: Vikings
What is the deep, wide ditch around a castle, often filled with water, called?Answer: A moat. Source: Wikipedia: Moat
What was the code of conduct that medieval knights were expected to follow called?Answer: Chivalry. Source: Wikipedia: Chivalry
What were the professional warriors of old Japan, who served the lords as their retainers, called?Answer: Samurai. Source: Wikipedia: Samurai
Which Archbishop of Canterbury was killed in his own cathedral by four knights in 1170?Answer: Thomas Becket. Source: Wikipedia: Thomas Becket
Which city in Mali became a famous center of trade and Islamic learning in the Middle Ages?Answer: Timbuktu. Source: Wikipedia: Timbuktu
Which Italian city is home to the world's oldest university in continuous operation, where teaching began around 1088?Answer: Bologna. Source: Wikipedia: University of Bologna
Which league of merchant guilds and market towns dominated sea trade on the North and Baltic seas in the late Middle Ages?Answer: The Hanseatic League. Source: Wikipedia: Hanseatic League
Which Norse explorer is thought to have reached North America about 500 years before Columbus?Answer: Leif Erikson. Source: Wikipedia: Leif Erikson
Which ruler, first sultan of Egypt and of Syria together, took Jerusalem from the crusaders in 1187?Answer: Saladin. Source: Wikipedia: Saladin
Which siege engine used a falling counterweight to swing a long arm and hurl heavy stones at castle walls?Answer: The trebuchet. Source: Wikipedia: Trebuchet
Which Venetian merchant traveled along the Silk Road and served Kublai Khan, and lived 17 years in the emperor's lands?Answer: Marco Polo. Source: Wikipedia: Marco Polo
Which weapon did English and Welsh archers use to great effect at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415?Answer: The longbow. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Agincourt
Ecosystems 30
A lichen looks like a single living thing, but it is a partnership. Which two kinds of organism usually make up a lichen?Answer: A fungus and an alga. Source: Wikipedia: Lichen
A tick clings to a larger animal and feeds on its blood, which harms the animal. What is this kind of relationship called?Answer: Parasitism. Source: Wikipedia: Parasitism
About how much of the energy at one level of a food chain is passed on to the level above it?Answer: About 10 percent. Source: Wikipedia: Ecological efficiency
Bacteria in the root nodules of peas, beans and clovers turn nitrogen from the air into a form the plants can use. What is this called?Answer: Nitrogen fixation. Source: Wikipedia: Root nodule
Bees get food from flowers, and the flowers get pollinated. What is a relationship in which both species benefit called?Answer: Mutualism. Source: Wikipedia: Mutualism (biology)
Fungi and bacteria break down dead plants and animals and release their nutrients. What is this group of living things called?Answer: Decomposers. Source: Wikipedia: Decomposer
In 1969 the zoologist Robert Paine introduced a term for a species that has an outsized effect on its ecosystem. What is the term?Answer: Keystone species. Source: Wikipedia: Keystone species
In a hunt, the hunter is called the predator. What is the animal that it kills and eats called?Answer: Its prey. Source: Wikipedia: Predation
In ecology, what is a group of populations of different species living in the same area at the same time called?Answer: A community. Source: Wikipedia: Community (ecology)
In the levels of a food web, which level do green plants occupy?Answer: The first trophic level. Source: Wikipedia: Trophic level
In which kind of relationship does one species benefit while the other is neither helped nor harmed?Answer: Commensalism. Source: Wikipedia: Commensalism
Kelp forests grow in shallow, cool seas. What kind of living thing is kelp?Answer: A large brown alga. Source: Wikipedia: Kelp
Light, temperature and water are non-living parts of an ecosystem. What are such parts called?Answer: Abiotic factors. Source: Wikipedia: Abiotic component
The mix of species in a place changes step by step over time, for example after a fire. What is this process called?Answer: Ecological succession. Source: Wikipedia: Ecological succession
Most bears eat both plants and animals, and so do humans. What is an animal with that kind of diet called?Answer: An omnivore. Source: Wikipedia: Omnivore
Sea otters protect kelp forests by eating which spiny grazers?Answer: Sea urchins. Source: Wikipedia: Keystone species
Two species of bird need the same nesting holes, and there are not enough to go around. What is this kind of interaction called?Answer: Competition. Source: Wikipedia: Competition (biology)
Vultures feed on the bodies of animals that are already dead. What is an animal that feeds this way called?Answer: A scavenger. Source: Wikipedia: Scavenger
What are the first hardy species to colonize barren ground called?Answer: Pioneer species. Source: Wikipedia: Pioneer species
What is a diagram of all the linked food chains in one ecosystem called?Answer: A food web. Source: Wikipedia: Food web
What is a distinct region with its own climate, vegetation and animal life, such as tundra, desert or rainforest, called?Answer: A biome. Source: Wikipedia: Biome
What is a predator at the very top of a food chain, with few or no natural predators of its own, called?Answer: An apex predator. Source: Wikipedia: Apex predator
What is a species called when it is brought to a new place and harms the environment there?Answer: An invasive species. Source: Wikipedia: Invasive species
What is an animal that meets its food needs by eating other animals called?Answer: A carnivore. Source: Wikipedia: Carnivore
What is the largest population of a species an environment is able to support over time called?Answer: Its carrying capacity. Source: Wikipedia: Carrying capacity
What is the term for the role a species plays in its environment, including how it uses resources?Answer: Its niche. Source: Wikipedia: Ecological niche
What is the word for the variety of life on Earth, from genes to species to whole ecosystems?Answer: Biodiversity. Source: Wikipedia: Biodiversity
When fertilizer washes into a lake, nutrients build up and the extra growth can use up the oxygen in the water. What is this process called?Answer: Eutrophication. Source: Wikipedia: Eutrophication
Which German scientist coined the word ecology in 1866?Answer: Ernst Haeckel. Source: Wikipedia: Ecology
Which predator was brought back to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, almost 70 years after the last ones there were killed?Answer: The gray wolf. Source: Wikipedia: History of wolves in Yellowstone
The US Constitution 30
A bill can be vetoed by the President. What share of each house of Congress is needed to override the veto?Answer: Two-thirds. Source: Wikipedia: Veto power in the United States
According to the Constitution, how old must a person be to serve as President?Answer: At least 35. Source: Wikipedia: Article Two of the United States Constitution
According to the Constitution, who serves as President of the Senate and can vote only to break a tie?Answer: The Vice President. Source: Wikipedia: Vice President of the United States
Alexander Hamilton and James Madison wrote most of the Federalist Papers. Who was the third author?Answer: John Jay. Source: Wikipedia: The Federalist Papers
Article I of the Constitution sets up which branch of government?Answer: The legislative branch, Congress. Source: Wikipedia: Article One of the United States Constitution
Article III of the Constitution sets up which branch of government?Answer: The judicial branch. Source: Wikipedia: Article Three of the United States Constitution
The Constitution replaced the first national plan of government of the United States. What was that earlier document called?Answer: The Articles of Confederation. Source: Wikipedia: Articles of Confederation
Each branch of government can limit the power of the other two. What is this system called?Answer: Checks and balances. Source: Wikipedia: Separation of powers under the United States Constitution
Federal judges do not serve for a fixed number of years. According to Article III, how long do they hold office?Answer: During good behavior. Source: Wikipedia: Article Three of the United States Constitution
The Great Compromise of 1787 gave states equal votes in the Senate and seats by population in the House. Which state is it named after?Answer: Connecticut. Source: Wikipedia: Connecticut Compromise
The House of Representatives can impeach a federal official. Which body then holds the trial?Answer: The Senate. Source: Wikipedia: Impeachment in the United States
How long is one term for a United States senator?Answer: Six years. Source: Wikipedia: United States Senate
How long is one term for someone sitting in the House of Representatives?Answer: Two years. Source: Wikipedia: United States House of Representatives
How many of the 13 states had to ratify the Constitution before it could take effect?Answer: Nine. Source: Wikipedia: Article Seven of the United States Constitution
How many senators does each state have?Answer: Two. Source: Wikipedia: United States Senate
In which city did delegates meet in 1787 to write the United States Constitution?Answer: Philadelphia. Source: Wikipedia: Constitutional Convention (United States)
The Twenty-second Amendment, ratified in 1951, put which limit on the presidency?Answer: No one can be elected President more than twice. Source: Wikipedia: Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution
Under Article II, who is the armed forces' commander in chief?Answer: The President. Source: Wikipedia: Article Two of the United States Constitution
Voters choose electors, and the electors formally choose the President. What is this body of electors called?Answer: The Electoral College. Source: Wikipedia: United States Electoral College
What are the Constitution's first ten amendments called?Answer: The Bill of Rights. Source: Wikipedia: United States Bill of Rights
What did the Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, do?Answer: It guaranteed women the right to vote. Source: Wikipedia: Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
What share of the states must ratify an amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution?Answer: Three-fourths. Source: Wikipedia: Article Five of the United States Constitution
Where is the original signed Constitution on public display?Answer: The National Archives in Washington, D.C. Source: Wikipedia: Charters of Freedom
Which amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and petition?Answer: The First. Source: Wikipedia: First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Which one of the 13 states sent no delegates to the Constitutional Convention?Answer: Rhode Island. Source: Wikipedia: Constitutional Convention (United States)
Which part of the government has the power to declare war?Answer: Congress. Source: Wikipedia: War Powers Clause
Which Supreme Court case of 1803 established that courts can strike down laws that conflict with the Constitution?Answer: Marbury v. Madison. Source: Wikipedia: Marbury v. Madison
Which three words open the United States Constitution?Answer: We the People. Source: Wikipedia: Preamble to the United States Constitution
Which Virginian is often called the "Father of the Constitution"?Answer: James Madison. Source: Wikipedia: James Madison
Who was elected to preside over the Constitutional Convention of 1787?Answer: George Washington. Source: Wikipedia: Constitutional Convention (United States)
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer, and each extra fact in the line under it, was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question. The article text was retrieved on 2026-09-18 or 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked; their source line names the article that explains the method. Questions were dropped or reworded when the article did not state the fact in plain words (who was the oldest delegate in 1787, whether federal judges serve for life, who coined the word ecosystem, why energy is lost between the levels of a food chain). Left out on purpose: records and rankings that change, populations, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. No question appears under two grade buttons. No question repeats word for word in the site's other grade, crowd, subject or occasion trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19; the same fact may be asked elsewhere in other words. The topics for each grade are our choice and the levels are our estimate; neither is an official curriculum. Licence: own work
Grade 8: all 50 questions with answers
Algebra and geometry 10
A sphere has a radius of 3 units. What is its volume in terms of pi?Answer: 36π cubic units. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Sphere
A taxi ride costs 3 dollars to start, plus 2 dollars for every mile. Which equation gives the cost y of a ride of x miles?Answer: y = 2x + 3. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Linear equation
A triangle has sides of 8, 15 and 17 units. What kind of triangle must it be?Answer: A right triangle. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Pythagorean theorem
In mathematics, what is a rule called when it assigns exactly one output to every input?Answer: A function. Source: Wikipedia: Function (mathematics)
What is the cube root of 27?Answer: 3. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Cube (algebra)
What is the name for a line that passes through two other lines in the same plane at two different points?Answer: A transversal. Source: Wikipedia: Transversal (geometry)
What is the square root of 144?Answer: 12. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Square root
Which kind of graph plots pairs of values as separate dots to show how two variables are related?Answer: A scatter plot. Source: Wikipedia: Scatter plot
Which of these numbers is irrational, meaning it cannot be written as a fraction of two whole numbers?Answer: The square root of 2. Source: Wikipedia: Square root of 2
Which transformation slides every point of a shape the same distance in the same direction, with no turning or flipping?Answer: A translation. Source: Wikipedia: Translation (geometry)
Forces and motion 10
A cyclist rides 100 meters in 20 seconds. What is her average speed?Answer: 5 meters per second. Source: Worked out by calculation; method: Wikipedia: Speed
A skydiver speeds up until air resistance equals the pull of gravity, and then falls at a steady speed. What is that speed called?Answer: Terminal velocity. Source: Wikipedia: Terminal velocity
An astronaut travels from the Earth to the Moon. What happens to her mass and her weight?Answer: Her mass stays the same and her weight drops. Source: Wikipedia: Mass versus weight
Multiply the mass of an object by its velocity. What quantity do you get?Answer: Momentum. Source: Wikipedia: Momentum
Near the surface of the Earth, about how fast do falling objects accelerate if air resistance is ignored?Answer: 9.8 meters per second squared. Source: Wikipedia: Gravity of Earth
Newton's second law links force, mass and acceleration. Which equation states it?Answer: F = ma. Source: Wikipedia: Newton's laws of motion
Speed tells you how fast something moves. What extra piece of information does velocity include?Answer: Direction. Source: Wikipedia: Velocity
Two teams pull on a rope with equal force in opposite directions, and the rope does not move. What is the net force on the rope?Answer: Zero. Source: Wikipedia: Net force
What is the rate at which velocity changes called?Answer: Acceleration. Source: Wikipedia: Acceleration
Which of Newton's laws of motion says that forces come in pairs that are equal in size and opposite in direction?Answer: The third law. Source: Wikipedia: Newton's laws of motion
Heredity and evolution 10
A variant of a gene that masks the effect of the other variant it is paired with is described as what?Answer: Dominant. Source: Wikipedia: Dominance (genetics)
The gene behind the ABO blood groups comes in six common variants. What is the word for a variant of a gene?Answer: An allele. Source: Wikipedia: Allele
The hind limbs of whales and the wings of some flightless island birds no longer do their old job. What are such body parts called?Answer: Vestigial structures. Source: Wikipedia: Vestigiality
In humans, which pair of sex chromosomes does a male typically have?Answer: XY. Source: Wikipedia: XY sex-determination system
On which ship did Charles Darwin sail around the world from 1831 to 1836?Answer: HMS Beagle. Source: Wikipedia: Second voyage of HMS Beagle
People have bred wheat, rice and dogs for chosen traits since prehistoric times. What is this practice called?Answer: Selective breeding. Source: Wikipedia: Selective breeding
What is a change in the DNA sequence of an organism called?Answer: A mutation. Source: Wikipedia: Mutation
What is the basic unit of heredity called?Answer: A gene. Source: Wikipedia: Gene
What is the square diagram used to predict the results of a genetic cross called?Answer: A Punnett square. Source: Wikipedia: Punnett square
Which English naturalist, known for fieldwork in the Malay Archipelago, reached the same theory of evolution as Charles Darwin on his own?Answer: Alfred Russel Wallace. Source: Wikipedia: Alfred Russel Wallace
US history to 1877 10
About how much did the United States pay for the Louisiana Territory in 1803?Answer: 15 million dollars. Source: Wikipedia: Louisiana Purchase
At which Virginia village did Robert E. Lee surrender to Ulysses S. Grant in April 1865?Answer: Appomattox Court House. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Appomattox Court House
The bombardment of which fort in 1814 inspired the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner"?Answer: Fort McHenry. Source: Wikipedia: The Star-Spangled Banner
The Civil War began in April 1861 with the bombardment of which fort near Charleston, South Carolina?Answer: Fort Sumter. Source: Wikipedia: Battle of Fort Sumter
In which New York town did the first women's rights convention meet in 1848?Answer: Seneca Falls. Source: Wikipedia: Seneca Falls Convention
What name is given to the forced removal of the Cherokee and other nations from the Southeast in the 1830s?Answer: The Trail of Tears. Source: Wikipedia: Trail of Tears
What name is given to the period after the Civil War when the former Confederate states were brought back into the United States?Answer: Reconstruction. Source: Wikipedia: Reconstruction era
Which 1820 agreement let Missouri in with slavery and Maine in without it?Answer: The Missouri Compromise. Source: Wikipedia: Missouri Compromise
Which United States policy, first set out in 1823, declared the Western Hemisphere closed to further European colonization?Answer: The Monroe Doctrine. Source: Wikipedia: Monroe Doctrine
Which woman, still in her teens, traveled thousands of miles with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean?Answer: Sacagawea. Source: Wikipedia: Sacagawea
Literary terms 10
Buzz, oink and meow are examples of which device, in which a word imitates the sound it names?Answer: Onomatopoeia. Source: Wikipedia: Onomatopoeia
"The classroom was a zoo." Which figure of speech describes one thing as if it were another, without using "like" or "as"?Answer: A metaphor. Source: Wikipedia: Metaphor
How many lines does a limerick have?Answer: Five. Source: Wikipedia: Limerick (poetry)
"I have told you a million times." What is deliberate exaggeration for effect called?Answer: Hyperbole. Source: Wikipedia: Hyperbole
In which point of view does the narrator tell the story using "I", "me" and "my"?Answer: First person. Source: Wikipedia: First-person narrative
"Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers." What is this repetition of the same starting sound called?Answer: Alliteration. Source: Wikipedia: Alliteration
Saying "What lovely weather" in the middle of a storm uses words to mean the opposite of what they say. What is this called?Answer: Irony. Source: Wikipedia: Irony
"Spill the beans" means to reveal a secret and has nothing to do with beans. What is a phrase like this, whose meaning is not the literal one, called?Answer: An idiom. Source: Wikipedia: Idiom
What is a pair of lines of poetry, one straight after the other, that rhyme and have the same meter called?Answer: A couplet. Source: Wikipedia: Couplet
What is a short story called when it features animals that act like people and leads to a moral lesson?Answer: A fable. Source: Wikipedia: Fable
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Every question, wrong choice and explanation is our own wording. Each answer, and each extra fact in the line under it, was checked on 2026-09-19 against the English Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org) named and linked beside the question. The article text was retrieved on 2026-09-19, and the sentence that states the fact was read before the question was kept. Arithmetic answers were worked out by calculation and checked; their source line names the article that explains the method. Questions were dropped or reworded when the article did not state the fact in plain words: the Sacagawea question no longer calls her a Shoshone interpreter, because the article gives two possible nations, and the onomatopoeia question uses only example words that the article itself gives. Left out on purpose: records and rankings that change, populations, living people, and film, TV, brand and league names. No question appears under two grade buttons. No question repeats word for word in the site's other grade, crowd, subject or occasion trivia packs as they stood on 2026-09-19; the same fact may be asked elsewhere in other words. The topics for each grade are our choice and the levels are our estimate; neither is an official curriculum. Licence: own work
How it works
These 350 trivia questions for 6th graders and the two grades above sit under three buttons: Grade 6 and Grade 7 hold 150 each, and Grade 8 holds 50. One asks for a 15% tip on $60, another where Celsius and Fahrenheit agree.
Read the full guide
What each grade button holds
Grade 6 has 30 each on ratios and rates, ancient civilizations, cells, plate tectonics and world capitals. Grade 7 holds the trivia questions for 7th graders: negative numbers, the first 20 elements, medieval history, ecosystems and the US Constitution. Grade 8 is the short one: 10 each on algebra and geometry, forces and motion, heredity and evolution, US history to 1877 and literary terms.
A five minute scored round
Press Scored round, then Start the round: 20 questions against a five minute clock, about 15 seconds each. The round draws from the grade and the Start from round on screen. Leave every topic on for random trivia questions for middle schoolers, or pick Plate tectonics alone the week the class studies it.
Hand out scratch paper for Ratios and rates and Negative numbers: the average of -6, -2 and 5 is slow in the head.
For fun trivia questions for middle schoolers at a sleepover, pick World capitals or Medieval history, which need no pencil.
Every grade prints to a sheet: choose the grade and a round under Start from, play a set, then press Print.
Questions and answers
Which button has trivia questions for 11 year olds?
Grade 6, which opens first. For 12 year olds, move to Grade 7, and keep Grade 8 for ages 13 and 14. The topics follow what US schools commonly teach, not an official curriculum.
How hard do the questions get?
About three in ten are hard, by our estimate. In Grade 6, World capitals is the gentlest topic and Plate tectonics the hardest. The hard ones ask which layer of the Earth stops S waves and who led the Kentish rebels in 1381.
Where can a student look up an answer?
Under the question. Each answer was read on September 19, 2026 in the Wikipedia article linked under it, and the arithmetic questions were worked out, not looked up. Records, populations and living people are left out.