Is Your Brain Sharp Enough for This Tricky Trivia Quiz?

EDUCATION

By: Ruby Scalera

6 Min Quiz

Image: Witthaya Prasongsin/ Moment/ Getty Images

About This Quiz

Are you the champion of your weekly bar trivia team? If you're always absorbing random information, reading books, or watching videos about the history of deep-sea diving or the seven wonders of the world, then this tricky trivia quiz is perfect for you. There's nothing quite like the thrill of learning something new and exciting and we're here to deliver on fun facts and trivia tidbits from around the world. 

When we test our knowledge, read new stories and travel to exciting new places, we make our brains and reasoning skills sharper and more focused. That means we're more capable of having informed and effective debates, we can engage with people from all walks of life, and we can enjoy experiences from other times, other places, and other worlds. Trivia seeking is also known to inspire creativity, improve problem-solving abilities, step up productivity and performance and even improve personal and business moral! And those are just a few reasons to boost your brain muscles! 

This general knowledge quiz knows you might be an expert at one thing, but how good are you at just a little of everything? Buckle up, hunker down, and see if you have what it takes to beat this tricky trivia quiz. 

Who did the United States purchase the Louisiana territory from in a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?

In 1803, the United States "bought" Louisiana from France for about $15 million dollars, or $18 per square mile. The French didn't actually own much of that territory, as Native Americans were still living there, but that didn't stop the purchase. In fact, it led directly to westward expansion.

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Where is the Sea of Tranquility located?

If you wanted to swim in the Sea of Tranquility, you'd have a long trip ahead of you. It's located in the Tranquillitatis Basin on the moon and the basin likely dates back more than 4.5 billion years.

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What was Nellie Bly most famous for?

Nellie Bly was one of the first investigative journalists in the modern sense. She earned her reputation after getting herself committed to a mental institution to report from the inside and once took a 72-day trip around the world based on the Jules Verne novel.

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Which of these hands will win you the poker game?

The others are also really good hands and will help to win you the game if no one at the table has a Royal Flush. The Royal Flush is 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of the same suit.

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To whom did the "400 Club" refer?

The 400 club was a term often used to describe some of the weather American industrialists living in New York City at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, including Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Carnegie.

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What is the value of the letter "J" in the game of Scrabble?

J is one of the highest-scoring letters in the game of Scrabble and there is only one J tile in the game. X is also worth eight points. Only the letters Q and Z are more valuable, at 10 points each.

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Which chemical element has the symbol Bi?

Bismuth is the chemical element for which the symbol Bi stands on the periodic table. It occurs naturally but can also be created synthetically. It has a long half-life and its radioactivity level is very low.

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What animated film was the first to win an Oscar?

When "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" first won the honorary Academy Award in 1938, animation was still so new that there was not yet a category for the full-length film.

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What famous playwright wrote "Anything Goes" and "Kiss Me, Kate"?

Cole Porter lived the high life and put it into the plays and songs he wrote. He threw lavish parties, married beautiful, rich women, and wrote shows that defied convention but were incredibly successful, and continue to be today.

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Tulip mania in the 1600s was one of the first recorded examples of:

Tulip mania, during the Golden Age, was one of the first recorded examples of an economic bubble. The wealthy became so obsessed with the newly introduced tulip that they drove up the prices exorbitantly, and when the market could no longer sustain that, they were left with flowers.

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Beatrix Potter is best known for her Peter Rabbit books, but she was also an incredibly skilled:

In a time when women were strictly denied access to places of science and higher learning, Beatrix Potter was fascinated with the flora and fauna of the world, specifically mushrooms. Arguably, those illustrations are her best work, but the times dictated that she was not allowed to pursue such an interest.

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Which of these colleges is not considered an "Ivy League" school?

Stanford, along with several other schools that don't make the cut, like Duke and MIT, is considered to be of Ivy League caliber, but the term 'Ivy League' is as much a reference to the northeast location and its longstanding pedigree as the academic performance of the school.

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What capital city in the United States is the most populous?

While all of the above cities are busy capitals, Phoenix, Arizona takes the cakes as the most populous of the lot. There are nearly five million residents living in the metropolitan and surrounding areas.

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Which of these dinosaurs lived first?

It's hard to fathom just how old dinosaurs are because human beings barely register on the timeline of earth's existence, but Plateosaurus is believed to have lived 214 million years ago.

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Which war came first?

Ultimately, the Crimean War (1853 to 1856) would lead to the downfall of the Ottoman Empire. In this war, the alliance of the Ottoman Empire, Sardinia, France and Britain claimed a victory over the Russian Empire.

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What three vegetables make up a mirepoix?

While each type of cuisine has various versions of the mirepoix, the classic combination is celery, carrots and onions, as they serve as a flavor base for many dishes in western cooking.

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If you have prosopagnosia, you:

If you have prosopagnosia then you struggle to recognize faces, even those of people whom you have known for your entire lives. It can be challenging to manage but scientists are determined to find out why it happens and how to help.

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Who was the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon?

Katherine Switzer was the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon in 1967, but she did not complete it. She had entered under her initials and when officials discovered she was a woman, they tried to remove her from the course and she was disqualified. Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to finish.

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Which of the following is not one of the original Seven Wonders of the World?

Of the original seven Wonders of the World, only the Great Pyramid of Giza still remains. The other original wonders were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. Recently, the Great Wall of China was voted one of the modern-day wonders, however.

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In the scientific classification system, what comes between "class" and "family"?

The scientific classification system, the Linnaeus Method, is used to help understand evolution in plants and animals and properly classify them during research. The order is kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.

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When was the American School for the Deaf founded?

The American School of the Deaf was the very first permanent school for the deaf in the United States. It was founded in Connecticut by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, Dr. Mason Cogswell and Laurent Clerck.

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What sport is played by the teams Chelsea, AC Milan and FC Barcelona?

Soccer is one of the largest and most played sports in the world and you can find teams at club and national levels in places like the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy, as with Chelsea, AC Milan and FC Barcelona.

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What comic book superhero made his debut in the anthology comic book "Amazing Fantasy" in 1962?

Spiderman's comics are a lot older than most people think. The New York-based arachnid superhero has been fighting crime since the summer of 1962 and has been in countless movies, television shows, books and comics since.

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In Greek mythology, what is Hermes the god of?

Hermes, or in Roman mythology, Mercury, is the god of communication. He is often referred to as the "Messenger of the Gods" and was also the god of merchants, land travelers, thieves and more.

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The 16th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America states:

The Constitution of the United States of America is the set of rules upon which we base our country's very foundation. The other listed statements are amendments 19, 22, and 25 respectively.

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In which country would you find the capital city of Tbilisi?

Not to be confused with the American state of Georgia, the country of Georgia, located between western Asia and eastern Europe, is home to the city of Tbilisi. It is also the country's largest city.

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Who taught Aristotle?

Philosophy has long been passed down from one great mind to the next. Socrates taught Plato, Plato, in turn, taught Aristotle and Aristotle would go on to teach Alexander the Great, sharing many ideas we still discuss today.

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What is the national animal of Scotland?

Scotland has a long and exciting history of knights, chivalry and the fantastical. That's why it should come as no surprise that their national animal is the unicorn, an animal associated with both purity and innocence and power and masculinity.

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Who was the youngest American President to take office?

Theodore Roosevelt was just 42 years and 322 days old on the first day of his presidency, making him the youngest president in history. Although Roosevelt was the youngest person to become president (having taken over after the death of William McKinley), J.F.K. was the youngest president to be elected, at 43 years old. Grant was 46 and Pierce 48.

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Which of these animals jumps the highest in relation to their own size?

Though it be but little, it is fierce. The tree frog is one of the best jumping animals in the natural kingdom and can jump up to 150 times the length of its own body. The froghopper, grasshopper, and red kangaroo aren't far behind.

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How many designated National Parks are in the United States?

Technically, there are 419 National Park sites across the United States and its territories, but if you're looking for the parks that have the phrase "National Park" in the name, that would be 61, including Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon.

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When did flowers first appear on earth?

It may seem difficult to believe, but flowers haven't been around that long. In fact, they've only existed for about 130 million years. Before that, land plants were mostly ferns and cone-bearing plants.

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What kind of drink is made by mixing espresso and hot water?

An Americano is designed to provide the taste and feel of a regular cup of coffee and supposedly dates back as far as World War Two, when American soldiers in Italy needed a taste of home.

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The famous artist Leonardo Da Vinci was once an apprentice for:

It's hard to believe that Leonardo Da Vinci was ever green enough to be an apprentice, but when he was a young teenager, he began studying under Verrocchio in Florence. Botticelli was another frequenter of the workshop.

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After duke, what is the highest-ranked title in the British peerage?

The British peerage has five unique titles to denote rank. After duke, the highest title is that of marquess. The title is derived from the word "march," which was land that bordered another country, as opposed to counts, who ruled over interior regions called counties.

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