Pub quizzes always feel easy right up until somebody asks a question that completely wipes your brain clean in front of everyone at the table.
One minute you’re flying through geography and music, and the next you suddenly cannot remember how many sides a snowflake has despite learning it at school about 400 times. This quiz jumps between science, nature, history, maths, and random facts people probably know somewhere deep down but may struggle to drag back out under pressure.
1. What celebrated its 20th birthday on 6th August 2011?
This completely changed modern life, even though most people now use it every single day without thinking twice about it.
a) The iPhone
b) Wikipedia
c) The World Wide Web
d) Google Maps
2. What is the common name for the Antirrhinum?
Garden questions always sound impossible until you hear the answer and suddenly realise your grandparents probably mentioned it constantly.
a) Bluebell
b) Snapdragon
c) Foxglove
d) Buttercup
3. What does the term hypertension refer to?
This is one of those medical words people hear all the time without always remembering what it actually means.
a) Low blood sugar
b) High blood pressure
c) Chest infection
d) Arthritis
4. Which element gets its symbol from the Latin word Plumbum?
The periodic table becomes much harder once questions stop using the normal English names.
a) Silver
b) Gold
c) Lead
d) Copper
5. What name is given to the study of movements in the Earth’s crust?
This area of science helps explain earthquakes, volcanoes, and why continents slowly move over time.
a) Astronomy
b) Tectonics
c) Ecology
d) Meteorology
6. What bird appears on the RSPB logo?
Most people have seen this logo many times without ever properly noticing the bird itself.
a) Puffin
b) Robin
c) Avocet
d) Kingfisher
7. According to the Mohs scale, what is the softest mineral?
This scientific scale measures how resistant minerals are to scratching and damage.
a) Quartz
b) Diamond
c) Talc
d) Granite
8. What is a baby owl called?
Animal questions always become weirdly stressful in quizzes because people suddenly doubt even the most obvious answers.
a) Cub
b) Chick
c) Owlet
d) Fledgling
9. What colour are the flowers on a Christmas cactus usually?
Even people who are terrible with plants have probably seen one of these sitting in somebody’s kitchen at Christmas.
a) Yellow
b) Blue
c) Red or purple
d) White
10. What is Vitamin B3 more commonly known as?
Vitamin names often sound much more complicated once the scientific version gets involved.
a) Riboflavin
b) Niacin
c) Folate
d) Biotin
11. Which car company made the famous Silver Ghost model?
This luxury vehicle became one of the most famous cars of the early 1900s.
a) Bentley
b) Jaguar
c) Rolls-Royce
d) Aston Martin
12. What is the only letter that does not appear in the periodic table?
This sounds fake until you actually stop and think through the alphabet properly.
a) Q
b) J
c) X
d) Z
13. How many sides does every snowflake have?
Snowflakes may all look different, but they still follow the same basic shape structure.
a) Four
b) Five
c) Six
d) Eight
14. Bastet, the cat goddess, was worshipped by which ancient civilisation?
Ancient history becomes much easier once cats enter the conversation.
a) Romans
b) Greeks
c) Egyptians
d) Vikings
15. Which is the largest of all the big cats?
It is not the loudest or fastest, but it is definitely the biggest.
a) Lion
b) Jaguar
c) Leopard
d) Tiger
16. Standard deviation is mainly used in which branch of maths?
This type of maths is heavily used when analysing patterns, averages, and large amounts of data.
a) Algebra
b) Statistics
c) Geometry
d) Trigonometry
17. What is the name for a garden devoted mainly to trees?
This is basically the tree version of a botanical garden.
a) Conservatory
b) Greenhouse
c) Arboretum
d) Plantation
18. Which famous ocean liner made its final transatlantic journey in 1967?
This ship became one of the most famous passenger liners in history.
a) Titanic
b) Queen Elizabeth 2
c) RMS Queen Mary
d) Britannic
19. How many yards are in a furlong?
Old-fashioned measurement questions are brilliant at making people suddenly furious.
a) 120
b) 180
c) 220
d) 300
20. Which bird has the largest wingspan on Earth?
This bird can glide enormous distances across oceans without flapping its wings much at all.
a) Eagle
b) Condor
c) Albatross
d) Crane
The answers
1. The World Wide Web
2. Snapdragon
3. High blood pressure
4. Lead
5. Tectonics
6. Avocet
7. Talc
8. Owlet
9. Red or purple
10. Niacin
11. Rolls-Royce
12. J
13. Six
14. Egyptians
15. Tiger
16. Statistics
17. Arboretum
18. RMS Queen Mary
19. 220
20. Albatross
If you got most of these right without needing to wildly guess halfway through, your pub quiz team probably feels very safe having you around. If some of them completely scrambled your brain, don’t worry too much because quiz questions have a strange ability to make intelligent people suddenly forget things they absolutely knew five minutes earlier.
