75 Trivia Questions for Work

1. Which American inventor is credited with arranging the QWERTY layout used on early typewriters?

2. While working as a secretary in the 1950s, Bette Nesmith Graham invented which office staple?

3. In 1938, Chester Carlson made the first copy with a dry process he called electrophotography. Which office machine did it lead to?

4. Who invented the computer mouse in the 1960s?

5. Mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote famous notes in the 1840s about which calculating machine designed by Charles Babbage?

6. Ballpoint pen developer László Bíró was born in which country?

7. The first fax patent was granted in 1843, decades before the telephone. Which country was its inventor, Alexander Bain, from?

8. The so-called lead in a modern pencil is mostly made of which material?

9. Which 18th-century English scientist suggested calling a plant gum 'rubber' because it could rub out pencil marks?

10. What was the surname of the assistant Alexander Graham Bell called for in his famous first telephone call in 1876?

11. In 1947, engineers working on the Harvard Mark II computer taped which creature into their logbook as a real bug?

12. What is a small individual workspace separated from a larger office by partitions called?

13. Which court official of China's Han dynasty is traditionally credited with inventing paper around 105 CE?

14. Johannes Gutenberg developed his movable-type printing press in which modern-day country?

15. Samuel Morse's famous 1844 telegraph message traveled from Washington, D.C., to which city?

16. Roughly how long did the Pony Express carry mail across the American West before the telegraph replaced it?

17. What does ZIP stand for in a United States ZIP code?

18. The first United States postage stamps, issued in 1847, showed George Washington and which other founder?

19. The very first U.S. patent, signed by George Washington in 1790, covered a better way of making what?

20. In the United States, Labor Day is observed on which day?

21. Which 1938 United States law introduced a federal minimum wage and overtime pay?

22. Which term for working from home is credited to engineer Jack Nilles, who studied it in the early 1970s?

23. Cuneiform, one of the earliest writing systems, was pressed into clay tablets in which ancient region?

24. Which carved stone helped scholars crack Egyptian hieroglyphs in the 1820s?

25. ENIAC, an early general-purpose electronic computer unveiled in 1946, was built at which university?

26. What part of the coffee plant is a coffee bean?

27. What does a seismograph measure?

28. What does a Geiger counter detect?

29. What is the chemical symbol for iron?

30. What does a barometer measure?

31. Which color of visible light has the longest wavelength?

32. What does LED stand for in LED lighting?

33. Earth's inner core is made mostly of which two metals?

34. On the Kelvin temperature scale, what number marks absolute zero?

35. What happens to the boiling point of water high up on a mountain?

36. Does a cup of decaf coffee contain any caffeine?

37. In 1908, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda identified which savory fifth basic taste?

38. Which planet in our solar system is the only one whose English name does not come from Greek or Roman mythology?

39. The Gobi Desert stretches across parts of which two countries?

40. What is the capital city of New Zealand?

41. Angel Falls, the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, is in which country?

42. What makes the Sargasso Sea unusual among the world's seas?

43. Which narrow strait separates Asia from North America?

44. The Maldives, a nation of low-lying coral islands, sits in which ocean?

45. The Suez Canal links the Mediterranean Sea with which other sea?

46. The Amazon River empties into which ocean?

47. Which U.S. state has the longest shoreline?

48. Geirangerfjord, a UNESCO-listed fjord with tall waterfalls, is in which country?

49. The Okavango Delta, a huge inland delta whose river never reaches the sea, is in which country?

50. Which major city sits on both Europe and Asia, divided by the Bosporus strait?

51. Which city is the northernmost capital of a sovereign country?

52. The word salary comes from a Latin word linked to which seasoning?

53. The modern 'time limit' sense of deadline grew out of jargon in which workplace?

54. The word robot was introduced in a 1920 play by a writer from which modern-day country?

55. The word clock traces back to a medieval Latin word meaning what?

56. The word office comes from the Latin officium. What did officium mean?

57. Ergonomics, the study of comfortable and efficient workspaces, comes from the Greek word ergon. What does ergon mean?

58. The abbreviation e.g. comes from a Latin phrase meaning what?

59. What does PDF stand for?

60. Memo is short for which longer word?

61. A meeting agenda gets its name from a Latin phrase meaning what?

62. The T in CAPTCHA refers to a famous test named after which computer pioneer?

63. In an office email, what does ASAP stand for?

64. How many hours are in one week?

65. When ordering office supplies, how many items are in a gross?

66. In older English, a score means how many?

67. The metric prefix giga, as in gigabyte, means how many?

68. Which month is named after the first Roman emperor?

69. September's name comes from the Latin word for which number?

70. The word calendar comes from the Latin name for which day of each Roman month?

71. Pi Day is celebrated on which date because pi begins 3.14?

72. How many bits make up one byte?

73. How many degrees are in a full circle?

74. How many days are in a fortnight?

75. According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, on which date did the 21st century officially begin?