40 Silly Trivia Questions

1. Buckwheat has a misleading name: which plant is in its botanical family?

2. An old menu offers sweetmeats. Which plate fits that word?

3. The classic New York egg cream leaves out which pair of ingredients?

4. The tart red spice sumac is made by grinding which part of the plant?

5. Fresh cheese curds can squeak against your teeth. What produces the squeak?

6. Romanesco cauliflower looks like a vegetable copying itself. Its repeating little cones resemble what mathematical pattern?

7. The little pearls in tapioca pudding start with starch from which plant?

8. A turophile arrives at the buffet. Which section is their natural habitat?

9. Despite its name, the aardwolf is a hyena relative that mainly dines on what?

10. What is unusual about an adult pancake tortoise’s shell?

11. A mountain chicken hopping through the Caribbean is actually what?

12. A lowland streaked tenrec has an unusual sound-making kit. Which body parts does it vibrate to communicate?

13. Which gymnastic move can a spotted skunk use as a warning display?

14. Nine-banded armadillos nearly always have which unusually coordinated family arrival?

15. Why does an American pika collect vegetation into little hay piles?

16. A quokka can get a snack above ground level by doing what?

17. The ancient Lycurgus Cup looks green in reflected light. What color appears when light shines through it from behind?

18. A bent tin bar can make a sound called tin cry. What kind of sound is it?

19. A Prince Rupert’s drop has a tough bulb and a delicate tail. What material is this tadpole-shaped curiosity made from?

20. Silica aerogel can look like a chunk of solid fog. What fills most of its volume?

21. Which US agency’s research helped bring memory foam into mattresses and cushions?

22. Forget the slow-flowing-window myth: at room temperature, ordinary window glass is what?

23. Ferrofluid can form a crowd of little spikes when which object is brought nearby?

24. Properly prepared shape-memory nitinol wire can recover a previous shape when it is what?

25. Specially coated hydrophobic sand can emerge dry from water because its coating does what?

26. A classic Möbius strip gives an imaginary ant how many continuous sides to explore?

27. Some beaches and dunes make squeaks or booms. What is doing the vibrating in these singing sands?

28. A Russian-thistle tumbleweed rolls away like it has an appointment. What useful job does its journey do?

29. In a forest showing crown shyness, what gives the treetops a jigsaw-puzzle appearance?

30. A gypsum desert rose in a geology case has petal-like forms made from what?

31. The squirting cucumber lives up to its name by launching what from its ripe fruit?

32. On the right track, square wheels can roll smoothly. What shape must the track use?

33. A manicule in an old book looks like a tiny reader doing what?

34. Boustrophedon writing would make your eyes do what at the end of each line?

35. The accidental dictionary entry dord was mistakenly given a meaning. What was it?

36. A pilcrow sounds like a bird but is actually which mark?

37. What is the name for inserting a word inside another word, as in any-old-where?

38. A decorative fake rivet molded into a one-piece plastic object is an example of what?

39. Tintinnabulation sounds complicated. Which ordinary noise does it describe?

40. A friend announces a postprandial nap. What has just happened?