Office party trivia questions

All 30 office party trivia questions, with answers

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1. 1. How many colors are in a rainbow?

   • 5
   • 6
   • 7
   • 8
   Show answer

   7. Isaac Newton picked seven partly because he wanted the count to match the seven notes of a musical scale.

2. 2. What is the tallest mountain above sea level?

   • K2
   • Mount Everest
   • Kangchenjunga
   • Denali
   Show answer

   Mount Everest. Everest grows a few millimeters taller every year as the Indian plate pushes into Asia.

3. 3. After water, what is the most consumed beverage in the world?

   • Coffee
   • Beer
   • Tea
   • Orange juice
   Show answer

   Tea. All true tea — green, black, oolong — comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis.

4. 4. Which planet is known as the Red Planet?

   • Venus
   • Jupiter
   • Saturn
   • Mars
   Show answer

   Mars. The red color is iron oxide — the planet is literally rusty.

5. 5. What does 'www' stand for?

   • World Wide Web
   • Web World Wide
   • Wide World Web
   • World Web Wire
   Show answer

   World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee invented the web in 1989 and put the first website online at CERN in 1991.

6. 6. How many continents are there?

   • 5
   • 6
   • 7
   • 8
   Show answer

   7. By the most common count — though some countries teach six, combining Europe and Asia or the Americas.

7. 7. Which company's logo is an apple with a bite taken out of it?

   • Apple
   • Applebee's
   • Snapple
   • Apple Records
   Show answer

   Apple. The bite was added partly so the fruit wouldn't be mistaken for a cherry at small sizes.

8. 8. In what year did the first iPhone go on sale?

   • 2005
   • 2006
   • 2007
   • 2008
   Show answer

   2007. It launched without an App Store — that arrived a year later, in 2008.

9. 9. What is the largest ocean on Earth?

   • Atlantic
   • Indian
   • Arctic
   • Pacific
   Show answer

   Pacific. The Pacific covers more area than all of Earth's land combined.

10. 10. How many minutes are in a full day?

    • 1,240
    • 1,440
    • 1,640
    • 2,440
    Show answer

    1,440. 24 hours times 60 minutes — and a Mars day runs about 40 minutes longer.

11. 11. What is the capital of Australia?

    • Sydney
    • Melbourne
    • Canberra
    • Brisbane
    Show answer

    Canberra. Canberra was purpose-built as a compromise because Sydney and Melbourne both wanted the title.

12. 12. Coffee beans are actually what?

    • Roasted roots
    • Seeds of a fruit
    • Dried flower buds
    • A type of nut
    Show answer

    Seeds of a fruit. They're the pits of the coffee cherry, a small red fruit — 'bean' is just a nickname.

13. 13. Some months have 31 days and some have 30. How many have 28?

    • 1
    • 2
    • 6
    • All 12
    Show answer

    All 12. Every month has at least 28 days — February is just the only one that can stop there.

14. 14. In email, what does 'CC' stand for?

    • Courtesy copy
    • Carbon copy
    • Copy confirmed
    • Central copy
    Show answer

    Carbon copy. It comes from the carbon paper once used to duplicate typed letters.

15. 15. How do honeybees tell hive-mates where food is?

    • A dance
    • A buzz pattern
    • A scent trail only
    • Wing colors
    Show answer

    A dance. The 'waggle dance' encodes both the direction and distance to the flowers.

16. 16. Which language has the most native speakers?

    • English
    • Spanish
    • Hindi
    • Mandarin Chinese
    Show answer

    Mandarin Chinese. English wins on total speakers, but Mandarin has roughly a billion native speakers.

17. 17. Where does the QWERTY keyboard get its name?

    • Its inventor
    • The first six letters of its top row
    • A typing competition
    • A Latin word
    Show answer

    The first six letters of its top row. The layout dates to 1870s typewriters and was designed around jam-prone mechanical arms.

18. 18. The Eiffel Tower gets measurably taller in summer. Why?

    • Tourist additions
    • Heat expands the iron
    • The base sinks in winter
    • It doesn't
    Show answer

    Heat expands the iron. Thermal expansion adds up to about 15 centimeters on hot days.

19. 19. Which country invented paper?

    • Egypt
    • Greece
    • China
    • India
    Show answer

    China. Papermaking is traditionally credited to Cai Lun, a Chinese court official, around 105 AD.

20. 20. How many bones are in the adult human body?

    • 186
    • 206
    • 226
    • 246
    Show answer

    206. Babies are born with around 300 — many fuse together as they grow.

21. 21. What is the smallest country in the world?

    • Monaco
    • San Marino
    • Liechtenstein
    • Vatican City
    Show answer

    Vatican City. At about 0.2 square miles, it would fit inside New York's Central Park several times over.

22. 22. Post-it Notes were invented at which company — by accident?

    • 3M
    • Staples
    • Xerox
    • HP
    Show answer

    3M. A 3M chemist invented a glue too weak to be useful; a colleague used it to keep bookmarks in his hymnal.

23. 23. What is the currency of Japan?

    • Won
    • Yuan
    • Yen
    • Ringgit
    Show answer

    Yen. Japanese coins include a 5-yen piece with a hole in the middle, considered lucky.

24. 24. Which river is traditionally cited as the longest in the world?

    • The Amazon
    • The Nile
    • The Yangtze
    • The Mississippi
    Show answer

    The Nile. The Nile runs about 4,100 miles — though some measurements put the Amazon ahead, and the debate is ongoing.

25. 25. Which planet has the most known moons?

    • Jupiter
    • Saturn
    • Uranus
    • Neptune
    Show answer

    Saturn. Astronomers have pushed Saturn's count past 200 in recent years as detection improves.

26. 26. What were the first characters ever sent over the internet's predecessor, ARPANET?

    • 'HI'
    • 'LO'
    • 'OK'
    • 'GO'
    Show answer

    'LO'. The 1969 message was meant to be 'LOGIN' — the system crashed after two letters.

27. 27. What does GIF stand for?

    • Graphics Interchange Format
    • General Image File
    • Graphical Internet Format
    • Generated Image Frame
    Show answer

    Graphics Interchange Format. Its creator insists it's pronounced 'jif' — the internet has never accepted this.

28. 28. What is the national animal of Scotland?

    • The stag
    • The lion
    • The unicorn
    • The golden eagle
    Show answer

    The unicorn. The unicorn has appeared on the Scottish royal coat of arms since the 1500s.

29. 29. How many squares are on a chessboard?

    • 49
    • 64
    • 72
    • 81
    Show answer

    64. An 8-by-8 grid — and the number of possible chess games dwarfs the number of atoms in the observable universe.

30. 30. How many hearts does an octopus have?

    • 1
    • 2
    • 3
    • 4
    Show answer

    3. Two pump blood to the gills, one to the body — and the blood is blue, thanks to copper instead of iron.

Turn these into a quiz that collects answers

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