Eight is a Super Number Trivia Quiz

Answer: Forty

The story of Ali Baba is well known as it has been made into films several times. Ali Baba is a woodcutter who overhears a gang of thieves talking about their hoard of stolen treasure. The magic words to gain entrance are 'open sesame', and this phrase is commonly used in everyday life. Of course, there were forty thieves, not just eight.

Answer: Two

The rhyme should be 'Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall; one named Peter, one named Paul; fly away Peter, fly away Paul; come back Peter, come back Paul'. There are actions to go with the story as well, to show the bird flying away and returning.

The rhyme is old, with it first being heard of in the 1760s, when the birds were called Jack and Gill. The same rhyme is used in America, but often calling the birds blackbirds instead of dickie birds.

Answer: Ten thousand

The Duke of York wouldn't have got far with only eight men, but ten thousand would make a big army. Nobody is sure which Duke of York the song is about and there are other versions using different names even in the UK. The song is about the Duke wasting his time in marching all the men up a hill only to bring them straight back down again.

Answer: Nine

The myth that cats have nine lives has been around for a long time. Shakespeare mentions it in his play 'Romeo and Juliet', for example, which was written in the 1590s. Cats are quite adept at getting out of danger, and it is true that they have the ability to land on their feet and avoid injury, but they only live once.

Other countries have similar sayings, but not always with the same number of lives. In some places it's seven and others it's six, but nine is the one most of us know.

Answer: Eighty

This question comes from the book by Jules Verne, which came out in 1872. The hero of the novel 'Around the World in Eighty Days', takes on a bet that he can't travel around the world from London back to London within that time. Of course, there were no aeroplanes to shorten the journeys then, so most of it was done by train.

There have been several films based on the book and it has also inspired many real life people to copy the journey.

Answer: One hundred and one

Of course, there were really a hundred and one Dalmatians in the story written by Dodie Smith in 1956 and in the films which have been made using the story. The wicked Cruella de Vil steals lots of puppies, planning to make their skins into a coat. In the book, the parent dogs are called Pongo and Missis, but the mother's name was changed to Perdita for the first film and that's the name most of us know.

Answer: Three

That farmer's wife might have had more trouble catching eight mice than the three she really dealt with. The rhyme goes like this: Three blind mice, three blind mice; see how they run, see how they run; they all ran after the farmer's wife; who cut off their tails with a carving knife; did ever you see such a thing in your life; as three blind mice'.

The rhyme has been around a long time - the first published version dates from 1609.

Answer: One thousand and one

'One Thousand and One Nights' is a collection of stories which includes the tale of 'Ali Baba', which I've already mentioned, 'Aladdin' and 'Sinbad the Sailor'. The stories are told by a woman called Scheherazade, who is married to a king who kills his wives. By not finishing any of the stories on the same night she begins them she leaves the king wanting to know the outcome, meaning she can stay alive for as long as she can up with new tales. What a clever way to outwit someone.

Answer: One thousand

This saying has been around for years in different versions, but is often credited to an American named Frederick Barnard in 1921. He was promoting the idea that using a picture to advertise something is more effective than writing a lot of words. The idea wasn't new, though, and it's true that a look at a picture can often tell you what you need to know more quickly than having to read a block of text - like this information section.

Answer: Six

It's really sixpence, not eightpence, in this old English nursery rhyme. Nobody is sure when it dates from but it was certainly around in 1744. The original words didn't mention 'four and twenty blackbirds' being baked in a pie, but was about twenty-four naughty boys instead.

A sixpence was an English coin which stopped being made in 1971, when the UK changed to decimal currency. People could still use them until 1980, and a new version, meant for collectors, was issued in 2016.