Elementary Geography Trivia Quiz

Answer: Paris

Phosphorus (P), Argon (Ar), Iodine (I) and Sulphur (S) spell out Paris, the capital of France. A trip to Paris won't be complete without visiting the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum.

Answer: Argentina

Argon is symbolised AR, and GE stands for Germanium. Nitrogen is symbolised by the single letter N. Add TI for Titanium and NA for Sodium (Latin name natrium), and you get AR - GE -N - TI - NA.

Argentina is a country in South America with quite a reputation in soccer. Diego Maradona is the icon of soccer in this country. The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires. Noteworthy places in Argentina are the pampas (grasslands) and the city of Ushuaia - the city frequently cited as the southernmost city in the world.

Answer: Ob

O stands for Oxygen and B stands for Boron. The sum is Ob, a Russian river.

The Ob is about 2,926 km long, starting where the Biya and Katun rivers merge. It flows to the north and northwest, mouthing in the Kara Sea above the Arctic Circle. The largest city near the Ob is Novosibirsk, a city known for metallurgy and gas supply.

Answer: America

Americium is named after the continent America (or after the navigator whose first name was used to describe this new world, Amerigo Vespucci). Spelling out Americium - Erbium - Iodine - Calcium results in AM-ER-I-CA, America.
The name America was coined in the Sixteenth Century to describe a very large land mass. Nowadays geographers consider this land mass as two continents (North America and South America), with a quite large isthmus (Central America) in between.

As America is quite huge, you can find various geographical features there. In search of truly unique settings, you could visit the Amazon basin, take a look at Angel Falls in Venezuela (the highest continuous cataracts), stand on a glass plateau overlooking the Grand Canyon. You could also go to a musical on Broadway in New York, visit the movie studios in Hollywood, or take pictures of the statue of Christ the Redeemer near Rio de Janeiro.

Answer: Vatican

V for Vanadium, AT for Astatinium, I for Iodine, CA for Calcium and N for Nitrogen spell out Vatican. Vatican City is the smallest independent country in the world, inhabited (officially) only by members of the Roman Catholic faith. A law promulgated in 2011 reserved the citizenship of Vatican City to officials of the Roman Catholic church, whilst all the other people living at Vatican City have been relegated to mere residents.

The most impressive building in Vatican City is Saint Peter's Basilica, situated near Saint Peter's Square. The Basilica contains the tombs of more than ninety Popes.

Answer: Rhine

RH stands for Rhodium, I for Iodine and NE for Neon. This forms very easily the name of the River Rhine.

The Rhine has its sources in Switzerland, near the borders with Liechtenstein and Austria. The river leaves Switzerland with some noteworthy waterfalls near Schaffhausen. It flows through Germany, where it has at various occasions served as a natural frontier with France. The Rhine bends to the west near Arnhem (Netherlands) and mouths into the North Sea at Rotterdam.

Various cities near the Rhine have some touristic impact: Basel (Switzerland), Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Koblenz and Cologne (Germany), Arnhem and Rotterdam (Netherlands).

Answer: Cyprus

The chemical spell gives C for Carbon - Y for Yttrium - P for Phosphorus - RU for Ruthenium - S for Sulphur, thus C-Y-P-RU-S.

Cyprus is an island nation in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Greek myth, it might have been the birth place of Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty.

The capital of Cyprus is Nicosia. Other noteworthy Cities are Limassol, Famagusta and Larnaca.

Answer: Bhopal

Bohrium (element 107) has the symbol Bh. Adding the other symbols gives BH - O - P - AL.

Bhopal is the capital city of the Indian state Madhya Pradesh. In 1984, there was a leak in the pesticide factory owned by Union Carbide. Various gases, among which the very poisonous methyl isocyanate, contaminated the air and the soil. Thousands of people died or were blinded.

Answer: Spain

S is for Sulphur, PA is the symbol for Protactinium, and IN symbolizes Indium. Put these one after the other and you get Spain.

Spain is a Mediterranean country. Some highlights of the Spanish culture include bullfighting or running the bulls (hence the hidden clue). When in Spain, you can visit the Prado museum in Madrid, the Dali Theatre and Museum in Figueres, the cathedral started by Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona, or the Alhambra in Granada.

Answer: Canberra

The spelling info is quite obvious: CA is for Calcium, NB stands for Niobium, ER stands for Erbium and RA is for Radium.

Canberra is the capital of Australia. This city was built as a compromise between the two largest cities in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne, two major harbour cities in Australia). Luckily the people who tried for a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne didn't choose Wagga Wagga (almost in the middle between the two harbour cities, but with a name that might provoke several puns).

Tourists in Canberra might visit the National Portrait Gallery or the National Film and Sound Archive. There is also a Captain James Cook Memorial and the National Botanic Gardens.