The Story of Stuff Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hadean Eon

The formation of the earth is estimated to have occurred between 3.9 and 4.6 billion years ago. The Archeozoic Eon followed, a period where the first signs of life appeared on earth in the form of single-celled organisms and bacterial sea life. The Mesozoic Era was the age of reptiles (concluding with the extinction of dinosaurs around 65 million years ago); the quartenary period was part of the current period known as the Cenozoic Era (age of mammals), which includes the dominance of humans.

Answer: Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia comes from the Greek meaning "land between rivers". This name indicates its location between two major river systems, the Tigris and the Euphrates. Along with the wheel, Mesopotamia is also credited with being the first civilization to produce written documents.

Answer: Animal bones

The flute appeared in a range of locations, the earliest being a three-hole flute made from a mammoth tusk found in Germany.

Answer: Purple

Purple dyes came from shellfish and molluscs, which were very hard to obtain. Not only that, many sea animals were required to create the desired strength of color, meaning it was incredibly expensive (often more than gold).

Answer: glass

Some of the first manufactured glass appeared in around 3000BC as a ceramic glaze. Very early glass production was extremely slow and tedious, using furnaces that were barely hot enough to produce the desired effect. Glass blowing was first thought to be practised in around 30BC, with the Romans perfecting the art in the first four centuries AD (known as 'the first golden age of glass').

Answer: South America

The discovery of large gold deposits in Brazil in 1700 produced much excitement, with people travelling from all over the country (and even some making the journey from Portugal, its colonial ruler) to make their fortune. By 1720 Brazil had become the world's largest producer of gold, holding no less than two-thirds of the entire stock of gold.

Answer: Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, born in 1475, sculpted his two most famous works ("Pieta" and "David") before he turned 30. He is considered, along with Leonardo da Vinci, to be a true "Renaissance Man", being skilled not only in sculpting and painting, but also engineering, architecture and poetry.

Answer: Antarctica

Incredibly, the Ancient Greeks wrote about Antartica in 350BC (correctly guessing of its existence, it seems, given that they had no means to visit!). The first person to set foot on Antarctica is still debated among historians, but what is not disputed is that it happened some time in the 19th Century, making it certainly the last continent to be explored.

In fact, due to the inhospitable conditions, it is the only continent to be *truly discovered* - in the sense that there were no native peoples living there prior to its exploration.

Answer: False

The first espresso machine was introduced to France in 1822, although the first automatic espresso machine did not appear until over 100 years later. Instant coffee was not invented until 1901, by a Japanese chemist named Satori Kato (who was living in Chicago at the time).

Answer: Yahoo

The name Yahoo! has been quoted as being an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" but its inventors claim they simply like the definition of a yahoo (being a rude and unsophisticated person). Yahoo had over 100,000 visitors in 1994 after changing its name - modest by 21st century standards but impressive in the early years of the world wide web.