Q40 · SUNDAY BIG QUIZ
The Sunday Big Quiz — 30 August 2026
Play the Sunday Big Quiz for 30 August 2026: 40 free general-knowledge questions covering Geography, History, Nature and Current Affairs, with explanations and crowd results.
About this edition
This 40-question The Quiz Post edition was published for 30 August 2026. Answer all four-option questions to reveal sourced explanations and see how other players answered.
Topics in this edition include Geography, History, Nature and Current Affairs.
Questions and sourced explanations
This archive edition remains playable. The notes below contain spoilers and provide the question text, explanatory context and source used for each item.
Read this edition’s question notes (spoilers)
Society & Culture · Medium
1. Which two animals support the royal coat of arms used outside Scotland?
The supporters are the English lion and the Scottish unicorn.
Geography · Medium
2. Which country is completely surrounded by South Africa?
Lesotho is an enclave: its entire international border is with South Africa.
Science · Medium
3. A Foucault pendulum provides a visible demonstration of what movement?
The pendulum's swing plane appears to rotate relative to the floor because Earth turns beneath it.
Food & Drink · Medium
4. What causes the eye-stinging vapour released when an onion is cut?
Cutting onion cells triggers reactions that produce a volatile sulfur compound which reaches the eyes and causes irritation.
Nature · Medium
5. What metal in the oxygen-carrying protein hemocyanin helps give horseshoe crab blood its blue colour?
Horseshoe crabs use copper-containing hemocyanin rather than iron-based haemoglobin to carry oxygen, which gives their blood its blue colour.
Current Affairs · Medium
6. On 26 August 2026, MPs asked social media companies to tackle videos promoting which behaviour?
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee wrote to video-sharing platforms about dangerous driving content and the risk of copycat behaviour.
Source: CMS Committee writes to social media companies over dangerous driving content -
Geography · Medium
7. The Broads National Park lies in Norfolk and which neighbouring English county?
The protected waterways are known as the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.
Literature · Medium
8. The novelist George Eliot published under that pen name; what was her birth name?
George Eliot was the pen name of English novelist Mary Ann Evans.
Arts · Medium
9. In painting, what does the technique 'pointillism' build an image from?
Pointillist painters apply small separate dots or touches of colour that visually combine when viewed from a distance.
Geography · Medium
10. Which ocean current helps keep western Europe milder than comparable latitudes in eastern Canada?
The North Atlantic Current and its extensions transport warm water northeastward and influence western Europe's climate.
History · Medium
11. In 1918, most women newly eligible to vote in UK parliamentary elections had to be at least what age?
The 1918 reform gave some women over 30 the vote; equal voting ages came in 1928.
Technology · Medium
12. A lidar sensor builds a 3D picture of its surroundings by sending out what?
Lidar sends out laser pulses and measures the returned light to determine distances, allowing systems to build detailed three-dimensional point clouds.
Sport · Medium
13. How many events make up an Olympic decathlon?
The decathlon combines ten track-and-field events across two days.
Nature · Medium
14. Despite its name, the whale shark feeds mainly by doing what?
Whale sharks are filter feeders, straining plankton and other small prey from the water.
Current Affairs · Medium
15. Which chipmaker said this week it expects about $108 billion in revenue for its current quarter?
Nvidia forecast roughly $108 billion in third-quarter revenue after reporting another quarter of rapid AI-driven growth.
Food & Drink · Medium
16. What gives many Islay whiskies their characteristic smoky flavour?
Peat is used when drying malted barley, giving many Islay whiskies their distinctive smoky character.
History · Medium
17. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas attempted to divide newly encountered overseas lands between which two kingdoms?
The treaty drew a line intended to allocate overseas spheres between the crowns of Portugal and Castile-Spain.
Geography · Medium
18. Lake Titicaca lies on the border of Peru and which other country?
Lake Titicaca straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia in the Andes.
Science · Medium
19. On the moment magnitude scale, an increase of one whole number represents about how many times greater wave amplitude?
Earthquake magnitude scales are logarithmic: one magnitude unit corresponds to a tenfold increase in recorded wave amplitude.
Technology · Medium
20. Who designed the successful Rover safety bicycle of 1885?
Starley's design helped establish the familiar layout of the modern bicycle.
Arts · Hard
21. In visual art, 'chiaroscuro' refers primarily to the dramatic use of what?
Chiaroscuro uses strong tonal contrasts between light and dark to model form and create dramatic effects.
Literature · Hard
22. Which Argentine writer wrote the story collection 'Ficciones'?
Jorge Luis Borges's Ficciones is a landmark collection of philosophical and fantastical short fiction.
History · Hard
23. The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 took place at which Manchester meeting ground?
The name Peterloo refers to the violent dispersal of reform demonstrators at St Peter's Field.
Source: People’s History Museum Celebrates Radical Manchester - People's History Museum:
Technology · Hard
24. Dennis Ritchie co-created the Unix operating system at Bell Labs with which computer scientist?
Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie were central creators of Unix at Bell Labs, alongside later contributors.
Current Affairs · Hard
25. In its 27 August 2026 care report, a parliamentary committee called for English law to fully incorporate which UN convention?
The Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended incorporating the children's rights convention to strengthen protection and accountability in social care.
Source: Children’s social care system failing to support young adults starting life – JC
Nature · Hard
26. What is the usual name for an otter's den beside a British river?
An otter's sheltered breeding den is called a holt.
Geography · Hard
27. Nakhchivan is an exclave separated from the rest of which country?
Nakhchivan is an autonomous republic and exclave of Azerbaijan, separated from the country's main territory by Armenia.
Science · Hard
28. Which atmospheric gas produces the most common green colour seen in auroras?
The common pale-green auroral emission comes from excited atomic oxygen; nitrogen contributes more strongly to blue and purple colours.
Arts · Hard
29. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a founding member of which British art group?
Rossetti helped found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848.
Food & Drink · Hard
30. The browning known as the Maillard reaction mainly occurs between reducing sugars and what?
The Maillard reaction is a network of heat-driven reactions between reducing sugars and amino compounds, including amino acids.
History · Hard
31. The 1618 Defenestration of Prague helped ignite which major European conflict?
The Prague defenestration intensified the Bohemian revolt and is commonly treated as a trigger of the Thirty Years' War.
Music · Hard
32. In music theory, a tritone spans how many whole tones?
A tritone is an interval of six semitones, equal to three whole tones.
Music · Hard
33. Which instrument is traditionally described as Scotland's national musical instrument?
The great Highland bagpipe is strongly associated with Scottish music.
Source: Hanging Decoration - Tartan Bagpipes – National Museums Scotland Shop
Film & TV · Hard
34. Akira Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai' was remade in Hollywood as which western?
The Magnificent Seven adapted the basic story of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai to a western setting.
Current Affairs · Hard
35. At Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games this week, which robot set an 8.64-second benchmark in the 100 metres?
Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, ran the robot 100 metres in 8.64 seconds.
Business & Economics · Hard
36. Which company is often credited with issuing the world's first widely traded shares in 1602?
The Dutch East India Company raised capital through transferable shares traded in Amsterdam, a milestone in stock-market history.
Nature · Hard
37. Large albatrosses can travel efficiently by repeatedly crossing wind-speed gradients in a technique called what?
Dynamic soaring lets albatrosses extract energy from differences in wind speed above the ocean surface.
Nature · Hard
38. Which of these trees commonly found in Britain is an evergreen broadleaf rather than a conifer?
Holly retains its leaves through winter and is a broadleaved tree.
Source: British Trees and Shrubs To Plant In Gardens - Woodland Trust
Science · Hard
39. The blue glow called Cherenkov radiation occurs when a charged particle moves faster than what?
A charged particle can exceed the phase velocity of light in a material even though it cannot exceed light's vacuum speed, producing Cherenkov radiation.
History · Hard
40. Mansa Musa, famous for a lavish 14th-century pilgrimage to Mecca, ruled which empire?
Mansa Musa was ruler of the Mali Empire, whose wealth was closely associated with West African gold and trade.