106 trivia questions for kids with answers

The giraffe.

A giraffe's neck alone is about 6 feet (1.8 meters) long. A giraffe could look into a second-floor window without standing on tiptoe.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/giraffe

The African elephant.

The biggest elephant ever measured weighed about 24,000 pounds (10,886 kilograms). Some whales in the sea, such as the blue whale, are bigger still.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/elephant

Six.

An insect's body has three parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. All six legs are joined to the middle part, the thorax.

Source: Australian Museum https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/

Silk.

Spiders make silk inside their bodies and push it out through small parts at the end of the body called spinnerets.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/spider

The bald eagle.

It was chosen as the national symbol in 1782. It is not really bald: its head is covered in white feathers.

Source: Smithsonian's National Zoo https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/bald-eagle

The Arctic.

Polar bears hunt seals on the sea ice there. You will not find penguins with them: most penguins live in the southern half of the world.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/polar-bear

The hummingbird.

A hummingbird can fly up, down, sideways, backward and even upside down, a bit like a helicopter.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hummingbird

18 to 22 hours.

Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves, which give them very little energy, so they rest for most of the day to save it.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/koala

Its upper lip.

The trunk has no bones at all, just lots of muscles. Elephants use it to breathe, smell, drink and pick things up.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/elephant

Because of the food they eat.

Flamingos eat tiny algae and shrimp-like animals that contain pink and orange coloring, the same kind of coloring that makes carrots orange.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/flamingo

No. Every zebra's stripe pattern is different.

Scientists can tell zebras apart by their stripes, the way people can be told apart by their fingerprints.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/zebra

Fat.

Not water. The fat is stored energy. When a camel goes without food, its body uses up the fat and the hump shrinks and droops.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/camel

To smell and taste the air around it.

The tongue picks up tiny scents from the air. They help the snake find food and notice what is nearby.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/snake

Their feet.

By standing on a leaf, a butterfly can taste it and tell whether its caterpillars would be able to eat it.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/butterfly-moth-and-skipper

The peregrine falcon.

When it dives to catch other birds, it can go faster than 200 miles per hour (more than 320 kilometers per hour).

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/ncbn-species-spotlight-peregrine-falcon.htm

About three-quarters of the way around.

Most owls can turn their heads up to 270 degrees in either direction. A full circle is 360 degrees, so they cannot turn all the way around.

Source: San Diego Zoo https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/owl

The saltwater crocodile, also called the estuarine crocodile.

Adults are usually 3 to 5 meters (about 10 to 16 feet) long, and big males can grow much longer. They live in northern Australia and Southeast Asia.

Source: Australian Museum https://australian.museum/learn/animals/reptiles/estuarine-crocodile/

Eight.

Each arm is covered with suction cups. The suckers help the octopus grip things, and they can also taste and smell.

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/giant-pacific-octopus

A rock.

The otter floats on its back, uses its chest as a table and bangs the hard shell with a rock until it opens.

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/sea-otter

No.

Starfish, also called sea stars, have no gills, no scales and no fins, so they are not fish at all.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/starfish.html

No.

A jellyfish has no brain, no blood and no heart. Its body is about 95 percent water.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/jellyfish.html

The whale shark.

It can grow to more than 50 feet (15 meters) long. Even so, it is gentle and eats tiny ocean food called plankton.

Source: NOAA Fisheries https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/outreach-and-education/fun-facts-about-fascinating-fish

The sea otter.

Sea otters have no thick layer of fat to keep them warm in cold water. Instead they have fur with more than a million hairs per square inch where it is thickest.

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animals/animals-a-to-z/sea-otter

No.

A shark's skeleton is made of cartilage, the same bendy material that is in the tip of your nose and your ears.

Source: NOAA Fisheries https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/12-shark-facts-may-surprise-you

Their gills.

Water flows over the gills, and tiny blood vessels inside them take in the oxygen the fish needs.

Source: NOAA Fisheries https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/outreach-and-education/fun-facts-about-fascinating-fish

An animal.

Coral looks like a plant, but it catches food with tiny tentacles instead of making its own. Reefs are built from the hard skeletons of tiny coral animals called polyps.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral.html

More than 70 percent.

That is more than two-thirds of the whole planet. The ocean also holds about 97 percent of all of Earth's water.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanwater.html

Plankton.

The word comes from a Greek word for 'drifter' or 'wanderer'. Most plankton are too small to see without a microscope.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/plankton.html

Rocks on land.

Rain slowly wears rocks down and washes tiny bits of salt into rivers, and the rivers carry it to the sea. Some salt also comes from openings in the seafloor.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/whysalty.html

Seawater.

Sea stars pump seawater through a system of tubes inside their bodies. The same tubes help them move their tiny tube feet.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/starfish.html

Other animals. It was a meat-eater.

T. rex had about 60 pointed teeth with jagged edges, strong enough to crunch through bone.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/tyrannosaurus.html

Triceratops.

It had two long horns above its eyes, a shorter horn on its nose and a big bony frill behind its head.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/triceratops.html

Stegosaurus.

It probably swung its spiked tail to defend itself from meat-eaters such as Allosaurus.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/stegosaurus.html

No.

The big dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago, long before the first people. Their fossils are found in older rock layers, below the first human fossils.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fossilday/faq.htm

A paleontologist.

Paleontologists study fossils such as bones, shells, leaves and footprints to learn about life long ago.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fossilday/faq.htm

Birds.

Birds come from small, feathered, meat-eating dinosaurs. So every pigeon and chicken is a living dinosaur.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/archaeopteryx.html

A giant asteroid, a big rock from space.

Its crater is now mostly buried under the seafloor off the coast of Mexico. Birds are the only dinosaurs that survived.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html

Terrible lizard.

The scientist Richard Owen made up the name in 1842. He meant 'fearfully great' lizards, because the animals were so big.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-dinosaurs-got-their-name.html

No.

Pterosaurs lived at the same time as dinosaurs and were their relatives, but they belong to a separate group of reptiles.

Source: Natural History Museum, London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-are-dinosaurs.html

No. It reflects light from the Sun.

What we call moonlight is really sunlight bouncing off the Moon's surface.

Source: NASA https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-the-moon/en/

Earth.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. So far, scientists have not found life anywhere else.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/

About 365 days, or one year.

It really takes 365 and a quarter days. That extra quarter of a day is the reason we have leap years.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/

Craters.

The Moon has no wind or air to wear craters away, so they stay there for a very long time.

Source: NASA https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-the-moon/en/

Neptune.

Neptune is the eighth planet. Pluto is farther away, but it is now called a dwarf planet.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/neptune/facts/

Mercury.

Mercury is only a little bigger than Earth's Moon. It is also the planet closest to the Sun.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/mercury/facts/

A dwarf planet.

In 2006 scientists agreed on a new meaning of the word 'planet', and Pluto was moved into the group of dwarf planets. That left eight planets.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planets/

Saturn.

As of August 2026, NASA counts 293 confirmed moons for Saturn, far more than any other planet.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/saturn/moons/

About 24 hours, or one day.

Earth's spin gives us day and night. NASA measures one full spin at 23.9 hours.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/

Sally Ride.

She flew on the space shuttle Challenger on June 18, 1983.

Source: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/history/sally-ride-first-american-woman-in-space/

A dog.

She flew on a Soviet spacecraft called Sputnik 2. Her flight helped scientists learn how living things cope in space.

Source: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/history/60-years-ago-the-first-animal-in-orbit/

About one-sixth as strong.

That is why astronauts walking on the Moon seemed to bounce along the ground.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/

Hydrogen and helium.

Deep inside the Sun, hydrogen is squeezed together to make helium. That gives off the Sun's heat and light.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/sun/facts/

Mars.

The volcano is called Olympus Mons, and it is far taller than Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/mars/facts/

Venus.

Venus spins very slowly. One spin takes 243 Earth days, but one trip around the Sun takes only 225 Earth days.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/venus/facts/

16.

The station goes all the way around Earth about every 90 minutes, so it passes through 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every 24 hours.

Source: NASA https://www.nasa.gov/international-space-station/space-station-facts-and-figures/

Earth.

The name comes from old English and German words that simply mean 'the ground'.

Source: NASA https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/

Your heart.

Your heart is a strong muscle near the middle of your chest. It keeps pumping all day and all night.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart

Your lungs.

Your lungs take oxygen from the air and pass it into your blood, and they get rid of a waste gas when you breathe out.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/lungs

Taste buds.

Many of the little bumps on your tongue hold taste buds. A newborn baby has about 10,000 of them.

Source: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/taste-disorders

Your skin.

Skin covers the whole outside of your body. It keeps germs out and keeps water in.

Source: MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medicine) https://medlineplus.gov/skinconditions.html

20.

Babies are born with all 20 already hidden in their jaws. Later, 32 adult teeth replace them.

Source: American Dental Association https://www.mouthhealthy.org/all-topics-a-z/baby-teeth

206.

Babies start out with about 300 bones. Many of them grow together as children get older.

Source: National Cancer Institute (SEER Training) https://training.seer.cancer.gov/anatomy/skeletal/divisions/

Four.

The two top chambers collect blood coming in. The two bottom chambers pump it out to the lungs and the rest of the body.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/heart/anatomy

The iris.

The iris makes the dark opening in the middle, the pupil, bigger or smaller to let in more or less light.

Source: National Eye Institute https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/healthy-vision/how-eyes-work

9 to 12 hours.

Sleep helps your body grow and your brain learn. Teenagers need a little less: 8 to 10 hours.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/how-much-sleep

Up to about 60 percent.

That is more than half. Babies have even more: a newborn is about 78 percent water.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body

In your ear.

It is called the stirrup and sits just behind your eardrum. It is about 3 millimeters long, smaller than a grain of rice.

Source: Nemours KidsHealth https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/bones.html

The left lung.

Your heart sits a little toward the left side of your chest, so the left lung has less room.

Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/lungs/respiratory-system

A tornado.

Air is invisible, so you usually see a tornado only when it fills with water droplets, dust and bits of broken things.

Source: NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/tornadoes/

Lava.

While the melted rock is still underground, it is called magma. Once it comes out of the volcano, it is called lava.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/about-volcanoes

Six.

Every snowflake grows from a tiny ice crystal with six sides, so its arms branch out in sixes.

Source: NOAA https://www.noaa.gov/stories/how-do-snowflakes-form-get-science-behind-snow

Antarctica.

It is almost completely covered by ice that is, on average, more than a mile thick.

Source: NASA https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3540/

Seven.

They are Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

Source: NASA https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3540/

Hotter.

Lightning can heat the air around it to 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, about five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.

Source: National Weather Service https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-overview

Lightning. It heats the air so fast that the air suddenly expands with a boom.

The sudden push of air travels out as a sound wave, and we hear it as a crack or a rumble.

Source: National Weather Service https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-thunder

Yellowstone.

It was set up in the United States in 1872. It is home to Old Faithful, a geyser that shoots hot water high into the air.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/exploreoldfaithful.htm

The coast redwood.

Coast redwoods grow along the coast of northern California and southern Oregon. Each one starts from a seed about the size of a tomato seed.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/battle-of-the-bark.htm

Photosynthesis.

Plants use sunlight, water and a gas from the air to make food. While they do it, they give off oxygen that people and animals breathe.

Source: NOAA Ocean Exploration https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/photochemo.html

About 2 miles.

The sound of thunder travels about 1 mile every 5 seconds, and 10 seconds is two lots of 5. If you can hear thunder at all, go indoors.

Source: National Weather Service https://www.weather.gov/safety/lightning-science-overview

Only where it happens. They are the same kind of storm.

Over the North Atlantic and the central and eastern North Pacific these storms are called hurricanes. Over the northwest Pacific, near Asia, they are called typhoons.

Source: NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/cyclone.html

Nitrogen.

Dry air is about 78 percent nitrogen and about 21 percent oxygen.

Source: NOAA https://www.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmosphere

Paris, in France.

The tower stands beside the River Seine, which runs through the middle of Paris.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/600/

Egypt.

They were built as tombs for the kings of ancient Egypt more than 4,000 years ago.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/86/

China.

It was built and rebuilt over many centuries to protect ancient China, and it stretches for thousands of miles.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/438/

France.

It was a gift of friendship from the people of France. The statue stands in New York Harbor.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/stli/index.htm

Australia.

It runs along Australia's northeast coast and is home to about 1,500 kinds of fish.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/154/

India.

An emperor named Shah Jahan had it built in memory of his wife. The work took from 1631 to 1648.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/252/

Mount Kilimanjaro.

It is a huge old volcano in Tanzania, 5,895 meters (about 19,340 feet) tall, with snow on top even though it is close to the equator.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/403/

India.

In 2023, the United Nations reported that India had passed China as the country with the most people.

Source: United Nations Population Division https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/india-overtakes-china-world%E2%80%99s-most-populous-country

Peru.

It was built by the Inca Empire and sits about 2,430 meters (almost 8,000 feet) above sea level.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/274/

Ecuador.

The islands lie in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Ecuador. Their unusual animals helped Charles Darwin form his ideas about how living things change over time.

Source: UNESCO World Heritage Centre https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1/

George Washington.

He took office in 1789. He is the only president who got the vote of every single elector.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/george-washington-inauguration.htm

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt.

On a hunting trip in 1902, he refused to shoot a bear that had been tied to a tree. A cartoon about it led shop owners to make a toy bear named after him.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/articles/teddybear.htm

Electricity.

He did it in Philadelphia in 1752. It was very dangerous: never fly a kite near a storm or power lines.

Source: The Franklin Institute https://www.fi.edu/en/benjamin-franklin/kite-key-experiment

"I Have a Dream."

He gave it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to about 250,000 people who had marched for equal rights and jobs.

Source: National Archives https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/official-program-for-the-march-on-washington

A city bus.

She was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, for breaking an unfair law that kept Black and white riders apart. Her courage helped the fight for equal rights.

Source: National Archives https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/rosa-parks

The Underground Railroad.

It was not a real railroad. People who guided others along it, like Tubman, were called conductors.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/subjects/africanamericanheritage/harriet-tubman.htm

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The giant carving is in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Source: National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm

Roald Amundsen.

He was an explorer from Norway. His team got there on December 14, 1911, about a month before a British team led by Robert Falcon Scott.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/76659/a-century-at-the-south-pole

Eight. It is an octagon.

'Octa' means eight. In the United States, the rules for road signs say a stop sign must be a red octagon with white letters.

Source: Federal Highway Administration https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part2/part2b.htm

Electricity.

The wind turns the blades, and the spinning blades turn a machine called a generator, which makes electricity.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration https://www.eia.gov/kids/energy-sources/wind/

Ice is lighter than the same amount of liquid water.

When water freezes, it spreads out and takes up a little more space. That makes ice less dense than liquid water, so it floats.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/facts-about-water

100.

'Centi' means one hundredth, so a centimeter is one hundredth of a meter.

Source: NIST https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si-prefixes

212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius).

High up on a mountain, water boils at a lower temperature, so food takes longer to cook there.

Source: U.S. Geological Survey https://www.usgs.gov/water-science-school/science/facts-about-water

Vitamin C.

Your body uses vitamin C to heal cuts and to keep bones and teeth healthy. Strawberries and kiwi fruit have plenty too.

Source: MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medicine) https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002404.htm

The cacao tree.

The seeds grow inside big pods shaped like small footballs. One pod holds enough seeds for about two bars of dark chocolate.

Source: Field Museum http://archive.fieldmuseum.org/chocolate/about.html