Engineering Records & Feats Quiz – Printable Version
20 multiple-choice questions with an explained answer key, ready to print.
Print the sheet (or save it as a PDF from the print window), hand it out, then mark it together using the answer page: every answer is explained. Perfect for a party, a birthday, a classroom, a care home or a team activity.
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- How many years of work did it take to dig the Gotthard Base railway tunnel, opened in 2016?
- A. About 2 years
- B. About 50 years
- C. About 6 months
- D. About 17 years
- Which countries share the gigantic Itaipu hydroelectric dam on the Paraná River?
- A. Argentina and Chile
- B. Peru and Bolivia
- C. Brazil and Paraguay
- D. Mexico and the United States
- How high does the Bailong Elevator, clinging to a cliff in China's Zhangjiajie park, carry visitors?
- A. About 30 metres
- B. About 330 metres
- C. About 1,000 metres
- D. About 3 kilometres
- What is so special about the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland?
- A. It powers an entire town
- B. It is a medieval watermill
- C. It turns a theatre stage
- D. It lifts boats from one canal to another by rotating like a big wheel
- Which disaster triggered the Delta Works, the Netherlands' gigantic system of dams and barriers?
- A. The 2004 tsunami
- B. The 1995 Rhine flood
- C. The 1953 North Sea flood, which killed more than 1,800 people in the Netherlands
- D. An earthquake in 1900
- How does the Maeslantkering storm barrier, which guards the entrance to Rotterdam, work?
- A. A wall rises from the seabed
- B. Two floating arms, each as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, swing shut across the waterway
- C. Thousands of sandbags are dropped by helicopter
- D. A curtain of bubbles blocks the waves
- What curiosity is found in the middle of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, which crosses Tokyo Bay?
- A. A staffed lighthouse
- B. A service area on an artificial island, Umihotaru, out at sea
- C. An undersea aquarium
- D. A floating toll booth
- Why does Norway's 24.5 km Lærdal road tunnel include three large caverns lit in blue and yellow?
- A. To host concerts
- B. To break the monotony and reduce driver fatigue
- C. To store military equipment
- D. Because they are old gold mines
- To what temperature are the LHC's superconducting magnets at CERN cooled?
- A. About 0 °C
- B. About −40 °C
- C. About −150 °C
- D. About −271 °C, colder than outer space
- Why did the European Southern Observatory build the Very Large Telescope in Chile's Atacama Desert?
- A. Because the land was free
- B. To be closer to the Moon
- C. Because nights are very hot there
- D. The sky there is exceptionally dry, clear and stable, far from any light pollution
- How fast does the International Space Station orbit the Earth?
- A. About 28,000 km/h, one lap every hour and a half
- B. About 280 km/h
- C. About 2,800 km/h
- D. It stays still above the equator
- How tall was the Saturn V rocket that sent the Apollo astronauts to the Moon?
- A. About 20 metres
- B. About 500 metres
- C. About 110 metres, taller than the Statue of Liberty
- D. About 1 kilometre
- What happened in 2022 to the Antonov An-225 Mriya, the world's largest aircraft?
- A. It was sold to an American museum
- B. It crashed into the sea
- C. It was turned into a hotel
- D. It was destroyed in its hangar at Hostomel, near Kyiv, at the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
- How much can the Belarusian BelAZ 75710 mining truck carry in a single trip?
- A. About 450 tonnes
- B. About 45 tonnes
- C. About 4,500 tonnes
- D. About 4 tonnes
- How does the giant ship Pioneering Spirit remove an entire oil platform in the North Sea?
- A. It cuts it into thousands of small pieces
- B. It tows it to the seabed
- C. It slides its twin hull around it and lifts thousands of tonnes in one go
- D. It blows it up
- What does the Magdeburg Water Bridge in Germany cross?
- A. A motorway
- B. The Rhine and the Danube
- C. The Elbe: barges sail on a bridge above the river
- D. The Bavarian Alps
- What average gradient did the Roman aqueduct that includes the Pont du Gard follow over its roughly 50 km to Nîmes?
- A. About 25 metres per kilometre
- B. About 25 centimetres per kilometre
- C. About 1 metre per kilometre
- D. No gradient: the water was pumped
- Where does the water carried by Libya's 'Great Man-Made River' come from?
- A. Fossil aquifers under the Sahara, built up thousands of years ago
- B. Desalinated Mediterranean water
- C. The Nile, diverted from Egypt
- D. Melting Atlas glaciers
- Why is the Gotthard road tunnel known for long traffic jams in the holidays?
- A. It is closed half the year
- B. It has a very expensive toll
- C. It has a single two-way tube with regulated traffic
- D. Cars have to be towed through by train
- What distance does Shanghai's maglev train cover between Pudong Airport and the city?
- A. About 30 km, in seven to eight minutes
- B. About 300 km, in an hour
- C. About 3 km, in ten minutes
- D. About 1,000 km, in three hours
Answer key — Engineering Records & Feats Quiz
- D. About 17 yearsBegun in 1999, the project used giant boring machines and explosives to cut through 57 km of rock under the Alps, sometimes with over 2,000 m of mountain overhead.
- C. Brazil and ParaguayEach country owns half of the 20 turbines. Paraguay, which uses less, sells much of its share to Brazil.
- B. About 330 metresIts glass cabins climb in under two minutes, partly in a shaft cut into the rock, partly in the open along the cliff face.
- D. It lifts boats from one canal to another by rotating like a big wheelOpened in 2002, it links two canals with a 24 m difference in height.
- C. The 1953 North Sea flood, which killed more than 1,800 people in the NetherlandsOn the night of 31 January to 1 February 1953, a storm and spring tide swamped Zeeland.
- B. Two floating arms, each as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, swing shut across the waterwayAt rest, the two gates sit in dry docks on the banks, letting ships through.
- B. A service area on an artificial island, Umihotaru, out at seaThe link starts with an undersea tunnel of nearly 10 km on the Kawasaki side, then surfaces on an artificial island and continues as a bridge to Kisarazu.
- B. To break the monotony and reduce driver fatigueDriving for twenty minutes through a uniform tube causes drowsiness and a sense of oppression.
- D. About −271 °C, colder than outer spaceTo steer particles at nearly the speed of light around the 27 km ring, the magnets must be superconducting, and so cooled with liquid helium.
- D. The sky there is exceptionally dry, clear and stable, far from any light pollutionPerched at 2,635 m on Cerro Paranal, it combines four 8.2 m telescopes that can merge their light.
- A. About 28,000 km/h, one lap every hour and a halfAstronauts therefore see about 16 sunrises and sunsets a day.
- C. About 110 metres, taller than the Statue of LibertyAt lift-off, its five first-stage engines burned about 13 tonnes of propellant a second.
- D. It was destroyed in its hangar at Hostomel, near Kyiv, at the start of Russia's invasion of UkraineA one-off, designed to carry the Soviet Buran shuttle on its back, it was used to fly outsize cargo.
- A. About 450 tonnesWith eight wheels and two diesel engines driving electric motors, it is the world's largest truck by capacity.
- C. It slides its twin hull around it and lifts thousands of tonnes in one goThis 382 m giant catamaran has a slot at the bow that the platform fits into.
- C. The Elbe: barges sail on a bridge above the riverAt 918 m long, opened in 2003, it links two major canals without boats having to descend to the Elbe, whose level varies a lot.
- B. About 25 centimetres per kilometreAlong the whole route, the total drop is only about 12 m: an achievement by surveyors without modern instruments.
- A. Fossil aquifers under the Sahara, built up thousands of years agoA network of 4 m-diameter pipes, buried over thousands of kilometres, carries this water to the coastal cities.
- C. It has a single two-way tube with regulated trafficOpened in 1980 and about 17 km long, it suffered a serious fire in 2001 after two lorries collided.
- A. About 30 km, in seven to eight minutesPut into service in 2004 using German technology, it floats above its track without contact thanks to electromagnets.