← All articles TRIVIA QUESTIONS · 21 October 2026

50 true-or-false questions that are harder than they look

Quick answer: These 50 true-or-false questions mix surprising facts with common myths. Each answer comes with a one-line explanation.

How to play true or false

Read each statement aloud and ask players to stand up for true and sit down for false, or hold up a card. It is one of the quickest formats for a big group. Many of these statements are myths, so also try our 30 common knowledge questions people often get wrong.

Questions 1–10

Many of these myths are explained further in common knowledge questions people get wrong.

#	Statement	True or false?	Why
1	The Great Wall of China is visible from space with the naked eye.	False	It is too narrow to see from orbit without help.
2	Bats are blind.	False	Bats can see, and many also use echolocation.
3	Octopuses have three hearts.	True	Two pump blood to the gills and one to the rest of the body.
4	Mount Everest is the tallest mountain measured from base to peak.	False	Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller from its base on the sea floor.
5	Bananas are berries.	True	Botanically they are berries; strawberries are not.
6	Humans use only 10% of their brains.	False	Brain scans show activity across almost the whole brain.
7	The capital of Australia is Sydney.	False	It is Canberra.
8	Lightning never strikes the same place twice.	False	Tall buildings are struck many times a year.
9	A day on Venus is longer than its year.	True	Venus spins very slowly on its axis.
10	Goldfish have a three-second memory.	False	They can remember things for months.

Questions 11–20

#	Statement	True or false?	Why
11	Sound travels faster in water than in air.	True	About four times faster.
12	Napoleon was unusually short.	False	He was about average height for his time.
13	Honey can stay edible for thousands of years.	True	Edible honey has been found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
14	Tomatoes are fruits.	True	Botanically they are fruits, because they hold seeds.
15	The Sahara is the largest desert in the world.	False	Antarctica is the largest; the Sahara is the largest hot desert.
16	Cleopatra lived closer in time to the Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid.	True	The Great Pyramid was about 2,500 years old in her lifetime.
17	Glass is a slow-moving liquid.	False	It is an amorphous solid.
18	The Amazon flows through Peru, Colombia and Brazil.	True	It rises in the Peruvian Andes and reaches the Atlantic in Brazil.
19	Camels store water in their humps.	False	The humps store fat.
20	Arabic is written from right to left.	True	So are Hebrew, Persian and Urdu.

Questions 21–30

#	Statement	True or false?	Why
21	Diamonds are made of carbon.	True	They are pure carbon in a crystal structure.
22	Ostriches bury their heads in the sand.	False	They lower their heads to turn their eggs.
23	Pure water is a poor conductor of electricity.	True	Dissolved minerals are what make tap water conduct.
24	The Eiffel Tower can grow taller in summer.	True	The iron expands in the heat, by up to about 15 cm.
25	Vatican City is the smallest country in the world.	True	It covers about 0.44 km².
26	Chameleons change colour mainly to hide.	False	Mostly to communicate and control their temperature.
27	There are more trees on Earth than stars in the Milky Way.	True	Estimates suggest about 3 trillion trees against 100–400 billion stars.
28	Sharks are mammals.	False	They are fish.
29	Venus is the hottest planet.	True	Its thick atmosphere traps heat, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.
30	Penguins live at the North Pole.	False	Almost all live in the Southern Hemisphere.

Questions 31–40

#	Statement	True or false?	Why
31	Your fingernails keep growing after death.	False	The skin shrinks back, which makes them look longer.
32	Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.	True	It orbits at about 58 million km.
33	A group of lions is called a pride.	True	Prides usually include related females and their cubs.
34	The FIFA World Cup has been held in Africa.	True	South Africa hosted it in 2010.
35	Water always boils at 100°C.	False	It boils at a lower temperature at high altitude.
36	Spiders are insects.	False	They are arachnids, with eight legs.
37	Thomas Edison made the first electric light bulb.	False	Others made earlier bulbs; Edison made a practical long-lasting one.
38	Koalas are bears.	False	They are marsupials.
39	Istanbul is the capital of Turkey.	False	The capital is Ankara.
40	Antarctica has no permanent residents.	True	Only researchers and staff on temporary stays.

Questions 41–50

#	Statement	True or false?	Why
41	Humans have exactly five senses.	False	We also sense balance, temperature, pain and body position.
42	Coffee beans are seeds.	True	They are the seeds of the coffee cherry.
43	Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach Earth.	True	Light covers the 150 million km in about 8 minutes 20 seconds.
44	Mount Kilimanjaro is in Kenya.	False	It is in Tanzania.
45	Peanuts are nuts.	False	They are legumes, like peas and beans.
46	A leap year has 366 days.	True	The extra day is 29 February.
47	People float easily in the Dead Sea.	True	Its very salty water is much denser than fresh water.
48	Bulls are angered by the colour red.	False	They react to movement; they cannot see red well.
49	Mount Everest still grows a few millimetres a year.	True	The Indian plate is still pushing into Asia.
50	The Pacific is the largest ocean.	True	It covers about a third of Earth’s surface.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Great Wall of China visible from space?

No, not with the naked eye from orbit.

Are bananas berries?

Yes, botanically bananas are berries.

Do camels store water in their humps?

No, the humps store fat.

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