Beyond the answers - interesting background to this quiz

A hunting tool that comes back

The boomerang is best known for the curved wooden versions made by Aboriginal Australians, some of which are designed to return to the thrower. Not all of them come back, however: heavier, less curved types were traditionally used as hunting weapons and travel in a straight line. Returning boomerangs are the lighter, more specialised form, and their flight depends on the same aerodynamic principles that keep aircraft wings aloft.

The pronghorn's quiet record

The pronghorn is often called the fastest land animal in North America, and it can sustain high speeds for far longer than most predators can. It is not an antelope, despite the nickname "pronghorn antelope"; it belongs to its own family, Antilocapridae. Its speed is thought to be a legacy of the Pleistocene, when it shared the plains with now-extinct American cheetahs.

Jupiter's crushing pull

Among the planets of our solar system, Jupiter has the strongest surface gravity, roughly two and a half times that of Earth. A person who weighs 70 kilograms on Earth would feel around 175 kilograms there. The giant planet's mass is more than twice that of all the other planets combined, which explains why its gravitational grip is so powerful.

A fortress that became a symbol

The Bastille was a fortress and prison in Paris that had come to stand for royal authority and arbitrary imprisonment. On 14 July 1789, a crowd stormed it in search of weapons and gunpowder. The event is now commemorated as France's national day, and the site in the Place de la Bastille is marked only by a monument and pavement outlines.

The smallest state on Earth

Vatican City covers just 0.49 square kilometres, making it the smallest independent country in the world by both area and population. It is a landlocked enclave within Rome, established in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty. Despite its size, it contains St Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the world's largest church.