On Thursday August 27 the Tech South West Tech Gathering took the form of a Great Big Tech in the West Quiz, with members and partners from across the region forming teams to take part.
Questions were based around technology, the cultural history of innovation in the South West and the places that make our region great.
We’ve now put the entire set of questions online so you can put your South West savvy to the test. Scroll down to take part!
Round 1: Number crunching
Every answer to these questions is a number…
- According to the RAC Foundation, the South West has more miles of road than any other UK region. How many does it have?
- To the nearest 1000 years, how old is the Stonehenge monument in Wiltshire?
- In what year did the first Apple iPhone launch?
- What unit of length is equal to around 5.8 trillion miles?
- How many national parks are there in the South West?
- In what year was the Glastonbury festival first held?
- According to Google Maps, what is the walking distance between Bristol and Penzance? (closest wins)
- How many cities are there in the South West?
- Salisbury Cathedral has the highest spire in the UK. How tall is it?
- In which decade were mineral springs discovered in the Gloucestershire town of Cheltenham?
Round 2: History of innovation
The South West has been the birthplace of much innovation. How much do you know about these famous examples?
- In 1901, what travelled from Poldhu in Cornwall to Newfoundland in Canada?
- In which year was Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol declared open?
- Which inventor, born in Devon in 1791, originated the concept of the digital programmable computer?
- ‘Camborne Hill’ is a Cornish song from 1801 that celebrates Richard Trevithick’s development of what technology?
- Edward Jenner, born in Gloucestershire in 1749, pioneered the development of a vaccine for which virus-transmitted disease?
- What name is given to the limestone quarried in Dorset that has been used in the construction of St Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and the United Nations headquarters in New York?
- Which Bristol-born MP and social reformer gave his name to the line on a ship’s hull denoting the safe legal limit to the level of the waterline on a ship? The measure was introduced against fierce opposition from ship-owning MPs.
- Which Cornish chemist first isolated potassium, sodium and calcium, and invented a safety lamp for use by miners?
- Which military inventor, born in Wiltshire in 1761, gave his name to the design of a hollow cannonball that explodes in mid-air?
- In 2001 the stretch of coastline from Orcombe Point near Exmouth to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage became a what?
Round 3: Miscellaneous miscellany
Ten taxing trivia to test your tech talent…
- Which airport has the longest runway in the South West?
- As of August 2020, the most liked picture on Instagram (with over 54 million likes) is a picture of a what?
- What does the acronym LASER stand for?
- 802.11a was an early version of which standard?
- Skinny horizontal ads on websites are called what?
- In May 1991, 27-year-old Dr Helen Sharman became the first British person to do what?
- In 1996, Dolly the sheep became the world’s first cloned mammal. Who was she named after?
- Which type of technology was named after Danish-Norwegian king Harald Blátönn?
- What is the world’s largest single machine?
- What is the name of the highest point above sea level in the South West?
Round 4: Crazy culture
These cultural conundra will really test your knowledge of the South West…
- A ‘Dorset knob’ is an example of what?
- What are the four primary ingredients in a traditional Cornish pasty?
- What is the name of the hill near Gloucester where the famous cheese-rolling event takes place every Spring Bank Holiday?
- Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn are novels by which Cornwall-based novelist?
- What is the highest-grossing film to date produced by Bristol-based film studio Aardman Animations?
- The abbey of which town in Gloucestershire has the tallest Norman tower in England?
- Which Cheltenham-born composer composed the Orchestral Suite The Planets, and wrote the tune for the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter?
- The Devon village of Ottery St Mary has an annual festival each year on November 5th, in which participants carry burning what?
- The largest biome at the Eden Project sustains an artificially created environment of what type?
- Which South West town is home to the infrastructural marvel known as the Magic Roundabout?
How did you get on?
Click below to download the answer sheet:
Then let us know on Twitter or Instagram @TechSWOfficial, and be sure to give us a follow!
For regular news and updates from Tech South West, including information about our monthly Tech Gathering series, become a member for free at www.techsouthwest.co.uk/join