When and why did people start having birthday cakes? Try our kids’ quiz

1. Alice, 11, asks: when and why did people start having special cakes on their birthdays?

   1. Birthday cakes became a tradition in Victorian times, because cake was Queen Victoria’s favourite food

   2. The earliest evidence of birthday cakes dates back to ancient Rome

   3. Cakes first started being eaten on birthdays during the second world war

   4. Humans have been making birthday cakes since prehistoric times, up to 30,000 years ago

2. Leon, 7, asks: what was the last dinosaur?

   1. A creature called Denver, the last dinosaur

   2. Arlo the Good dinosaur

   3. Tyrannosaurus rex

   4. Possibly a triceratops, but scientists are not sure

3. Reuben, 7, asks: how many ants are there in the world?

   1. At least 20 quadrillion

   2. About 20 million

   3. About 200 million

   4. About 200 gazillion

4. Milly, 9, asks: how far up are the clouds from the ground?

   1. The lowest clouds are 200,000 metres up

   2. The lowest clouds are 20,000 metres up

   3. The lowest clouds are 2,000 metres up

   4. About 200 metres up

5. Albie, 12, asks: what is the shape of DNA?

   1. It looks like a croissant

   2. It looks like a monkey

   3. It looks like a long piece of bamboo

   4. It looks like a twisted ladder, and is often called a double helix

Solutions

1:B - The ancient Romans made flat, round cakes to celebrate some birthdays – mostly men’s birthdays! Birthday cakes as we know them, with layers, icing and candles, first became popular in 18th-century Germany., 2:D - A fossil of a dinosaur thought to be a triceratops was dated by scientists at Yale University in 2011 as 65 million years old, which places it at around the time the dinosaurs were wiped out. It means it could have been the last one – but more research is needed., 3:A - Scientists estimate there are 20 quadrillion ants on Earth, according to a study from 2022. That’s 20 thousand million millions!, 4:C - The lowest clouds are about 2,000 metres above the ground, sometimes lower. High-level clouds such as cirrus clouds can be between 6,000 metres and 20,000 metres up., 5:D - The DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule is made out of two strands that wind around each other, connected by chemical bonds so that the molecule looks like a twisted ladder. It’s often described as a double helix.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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