Counting by Tens Trivia Quiz

At the age of 14, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci stunned everyone at the 1976 Summer Olympics with a series of incredible performances. On 18 July, she made history when, during the team compulsory portion of the competition, she was awarded the very first score of 10.000 (known as a perfect 10) in Olympic gymnastics for her routine on the uneven bars. Such a score was so unexpected that the scoreboard had not been programmed to display it, and instead displayed a "1.00". Comaneci would go on to score six more perfect 10s during the Montréal Games; she also won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

The code of points set by the International Gymnastic Federation (FIG) for women's artistic gymnastics includes scores for various elements of a performance, such as level of difficulty, routine composition and connection value. Though Czechoslovakian gymnast Věra Čáslavská achieved a perfect 10 twice at the 1967 European Women's Artistic Gymnastic Championship, neither she nor other legendary gymnasts (such as Soviet Larisa Latynina) had managed such a feat at the Olympic Games.

Commonly known as d20, 20-sided (icosahedron) dice are widely used in tabletop role-playing games such as "Dungeons and Dragons". Though non-cubic dice have existed for thousands of years, having been found in archaeological digs around the world, their modern use dates from the late 1960s, when they became popular with players of war games (from which role-playing games eventually developed). While ancient dice (primarily used in divination rather than for gaming purposes) were made of stone, wood or other natural materials, modern 20-sided and other polyhedral dice are generally made of plastic. However, highly collectible, custom-made pieces crafted with various techniques - and occasionally valuable materials - are available on the market, and can command high prices.

The icosahedron is a highly symmetrical shape: each of its 20 faces is an equilateral triangle. Along with the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron and the dodecahedron - all shapes that are commonly used for gaming dice - it is one of the five Platonic solids, noted for their regularity.

Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Thirty Years' War was one of the most devastating conflicts in European history. The origins of the war lie in the effects of the Protestant Reformation on the various states of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as the rivalry between France and the House of Habsburg, and the war of the Netherlands against Spain. The conflict broke out in 1618 within the territories of the Holy Roman Empire, but later spread to involve other European rulers - in particular the kings of France, Sweden and Denmark-Norway. While the civil war within the Empire largely ended with the Peace of Prague (1635), the conflict continued for another 13 years, ending in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, which ushered the rise of France as the leading European power.

The ravages of the war were compounded by widespread famine, disease and breakdown of the social order, which took such a toll on civilians that in some of the regions affected the resident population declined by 50%. It is estimated that up to 8 million people died during those terrible 30 years.

In the narration of the Great Flood (Genesis 7:4), God told Noah that rain would fall for 40 days and 40 nights, wiping every living creature off the face of the Earth. As he had previously been commanded, Noah entered the ark with his family and a pair of each living animal species on Earth: the rising waters lifted the vessel, sparing the lives of its occupants. In Genesis 8:6-7, it is said that, 40 days after the tops of the mountains had became visible again, Noah sent out a raven from a window that he had opened in the ark.

40 is a recurring number in the Hebrew Bible, as in ancient Middle Eastern tradition it represented a large, indefinite number. Thus, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses spends three consecutive periods of "forty days and forty nights" on Mount Sinai, while in the book of Numbers (13:25) he sends spies to explore the land of Canaan who return after "forty days".

"50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" first appeared on Paul Simon's fourth studio album, "Still Crazy After All These Years", released on 17 October 1975. Released as the second single from the album in December of the same year, the song became the only single in Simon's solo career to reach number one in the Billboard Top 100; it also reached number two in France. Simon wrote the song as a sort of humorous commentary on his divorce from Peggy Harper, his first wife.

A somewhat understated song with an infectious chorus, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" is built around percussion, in particular the "martial drums" that can be heard throughout - courtesy of renowned session drummer Steve Gadd. Tony Levin, known for his work with Peter Gabriel and King Crimson, plays bass. However, those expecting the song lyrics to actually list 50 ways to break up with your partner will be disappointed, as only five are mentioned.

Though ancient civilizations divided the day into smaller units, they did not use the decimal (base 10) system as most of the world does now. The ancient Egyptians used a duodecimal (base 12) system - in which the time between sunrise and sunset was divided into 12 parts - while the Babylonians used a sexagesimal (base 60) system, inherited from the Sumerians, for their astronomical calculations. The modern division of an hour into 60 minutes and a minute into 60 seconds dates back from that time, over 3,000 years ago.

The sexagesimal system is also still used today to measure angles and geographic coordinates. In fact, the words "minute" and "second" are derived from Greco-Roman scientist Claudius Ptolemy's treatise "Almagest" (2nd century AD). They refer to the subdivision of each of the 360 degrees of latitude and longitude into 60 parts ("partes minutae primae", or minutes), and of each of these parts into 60 smaller parts ("partes minutae secundae", or second minutes). However, the subdivision of the hour using the sexagesimal system was first implemented by Persian polymath Al-Biruni around 1000 AD.

One of the noble metals, platinum is associated with a 70th anniversary. A Platinum Jubilee - such as the one celebrated in 2022 by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom - marks the 70th anniversary of a monarch's accession to the throne. Before her, a number of other rulers had managed to reach such a milestone - most notably, King Louis XIV of France, the Sun King (who died after ruling for 72 years), Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.

Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee was celebrated on 2 June 2022, during a four-day Bank Holiday, though the actual anniversary of her accession fell on 6 February. It was the first time that a British monarch had celebrated six decades on the throne, as Queen Victoria - the longest-reigning monarch until then - died before her 64th year of rule. The event was celebrated with various initiatives in the UK and in many of the Commonwealth realms. Elizabeth II passed away on 8 September 2022, a mere three months later, at the age of 96.

"Around the World in Eighty Days" ("Le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours") is one of the most popular novels by French writer Jules Verne. First published in serial form in 1872, this classic of adventure fiction tells the story of wealthy Englishman Phileas Fogg, who accepts a daring wager from his fellow club members - betting half his fortune on the premise that he will be able to complete a journey around the world in 80 days, taking advantage of modern means of transport such as steamships and railways. During their travels, Fogg and his French valet Passepartout encounter many adventures, and Fogg even finds love in the person of an Indian princess whom he rescues from her husband's funeral pyre.

After the novel's publication, there were a number of people who attempted to imitate Fogg's fictional journey: in fact, in 1889 American journalist Nellie Bly managed to complete the trip in 72 days, and later wrote a best-selling book about her experience. "Around the World in Eighty Days" has been adapted multiple times in various media - including a film released in 1956, starring David Niven and Mexican actor Cantinflas, which won five Academy Awards.

One of the basic and most familiar concepts in geometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 degrees (a ¼ turn, or a quarter of a complete circle). Two perpendicular lines form a right angle at their point of intersection, looking like a perfect capital L. A triangle with two perpendicular sides that form a right angle is known as a right triangle. A quadrilateral with four right angles is called a rectangle, or a square if its sides are all of the same length.

The word "right" in the name of the angle is not related to the direction opposite of left, but comes from the Latin "rectus", which means "upright". Its Greek equivalent is "orthos", found in the English word "orthogonal", a synonym of perpendicular.

According to Greek historian Plutarch (1st-2nd century AD), the century ("centuria" in Latin, from "centum", meaning 100) was created by Romulus, the legendary founder and first king of Rome. As its name implies, a century was a military unit that originally comprised 100 men, though over time centuries came to have a variable number of members (from 60 to over 150). With the reform of the army implemented by Gaius Marius at the end of the 2nd century BC, the standard number of members of a century was set at 80: six centuries formed a cohort, the most important tactical unit in the Roman army. A century was commanded by a professional officer called a centurion, who was chosen on the basis of a number of strict requirements that included physical strength and personal character traits.

During the Roman Republic, the term century also referred to a constituent voting unit in the popular assembly known as "comitia centuriata", whose members - grouped according to their census class - cast a single collective vote.