Quiz created: 081027

Ancient Metallurgy (2)

Instructions: Answer the multiple choice questions, guessing if necessary; then click on the "Process Questions" button at the end of the quiz to see your score in the adjacent message box. The program will not reveal which questions you got wrong, only how many points you have. Go back and change your answers until you get them all right. (The message box will rejoice at that point and the page will change color in delight.)

Points to note: (1) Questions with only one possible answer are one point each. (2) Questions with one or more possible answers (represented by check boxes) give a point for each correct answer, but also subtract a point for each wrong answer! (3) The program will not attempt to score your efforts at all if you have not tried at least half of the questions. (4) This quiz is for your own use only. No record of your progress is kept or reported to anyone.


1. The combination of tin and lead produces a soft,corrosion-resistant, easily worked gray metal that was popular in antiquity for water vessels, eating utensils, water pipes, and ornaments —essentially anything that didn't require a sharp edge. The metal is called
bronze  silver  antimony  pewter  brass  electrum  No Answer
2. The melting point of pure iron, higher than that of copper and beyond the reach of ancient furnaces, is a little over
600°C  1000°  1200°  1500°C  2000°C  No Answer
3. Because iron could not be melted completely, it could not be cast. However it could be processed effectively by
throwing  inlaying  lost wax  forging  cussing  No Answer
4. The introduction of a small amount of carbon lowered the softening point of iron. Similarly, greater heat could be achieved by using charcoal, which is
a naturally occurring light stone 
compressed earth with high organic content 
dried organic matter that has been buried for a long time and then excavated (mined) 
wood which has been heated in an environment that did not provide enough oxygen for it to burn 
No Answer
5. Gold was
commoner in antiquity than today 
valued for its electrical properties 
not as valuable in most of the ancient Mediterranean world as tin was 
frequently layered onto other surfaces 
difficult to work because of its tendency to crumble when used in thin sheets 
No Answer
6. Cold hammering allows softer metals to be worked without being heated to their melting point. However the hammering
requires months of effort 
damages the crystalline structure of the metal, making it brittle 
caused metalworkers to go deaf over time 
leaves the metal permanently softened, useless for anything that requires a sharp edge 
No Answer
7. So-called "hot hammering" was usual with iron, but not with bronze because bronze
could be more easily worked in other ways 
produces a scream-like sound when heated and hammered that humans find intolerable 
loses its resistance to corrosion when subjected to hammering 
becomes fragile at high temperatures 
No Answer
8. The "lost wax" or "cire perdue" technique is so called because
the metal eventually occupies a space in the mold once occupied by wax 
the wax used to seal the mold closed is absorbed by the metal in the process of casting 
it is named after a magician who did "metal casting" with metalicized colored wax at carnivals in XVII-th century France  
No Answer

      Points out of 8:

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This consummately cool, pedagogically compelling, self-correcting,
multiple-choice quiz was produced automatically from
a simple text file of questions using D.K. Jordan's
dubiously original, but publicly accessible
Think Again Quiz Maker
of October 6, 2008.