thumbnail

Country Flags with the Southern Cross

Can you name the countries whose flag depicts the constellation Crux, also known as the Southern Cross?
The picture shown is the constellation as it appears on the flag
Try whole series here
Quiz by KoljiVriVoda
Rate:
Last updated: January 4, 2021
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedSeptember 14, 2015
Times taken44,997
Average score80.0%
Rating4.80
1:30
Enter answer here
0
 / 5 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
+5
Level 87
Sep 14, 2015
micronesia?
+10
Level 77
Sep 14, 2015
Stars in that flag represents islands, or states
+23
Level 68
May 22, 2020
so does Brazilian one
+4
Level 52
May 22, 2020
And besides, it only has 4 stars when the constellation has 5 stars.
+28
Level 65
May 22, 2020
Except brazilian one really depicts the constellation, micronesian one doesn't. It has no connection to the Southern Cross.
+6
Level 78
Aug 23, 2020
New Zealand's only has four stars
+7
Level 59
Aug 19, 2021
But the stars on micronesia's are clearly not in the shape of the southern cross, while New Zealand's are.
+4
Level 61
Nov 27, 2017
Please accept New Guinea for Papua New Guinea
+14
Level 47
Nov 28, 2017
Or PNG would be great.
+30
Level 74
May 18, 2018
New Guinea is the island, containing both Indonesian Papua (or West Papua), AND Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea is the country.
+2
Level 74
May 22, 2020
@CringeDragon New Guinea is a type in, that is accepted on any other quiz
+1
Level 60
Oct 15, 2021
You can write PNG, something accepted on many other quizzes as well. And it's shorter.
+3
Level 76
Sep 14, 2015
New Zealand is voting in referendum in March 2016 to decide whether to change its flag.
+2
Level 77
Sep 14, 2015
I like second one
+10
Level 84
Aug 9, 2017
Jerry's link no longer works, but (spoiler alert) they voted to keep the long-standing design.
+2
Level 76
Aug 9, 2017
The proposed flag looked like this, but, as Freestatebear says, it lost against the current design by 43% to 57% in the referendum. I voted for the new design.
+1
Level 73
Aug 13, 2017
Isn't that the Hearts of Iron; Kiwi Empire?
+9
Level 74
Nov 27, 2017
The Kiwi with the green laser shooting from its eye was my favorite design.
+1
Level 68
Nov 28, 2017
My brother wears a t-shirt with that one.
+7
Level 89
Jul 8, 2018
The blue and black with the fern and Southern Cross would have been one of the most recognizable flags in the world. Instead? A navy blue flag. With the British flag in it. Two of the biggest let's-blend-in, unrecognized, no-identity choices in a flag. Oh yeah, and it's basically identical to Australia's as if there isn't already a lot of unintentional confusion between identities.
+3
Level 74
May 22, 2020
+11
Level 86
Jan 1, 2019
Both of the links above are dead, so you can check out Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockwood_silver_fern_flag. If I lived in New Zealand, I definitely would have voted for the new one.
+1
Level 68
Feb 16, 2021
That is a very nice flag, much better than the current one.
+2
Level 83
Aug 9, 2017
Can you accept New Guinea for Papua New Guinea since it is accepted on most other quizzes?
+3
Level 84
Aug 9, 2017
Why doesn't "New Guinea" work for Papua New Guinea?
+11
Level 63
Sep 6, 2017
New Guinea is the island on which Papua New Guinea is located. It is shared with Indonesia. Not sure why this is an accepted answer in some quizzes...
+14
Level 79
Oct 24, 2017
and it's much quicker to type PNG anyway...
+4
Level 66
Nov 27, 2017
It is a standard type-in though. It threw me off for a moment because I usually exploit type-ins to save time. I don't have a problem with not having it as a type-in, but continuity should be kept so no one misses answers because they thought they were wrong when it wasn't accepted.
+3
Level ∞
Nov 27, 2017
Standard type-ins have been applied. Sorry about that.
+6
Level 65
Nov 27, 2017
How is Brazil the least guessed one?
+1
Level 58
Nov 27, 2017
I know right
+20
Level 59
Nov 28, 2017
Because the Brazilian flag has lots of stars, with the Southern Cross being only a small part of the detail. You have to actually study the flag to see it.
+4
Level 82
May 19, 2018
This - I can easily pick the Brazilian flag, but have never studied it close enough to notice the SC.
+1
Level 58
May 28, 2019
Well, I forgot about Samoa and started trying countries with lots of stars, I figure most would do the same. I'm still impressed about just 25%.
+2
Level 64
Aug 29, 2022
The scale threw me off. I would have gotten Brazil if the constellation were tiny in the image, as it is on the flag.
+5
Level 64
Mar 5, 2018
Could someone answer why the Southern Cross on the Brazilian flag seems to be flipped over, in comparison to the other four?
+26
Level 92
Jul 20, 2018
That's actually an interesting answer. Imagine the stars aren't giant balls of gas burning billions of miles away, but instead are fireflies, stuck in a big bluey black mess surrounding the earth. If you wanted to map all the fireflies--a flat map isn't going to do you much good, as you're mapping all around a globe. Instead you might try to condense all the stars to points on a sphere that surrounds the earth. This is called an Armillary sphere, and they were used in conjunction with globes by explorers, such as the ones who visited/mapped/colonized Brazil. If you look at that sphere from the outside, the constellations will be reversed from how we would see them from earth (the conceptual 'inside' of the sphere). The stars on Brazil's flag are positioned as they'd appear on an Armillary sphere. The sphere is also used in the flag of Portugal and other former Portuguese colonies.

Bonus fact: the 27 stars on Brazil's flag each also represent one of its states.

+1
Level 68
Aug 30, 2022
Wow, thanks! Didn't know that!
+2
Level 90
May 28, 2019
Why do the Australian stars have more points than the others?
+1
Level 77
May 28, 2019
It is probably symbolic. Also, New Zealand has one star less then others.
+3
Level 66
May 22, 2020
The seven-pointed stars are commonwealth stars, representing the states of the Commonwealth of Australia upon its creation in 1901.
+6
Level 84
Oct 13, 2019
brazil is so mean
+1
Level 50
May 3, 2020
There's a tiny bit of red on the bottom of the 5th one so it really gave it away
+7
Level 61
May 22, 2020
Brazil threw me off completely.. just thought i had to guess Oceanian countries
+3
Level 65
May 22, 2020
Same. Brazil didn't even enter my mind.
+2
Level 51
Dec 17, 2020
I was not thinking Brazil at all
+1
Level 40
Apr 6, 2021
cant believe i missed my country Brazil.
+2
Level 43
Oct 14, 2021
Where is Solomon Islands?
+1
Level 56
Aug 30, 2022
the stars on the solomon islands are not in the shape of the southern cross, nor do the stars represent the southern cross.
+2
Level 47
Apr 29, 2022
GO KIWIS
+1
Level 27
Aug 29, 2022
Amazing quiz!

As a Samoan lover, I enjoyed seeing it in the quiz.

I couldn't guess Brazil and it surprised me that it has the southern cross on its flag

+2
Level 78
Aug 29, 2022
What about the US? There are 50 stars and if you rearrange four of them they form the constellation - that must count for something
+1
Level 41
Aug 29, 2022
I think thats a valid answer tbh
+2
Level 66
Aug 30, 2022
counterpoint: you can rearrange every set of stars on this quiz so that they no longer form a recognizable constellation, so why bother having a quiz?
+1
Level 42
Sep 3, 2022
i did it 100% of southern cross!
+1
Level 64
Oct 6, 2022
2 seconds
+1
Level 66
Feb 28, 2023
I guess the explanation for Brazil, is something like:

Paulo Araújo Duarte of the Federal University of Santa Catarina claims that "the creators of our republican flag intended to represent the stars in the sky at Rio de Janeiro at 8:30 in the morning on 15 November 1889, the moment at which the constellation of the Southern Cross was on the meridian of Rio de Janeiro and the longer arm [of the cross] was vertical".

or, "the flag portrays the stars as they would be seen by an imaginary observer an infinite distance above Rio de Janeiro standing outside the firmament in which the stars are meant to be placed (i.e. as found on a celestial globe)"

I still don't understand the importance/reason. My guess would be navigation related.