Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In algebra, the third power of a number is called its "cube". For example, 27 is the cube of 3, because 3 x 3 x 3 = 27. Usually cubes are denoted with a superscript 3 following the number to indicate an exponential of 3, but some media are not capable of displaying superscripts. In these cases, a symbol is used to represent the exponent. Which of the following represents 3 to the 3rd power?
2. In 1832, Swiss crystallographer Louis Albert Necker invented an optical illusion called the Necker Cube. This is a drawing of a cube which can be viewed as having either of two faces forefront as the intersecting lines give no clue as to which crosses over top of which. If the perspective is forced by drawing the overlapping lines in such a way as to be incongruous with each other, the result is what type of cube?
3. Ah, a prankster's trip down memory lane! Pepper gum, squirting boutonnieres, buzzing shock rings... truly the pranksters were kings among men! And what could be funnier than fake dog droppings unless it was this, encased in a fake ice cube..?
4. Membership in the "27 Club" is a dubious honour granted to influential musicians who have died at the age of 27. The Club, which is also referred to in popular culture as the "Forever 27 Club", began in response to the deaths of four musicians between July 3, 1969 and the same date in 1971. Whose death was first?
5. Two of my favourite comic strip characters are Bill Watterson's imaginative six-year-old Calvin and his sometimes-real, sometimes-stuffed tiger companion, Hobbes. In one anthology Calvin "builds" a Duplicator out of an old cardboard box and uses it to make clones of himself. When he gets tired of being punished for his clones' bad behaviour, Calvin turns the box upside down, thus re-establishing it as his earlier invention, the Transmogrifier, and turns them all into worms. According to the title of this "Calvin & Hobbes" anthology, scientific progress does what?
6. In 2008 Katherine Heigl starred as Jane Nichols, a woman who embodies the cliché of "always a bridesmaid, never a bride". Jane's love interest in the movie is Kevin Doyle (James Marsden), a writer for the "New York Journal" who uses Jane to further his career--although, like in any good romantic comedy, he later falls in love with her and regrets his indiscretion. What is hidden in Jane's closet that is also the title of this movie?
7. Some of the "oddest" cubes on television were filled with celebrities! "The Hollywood Squares" was a game show that debuted in the 1960s. Contestants on the show tried to win a game of tic-tac-toe (noughts and crosses) by either agreeing or disagreeing with the celebrities' answers to trivia questions. When it was revived in 1998, which famous actress/comedienne became both a co-producer of the show and its permanent centre-square celebrity?
8. Many of us are familiar with the modern Greek alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc.) which is comprised of 24 letters. The classical Greek alphabet, however, contained three additional letters that are no longer in use today (for a total of 27 letters). Which of the following is not an obsolete Greek letter?
9. Popular in casinos worldwide, the game of craps is played with two dice where one player is the shooter and any number of other players may place bets. The first roll of the dice by any shooter is called the come-out roll, where the shooter tries to establish his point. Rolling a Seven Out (7) or a Yo-leven (11) on the come-out roll is called a "natural" and is a win for pass-line bets. Rolling which of the following points on the come-out roll will result in a win for don't-pass-line bets?
10. A gedanken (thought) experiment is a proposal for an experiment that could be used to test a hypothesis. Some thought experiments are purely illustrative as clearly they could never be realistically tested -- Maxwell's Demon (1867), for example, requires one to assume the existence of a supernatural being. In Erwin Schrödinger's famous thought experiment (1935) what type of animal, placed in a sealed box, is simultaneously both alive and dead?
Source: Author
LadyCaitriona
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LeoDaVinci before going online.
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