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Quiz about Fun With Conversions
Quiz about Fun With Conversions

Fun With Conversions Trivia Quiz


These questions have to do with different weights and measures, mostly obsolete. Some calculation is required, although it will probably go faster if you just guess.

A multiple-choice quiz by OldManJack. Estimated time: 7 mins.
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Author
OldManJack
Time
7 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
398,771
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
145
-
Question 1 of 10
1. In the 1995 World Snail Racing Championship, held in England, a garden snail named Archie sped through the 13-inch course in two minutes flat. He must have been exhausted. But if this speedy fellow could keep up the same pace, without stopping to rest, eat, or take bathroom breaks, how long would it take him to cover a whole furlong? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Assume you are buying a lot to build your dream home with roadside frontage of one chain. How far would you have to measure back to ensure you had a lot of two acres? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Forrest Gump's alma mater, Alabama, has a new football recruit. And he's fast. He's even faster than Forrest. This guy has been clocked at over 50 chains per minute. If LSU kicks off to Alabama and this new recruit catches the football on the goal line and he heads straight for the other goal line, how long will it take him to get there, assuming no LSU players get in his way? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Private Schmuck has messed up again. And he got caught. Sergeant Snorkel is tired of this guy's mistakes, so he really lays it on him this time. "Private Schmuck, I want you to take the water out of this full hogshead, and move it over to that empty hogshead beside it. You will not eat, or sleep, or take a break until it is done. You will use this tablespoon to do it. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!" "Yes, sir, replies the hapless Schmuck. Now, Private Schmuck isn't very smart, but he is fast. He can move one tablespoon of water every two seconds. So how long will he have to work before he can go visit the chow hall? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. What's the difference between a long ton and a short ton? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Bud Weiser is kind of a heavy drinker. He likes to start the day with a six-pack of 12-ounce cans of beer before breakfast. Then he has another six-pack with his lunch. And, of course, he needs a six-pack to wash down dinner. Then he finishes the evening with a fourth six-pack of beers just before bed to help him sleep. Now a habit like this can get a little expensive, so he decides that he will start buying his beer by the barrel to save a little money. If he purchases a standard beer barrel and continues his drinking habits just as they were before, how long will that beer barrel last him? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. George Herschel always wanted to be an astronaut, and he always wanted to visit the sun and see if it was as hot as everyone says it is. So when a short green man with big eyes offered him a deal on a flying saucer, he just couldn't pass it up. The LGM (Little Green Man) assured George that this baby could do right at 1 parsec per millennium. So George suited up and blasted off. Assuming the LGM was correct about the speed of the flying saucer, and assuming nothing happens to George, how long will it take him to get to the sun? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. Alfred is a weightlifter. He started lifting weights when he was younger by attaching a gallon jug of water to each end of a pole and using it for a barbell. Well, now he's older, he's bigger, and he is training for the Olympics by lifting a hogshead of water on each end of a steel bar and doing dead lifts with it. How much weight is he lifting if you discount the weight of the bar and the weight of the hogshead containers? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. In 1954 in Oxford, England, Roger Bannister became the first human (that we know of) to break the four minute mile. We'll discount any records set by early man fleeing sabertooth tigers. To set such a record, Roger had to exceed an average of 15 miles per hour. Just curious - what does 15 miles an hour work out to in furlongs per fortnight? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. Alfred works as a messenger at the central headquarters of a huge manufacturing plant. One day the big boss called in Alfred and three of his fellow messengers "Guys, I've got four packages to be delivered to our four main factories. Just drop the packages off with the plant boss's secretary, then you can go to lunch. One of you needs to gallop 4 furlongs over to the North Plant, one needs to run/walk 1 kilometer to our East Plant, one needs to slog 600 fathoms over to the South Plant, and the last one needs to go the quarter league to the West Plant. Since cars are not allowed on campus, you will all have to go on foot. Alfred, since you're the senior messenger, you get first pick." Now Alfred wants to pick the shortest route so he can get on to lunch as fast as possible, so which route should select? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. In the 1995 World Snail Racing Championship, held in England, a garden snail named Archie sped through the 13-inch course in two minutes flat. He must have been exhausted. But if this speedy fellow could keep up the same pace, without stopping to rest, eat, or take bathroom breaks, how long would it take him to cover a whole furlong?

Answer: About 20 hours

A furlong is 660 feet, or 7,920 inches. If this speedy snail covered 13 inches in two minutes, then he would cover a whole furlong in 7,920 inches x 2 minutes / 13 inches, which works out to 1218 minutes, or 20.3 hours.
2. Assume you are buying a lot to build your dream home with roadside frontage of one chain. How far would you have to measure back to ensure you had a lot of two acres?

Answer: Two furlongs

An acre is defined as one chain wide and one furlong deep, or vice versa, so you would travel back two furlongs.
3. Forrest Gump's alma mater, Alabama, has a new football recruit. And he's fast. He's even faster than Forrest. This guy has been clocked at over 50 chains per minute. If LSU kicks off to Alabama and this new recruit catches the football on the goal line and he heads straight for the other goal line, how long will it take him to get there, assuming no LSU players get in his way?

Answer: 5 seconds

A chain is a unit of distance used in public land surveys. It is an actual chain consisting of 100 links, each 7.92 inches long for a total length of 22 yards. So if our recruit can cover 50 chains per minute, that works out to 1100 yards per minute. So he will clear the whole field of one hundred yards in about one-eleventh of a minute, or about 5 seconds. Now that's fast!
4. Private Schmuck has messed up again. And he got caught. Sergeant Snorkel is tired of this guy's mistakes, so he really lays it on him this time. "Private Schmuck, I want you to take the water out of this full hogshead, and move it over to that empty hogshead beside it. You will not eat, or sleep, or take a break until it is done. You will use this tablespoon to do it. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!" "Yes, sir, replies the hapless Schmuck. Now, Private Schmuck isn't very smart, but he is fast. He can move one tablespoon of water every two seconds. So how long will he have to work before he can go visit the chow hall?

Answer: About 9 hours

A hogshead is a large cask, with a volume of 63 gallons, or 16,128 tablespoons. At two seconds per tablespoon, it will take poor Private Schmuck 32,256 seconds to do the job, or 8.96 hours. Guess he'd better get busy.
5. What's the difference between a long ton and a short ton?

Answer: About 240 pounds

The British use the long ton, which is 2240 pounds, and in the U.S. the short ton, or 2000 pounds, is used. Both countries define the ton as being 20 hundredweights, but the British hundredweight is 112 pounds, whereas in the U.S it's 100 pounds. The reason the British hundredweight is more is because a hundredweight is defined as 8 stones, which in medieval times was about 12 1/2 pounds, although other countries had their own definitions of how much a stone was.

In 1350 King Edward III standardized the value at 14 pounds per stone, which made their hundred weight 112 pounds. I can see why all the other countries in the world have gone metric.
6. Bud Weiser is kind of a heavy drinker. He likes to start the day with a six-pack of 12-ounce cans of beer before breakfast. Then he has another six-pack with his lunch. And, of course, he needs a six-pack to wash down dinner. Then he finishes the evening with a fourth six-pack of beers just before bed to help him sleep. Now a habit like this can get a little expensive, so he decides that he will start buying his beer by the barrel to save a little money. If he purchases a standard beer barrel and continues his drinking habits just as they were before, how long will that beer barrel last him?

Answer: Two weeks

A standard beer barrel is 31 gallons, or 3,968 ounces. Four six-packs of beer per day at 12 ounces per can of beer works out to 288 ounces per day. Dividing 3,968 by 288 ounces per day works out to 13.8 days, or just about two weeks. If Bud really wants to save money, I suggest he pay a visit to his local Alcoholics Anonymous.
7. George Herschel always wanted to be an astronaut, and he always wanted to visit the sun and see if it was as hot as everyone says it is. So when a short green man with big eyes offered him a deal on a flying saucer, he just couldn't pass it up. The LGM (Little Green Man) assured George that this baby could do right at 1 parsec per millennium. So George suited up and blasted off. Assuming the LGM was correct about the speed of the flying saucer, and assuming nothing happens to George, how long will it take him to get to the sun?

Answer: Less than two days

Using the handy internet conversion tables, we see that a parsec is 1.9174 times 10 to the 13th power miles, and a millennium is 8.76 million (or 8.76 times 10 to the 6th power) hours. Dividing 1.9174 x 10 (13th) by 8.76 x 10 (6th) we get about 2.19 million miles per hour. Dividing the distance from the earth to the sun (93 million miles) by the speed of the flying saucer (2.19 million miles per hour), we get right about 42.5 hours, or a little less than two days.

After George finishes viewing all the sights there are to see on the surface of the sun, I don't think he will be making a return trip.
8. Alfred is a weightlifter. He started lifting weights when he was younger by attaching a gallon jug of water to each end of a pole and using it for a barbell. Well, now he's older, he's bigger, and he is training for the Olympics by lifting a hogshead of water on each end of a steel bar and doing dead lifts with it. How much weight is he lifting if you discount the weight of the bar and the weight of the hogshead containers?

Answer: Roughly 1,050 pounds

Using the handy conversions provided on several web sites, you will find that a hogshead contains 63 gallons. Since a gallon of water weighs about 8.3 pounds, that will give the weight of a hogshead at about 523 pounds. So two hogsheads of water will weigh 1,046 pounds or about 1,050 pounds.

The current 2019 world record for the dead lift is 1,102.3 pounds set by Eddie Hall in the World's Strongest Man competition in 2017.
9. In 1954 in Oxford, England, Roger Bannister became the first human (that we know of) to break the four minute mile. We'll discount any records set by early man fleeing sabertooth tigers. To set such a record, Roger had to exceed an average of 15 miles per hour. Just curious - what does 15 miles an hour work out to in furlongs per fortnight?

Answer: A blistering 40,320 furlongs per fortnight

There are eight furlongs in a mile and a fortnight is 14 days, or 336 hours. So the answer would be (15 miles/hour) x (8 furlongs/mile) x (336 hours per fortnight) or 40,320 furlongs per fortnight). Sort of makes him sound like he's rocket-propelled.
10. Alfred works as a messenger at the central headquarters of a huge manufacturing plant. One day the big boss called in Alfred and three of his fellow messengers "Guys, I've got four packages to be delivered to our four main factories. Just drop the packages off with the plant boss's secretary, then you can go to lunch. One of you needs to gallop 4 furlongs over to the North Plant, one needs to run/walk 1 kilometer to our East Plant, one needs to slog 600 fathoms over to the South Plant, and the last one needs to go the quarter league to the West Plant. Since cars are not allowed on campus, you will all have to go on foot. Alfred, since you're the senior messenger, you get first pick." Now Alfred wants to pick the shortest route so he can get on to lunch as fast as possible, so which route should select?

Answer: North

Going to our handy conversion tables on the internet, you will see that 4 furlongs is half a mile, 1 kilometer is 0.62 miles, 600 fathoms is 0.68 mile, and a quarter of a league is 0.86 miles, so Alfred will naturally pick the North Plant and will be well into his lunch before the poor junior messenger gets back from the West Plant.
Source: Author OldManJack

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor rossian before going online.
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