Do You Have The Time? Trivia Quiz

Answer: about eight minutes

Light, in the form of photons, takes time to travel through the vacuum of space, which it does at about 186,000 miles a second. As the earth is approximately 93 million miles from the sun, the math says the journey takes slightly over eight minutes. Theoretically, then, if the sun were to suddenly go dark, you wouldn't know it until eight minutes later.

Answer: Asiatic elephant

Remember, an elephant never forgets. Elephant: 609-720 days (more than 20 months); whale, rhino, giraffe: 14-15 months

Answer: twenty-four second shot clock

In the early 1950s, the NBA enjoyed little fan support. Games were slow and foul-plagued as teams held onto the ball to protect a lead at the end of games. In one infamous contest from 1950, Ft. Wayne stalled their way to a 19-18 win over league power Minneapolis. Danny Biasone, owner of the Syracuse Nationals at that time came up with the shot clock idea basing it on figuring about 60 shots per team in the more exciting, high scoring games he studied, and therefore dividing 120 into the number of seconds in a game.

The innovation succeeded in speeding up the game, and the resultant product eventually became the a multi-billion dollar industry of today. In the first game with the shot clock, Rochester defeated Boston 98-95 on October 30th, 1954. -source: NBA.com

Answer: No

The earth goes around the sun once every 365.24 days, rather than an exact 365, so every fourth year, an extra day is added to correct the imbalance, thus the concept of leap year. However, since the four year correction adds up to only .98 days (approximately 4x .24), every 100 years leap year is skipped.

But wait! It's still not exact, so every 400 years, leap year is put back in. Aren't you glad there are mathematicians out there taking care of all this stuff? Or, we could just go with a Mayan type of calendar based on the solstices, and the year wouldn't need adjusting.

Answer: Time Won't Let Me

"Time Won't Let Me" was a moderate hit for the 1960s rock group The Outsiders, who could be termed "one hit wonders." The other three were hits for the Stones. "Last Time" and "Good Times" were written by Jagger/Richards. "Time Is On My Side" was written by Jerry Ragovoy and was a hit for New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas first. Both versions were released in 1964, the Stones' became their first US top ten hit.

Answer: first human to run one mile in less than four minutes

On May 6, 1954, Englishman Roger Bannister did what some scientists and pundits had been saying for years was impossible. He completed a mile race in 3:59.4, breaking the "unbreakable" four minute barrier. The event took place at Iffley Road Track in Oxford, and was remarkable for many reasons, including the fact that Bannister was in training to be a doctor and hadn't devoted as much time to running as many other track stars.

Answer: Benjamin Banneker

Banneker was born in Maryland in 1731 and died in 1804. He was the son and grandson of a former slaves. He received some Quaker education but was largely self-taught and a voracious reader with many interests. At age 22, he borrowed a pocket watch from a rich neighbor, took it apart and successfully reassembled it after studying it and making drawings of the parts.

These he used to fashion a working wooden clock which chimed on the hour and kept time for 50 years! He also studied astronomy and correctly predicted a 1789 solar eclipse, and like Ben Franklin, published his own almanac. Benjamin Braddock was Dustin Hoffman's character in the film "The Graduate."

Answer: True

The magazine was created in 1923 by two aspiring Yale journalism students, Henry Luce and Briton Hadden. It was designed to be fun, informative and quickly read, so they developed the slogan, "Take Time-It's Brief," to promote their magazine. The first issue published on March 3, 1923, had Joseph G. Cannon, retired Speaker of the US House of Representatives, on the cover.

Answer: Stephen Hawking; British physicist

Hawking's book, first published in 1988, attempts to explain the basics of the universe to the general, non-scientific reader. It has sold more than 10 million copies. In 1989, Hawking gave the commencement address to the graduating class of Yale College in New Haven, using a speech synthesizer to generate words.

Despite being incapacitated for years with a motor neuron disease, he has remained an incredibly active force in the scientific community while also reaching the general public with accessible ideas. Hawking is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the US government.

Answer: International Date Line

It's the International Dateline. The IDL is an imaginary line running from north to south pole, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which determines the change of one calendar day to the next. It is on the opposite side of the world from the prime meridian, and is at approximately 180 degrees longitude, but it has many twists and deviations, mostly to avoid making two different days on any inhabited land.