Learning the ABCs Trivia Quiz

Answer: B3

Vitamin B3 is the generic name for Niacin or Nicotinic Acid and Nicotinamide or the coenzyme forms of this vitamin. B3 vitamin is water soluble and thus not stored in the human body. It is found in many foods like yeast, meat (beef, chicken), liver, heart, kidney, fish, milk, eggs, peanuts and nuts, green vegetables, beans and cereals. It is also synthesized from tryptophan, an essential amino acid found in most forms of proteins.

Niacin is important in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. B complex vitamins are needed for healthy skin, hair, eyes, and liver and proper nervous system functioning. Mild deficiency can cause indigestion, fatigue, vomiting, depression, canker sores (aphtous ulcers).

Severe Niacin deficiency is a rare condition in developed countries, being usually caused by malnutrition and chronic alcoholism. It can occur in areas where people eat maize as a staple food. Severe and chronic deficit causes pellagra, a disease classically described by three signs: diarrhea, dermatitis and dementia (and eventually death if left untreated).

Answer: AB

The well known ABO blood type classification was founded at the dawn of the 20th century. There are two main sugars, the antigens A or B, which are present on the surface of the red blood cells, corresponding to the blood groups A or B or AB (when both antigens are present). For the group O only the antigen H, precursor for the A and B antigens, is present on the surface of red blood cells.

From the theoretical realm of the ABO blood groups, we can make some assumptions regarding its inheritance. In this case the father has blood type AB, this means he has a genotype of AB, and that means both co-dominant alleles A and B. The child can inherit from him either A or B genes. The mother in the above example can have a genotype of AA or a genotype of AO, because O is a recessive allele. The child can inherit from her either A or O allele. The child will possibly have the following genotypes: AA, AO, AB and BO, with the corresponding phenotypes of A, A, AB and B.

From this point of view, the combinations BB and OO are impossible combinations. And the combination AB (with father's B allele) can be drawn out from three combinations compared with the unique combination for BO.
(A rare combination where both the antigens A and B are absent is barely possible in the case of the Bombay phenotype, and it happens when two recessive forms of the allele for the H antigen (a precursor to both A and B antigens) are inherited. Its frequency is one in a million people in Europe and one in 10000 in India. It is called the Oh group or the hh group. This group lacks A, B and H antigens).

Answer: c

By convention, the right triangle or the right-angled triangle has two catheti or legs, which are the sides adjacent to the right angle and a hypotenuse, which is the side opposite to the right angle. Usually the right angle is symbolized by the letter C and the side opposite to it, the hypotenuse, by the letter c. The Pythagorean Theorem can be written as an equation between the measures a, b, and c of the three sides of a right triangle, where c is the length of the hypotenuse:

c^2 = a^2 + b^2

Answer: C

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid is generally well tolerated by the organism compared to other fat-soluble vitamins, because it is water-soluble and thus excreted easily by the body. But adverse effects can occur in its case too if some conditions are not respected.

Answer: A minor

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist, belonging to the Romantic era. He was 25 years old when this A minor concerto had its first public performance in April 1869 in Copenhagen. He completed most of his piano concerto at Søllerød, north of Copenhagen, and dedicated this work to the Norwegian pianist and composer Edmund Neupert, one of his friends. He finalized the concerto in Oslo (Kristiania). Neupert was the soloist for the concerto's first performances.

In this work we can hear the influence of Norwegian folk music and the two-stroke rhythms of the halling (a folk dance traditionally performed in Norway at rural weddings and parties). In the last movement it imitates the sound of the Hardanger fiddle (the Norwegian folk fiddle), using the three-stroke rhythm of the springar (another Norwegian dance).

Piano concerto in A minor, Op.16 opens with an A minor movement and it was compared with another famous concerto in A minor, Schumann's only concerto for piano, but they are clearly distinct.

In music theory, the key of a piece is the tonic note and chord. Longer pieces in the classical repertoire may have sections in contrasting keys.
Other famous musical pieces in A minor include Beethoven's Bagatelle in A minor ("Für Elise"), Violin Concerto in A minor, BWV1041 - Johann Sebastian Bach, Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102 - Johannes Brahms, Variations on a Theme by Paganini, Op. 35 - Johannes Brahms, Symphony No. 6 in A minor - Gustav Mahler, etc.

Answer: C++

A programming language is a constructed language that communicates instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. The first programming languages designed for computers were written in the 1950s. C language was developed by Dennis Ritchie and others between 1969 and 1973 as a system programming language and became one of the most widely used programming languages of all time.

It was named "C" because its features were derived from "B", an earlier programming language. Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist, began to develop C++ from its predecessor "C with Classes" in 1979.

The name C++ started to be in use in 1983.

Answer: B.B.

Riley B. King, better known as B.B. King, was born in 1925. He started recording in the 40s. He has developed one of the world's most identifiable guitar styles, mixing traditional blues, jazz, swing, mainstream pop and jump into a unique sound. Some of his well-known compositions include "Payin' The Cost To Be The Boss", "The Thrill Is Gone", "How Blue Can You Get", "Everyday I Have The Blues", "Why I Sing The Blues", "Three O'Clock Blues". Since the 50s he baptized all his guitars Lucille, following a fight over a woman named Lucille during one of his performances.

Answer: Boron

B is the symbol for Boron, an element with the atomic number of 5. Beryllium is symbolized Be, Bismuth is Bi and Bromine is Br.

Answer: A

The symbol A, a base unit, represents in the International System of Units (S.I.) one ampere, defined as "the constant current which, if maintained in two straight parallel conductors of infinite length, of negligible circular cross-section, and placed 1 m apart in vacuum, would produce between these conductors a force equal to 2×10−7 newtons per metre of length".

It is named after André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836), French mathematician and physicist, considered to be the founder of electrodynamics.

The ampere measures the the amount of electric charge passing a point in an electric circuit per unit time, that means 6.241×1018 electrons (or one coulomb) per second constituting one ampere.

The coulomb, symbolized by C, is is the electric charge transported by a constant current of one ampere in one second.

DC and AC are symbols used to name direct current or alternating current.

Answer: Seasons in the Sun

In the early sixties Rod McKuen adapted for the English language one of Jacques Brel's songs, named "Le Moribond". It became "Seasons in the Sun" and was sung by him, by The Kingston Trio, by The Fortunes and by Beach Boys until it gained widespread popularity in the interpretation of the Canadian artist Terry Jacks in 1973. Lately the song was covered by Westlife and became a Christmas Number One in 1999.