The Obvious Answer Is Wrong... Quiz

Answer: No

It's actually the chlorine and other solutes in the water that conduct the electricity. Water in its purest form is actually a very good insulator, but because water is the universal solvent, it always has some solutes in it in any real-life situation. So make sure that when they tell you to get out of the pool, you do it!

This reminds me of a joke: If you ever have a problem, just dissolve it in water. Then it becomes a solution!

Answer: No, they're reacting to the movement of the cape.

Believe it or not, bulls are actually partially colorblind and cannot distinguish red from green. The aspect of cape-waving that infuriates the bull is the flapping of the cape. Bull-fighting would still work with a different-colored cape. Perhaps the expression "to see red", which is often attributed to bull-fighting, should be "to see waving fabric". Hmm, it doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?

Answer: Yes.

In WWI, the Allied Powers consisted of France, Britain, Russia, the US, and Japan, as well as some other European countries and some less local ones such as India and South Africa. The Central Powers comprised Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire.

In WWII, Germany, Japan, and Italy, and others battled the Allies, who included many countries, ranging from Nicaragua to New Zealand.

But Switzerland was not among any of these lists of countries. They do have an army though, which was mobilized in each World War (and the Franco-Prussian War) but did not engage in combat. Despite this, however, Swiss citizens are required to serve on the military or complete some other type of service.

Answer: No

It's actually the genus of "low-growing shrubs of northern regions of northern hemisphere" (Dictionary.com). Scientists in the book speculated that the virus was from outer space, so it was actually named after the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way.

The Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy are potentially on a collision course, and could collide in approximately 4.5 billion years. In this case, they would likely merge to form a larger galaxy.

Answer: No, this could be an example of Simpson's Paradox.

Given the information, it certainly could have been possible or even likely that Sam had a higher combined batting average than Joe, but without knowing the number of at-bats each player had in each year, we couldn't know for sure who had the highest overall average. Here's an example of some stats that would yield the result that the coach got.

In 2008, Sam had 251 at-bats and got 81 hits. In 2009, Sam had 76 at-bats and got 26 hits. Thus his 2008 average is .323, his 2009 average is .342, and his overall average is .327.

In 2008, Joe had 86 at-bats and got 27 hits. In 2009, Joe had 287 at-bats and got 96 hits. Thus his 2008 average is .314, his 2009 average is .334, and his overall average is .329.

This is called Simpson's Paradox, which occurs when combining two groups of statistics seems to reverse the individual outcomes. This actually occurred in real life when Cal (University of California at Berkley) was sued for sexual discrimination. While women had an overall smaller chance of being accepted, within most of the individual departments a higher percentage of women were accepted.

Answer: Yes

The managing director of Guinness hatched the idea in 1951 when he got in argument over the fastest game bird in Europe. Being a beer man, he was familiar with these sorts of debates that occurred in English pubs and decided to publish a book containing facts frequently questioned. The first issue was published in 1955 and became an instant success.

Answer: No, he won it for his research on the photoelectric effect.

He actually won it for his research on the photoelectric effect, which helps to explain the wave-particle duality of light. The photoelectric effect occurs when a surface emits elections after absorbing a light ray. One of the reasons that Einstein received the award for the photoelectric effect and not for general relativity is that general relativity was a fairly new concept at the time and had not been accepted by all the prominent scientists.

Answer: No, it was created in England.

It got its name because traders in the East India Company had an affinity for it. The first IPA was fermented in George Hodgson's Bow Brewery and it wasn't long before its popularity spread and demand skyrocketed. It is a fairly common style of beer today, characterized by its high hoppy bitterness, and breweries all over the world produce it.

Answer: No

A large majority of meteors are no bigger than a pebble. The reason we can see them from so far away is that they burn up in the atmosphere, leaving a long trail of gases and particles behind them. It's rare that a meteor makes it to the Earth's surface; those that do graduate to the 'meteorites' category. On a somewhat related note: When we see comets in the sky, they appear to have a tail.

Many people believe that this is a result of their motion causing erosion that leaves a trail of particles behind them.

This is not so. Since most comets are made of ice, the tail of a comet is mostly water and always points away from the sun, regardless of the direction of motion.

Answer: Yes

The actual percent of scientists that are atheists varies among sources (anywhere between 30 and 90 percent), but all agree that it is much higher than the 2.5% of the general population worldwide that classify themselves as atheists. Notable scientists and mathematicians who consider themselves atheists are Sigmund Freud (psychologist, Father of Psychoanalysis), G. H. Hardy (mathematician, author of "A Mathematician's Apology"), Carl Sagan (astronomer, presented "Cosmos"), James Watson (biologist, co-discoverer of DNA), Alan Turing (logician, Father of modern Computer Science), and many more; Einstein did believe in God, though, and said that "Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind."