True or False or...? #2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

The Apollo 11 landing was July 20, 1969. "DWW" was released November 21, 1990, 21 years later. Pope Benedict resigned on February 28, 2013.

Answer: True

A sheet of standard paper for copying and printing is about .01 cm thick. When you fold paper, the resulting number of layers grows exponentially. Folding nine times results in 512 layers, 20 folds reaches more than 10 km. It would take 42 folds to more than reach the moon.
Don't bother to try to prove this yourself, though, because it's impossible to fold a piece of paper more than seven or eight times (feel free to try that).
Here's a more detailed discussion of the math:

http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2009/08/31/paper-folding-to-the-moon/

Answer: False

Actually, on average, they're about two inches taller in space. This effect is the result of the lack of gravity which, on earth, compresses your spinal vertebrae. Once in space, the discs between the vertebrae decompress and you grow taller.

Answer: True

Using their Silbo Gomero whistling language, residents of La Gomera can communicate over distances as great as 5 km across their island. Whistling languages also exist in several areas of Africa, South America, Turkey, France and Mexico. As recently as the 1980s the entire population of the Greek village of Antia utilized their whistling language. Fewer than 40 residents now remain who know it.

Answer: False

You're actually not bringing a killer into your house when you decorate for Christmas with the traditional red-leafed plant. If eaten, the leaves of Poinsettia will make some people a little sick to the stomach and rubbing a leaf into your eye can cause discomfort. A 50 pound child would have to eat about 500 leaves to ingest a toxic dose of the chemicals found in Poinsettia.

Answer: True

The human larynx sits lower in the throat than in other primates. This gives us the ability to create the wide range of sounds needed for speech, but it also makes it impossible for us to breathe while swallowing - something many other animals can do. The larynx doesn't drop until about age nine months so human infants are able to breathe while nursing.

Answer: False

Thank goodness for small favors!
This rumor started in 2011 when plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn wrote a blog entry for CNN.com entitled "Smoking can make your nipples fall off". Hard to imagine how that would cause confusion or concern. What Dr. Youn actually says is that patients for breast enlargement or reduction who smoke in the weeks prior to and after the surgery run a small risk of having their nipples turn black and falling off. The nicotine and carbon monoxide in the tobacco smoke restrict blood flow to the affected area, causing necrosis.

Answer: False

The penny would reach a terminal velocity of about 50 mph or less which isn't nearly fast enough to kill anyone. At most it would sting somewhat. In contrast, a skydiver's terminal velocity is 130 to 150 mph.

Answer: False

Actually you can't get warts from toads (or frogs). Warts are caused by the human papillomavirus which is unique to humans. So you can get a wart by shaking hands with someone who has a wart.

Answer: True

Color vision is a function of cone photoreceptors within the retina. A human's central retina is 100% cones while a dog's central retina consists of about 20% cone receptors. Recent tests in dogs suggest that they can distinguish red and blue colors but often confuse green and red.

Answer: True

Yes, Russia is big. And Pluto isn't. Russia's surface area is 17,125,187 square kilometers, while Pluto is only 16,647,940 square kilometers.

Answer: False

This myth was detailed in a 1958 Disney feature "White Wilderness" which featured a segment on lemmings, explaining their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide. Unfortunately, scientists say that lemmings have no suicidal desires and a 1983 investigation showed that Disney producers faked their depiction of lemming mass suicide. "White Wilderness" won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Answer: True

Octopus also have nine brains and blue blood. By the way, the plural of octopus is not "octopi". "Octopi" would be fine if the word was a Latin derivative but "octopus" is of Greek origin. If you insist on the Greek plural, go with "octopodes". But, since "ocotopus" has been adopted into English, the best choice is probably to treat it as an English word and use the plural "octopuses".

Answer: True

McLobster (lobster meat and shredded lettuce on a hot dog bun with "McLobster Sauce") was test marketed nationally without much success. The $5.99 price might have contributed to its failure. It still appears periodically as a short term special item on McDonald's menu in parts of New England and eastern Canada.

Answer: False

Actually chewing gum (classified by the FDA as a "nonnutritive masticatory substance") doesn't digest at all. The gum passes through your digestive system pretty much unchanged in far less than seven years.