You Can't Go Wrong With This Quiz!

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

The pen is mightier than the sword in many cases. The American Revolutionary War probably would have ended much differently if Benjamin Franklin had not secured France as an ally both militarily and financially. Afterward, Franklin signed a Peace Treaty with Great Britain ending the war and forcing Britain to recognize American independence. Signing the peace treaty with Great Britain also protected the new nation from then being taken over by France.

John Hancock was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence but was in poor health by the time the Constitution was drafted. George Washington was the first signer of the Constitution.

Answer: Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Sydney Harbour Bridge was given the nickname the Coathanger due to its structural design. Chances are if you see a picture of Sydney, or Australia for that matter, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House will be featured.

The Brooklyn bridge took 14 years to construct and opened in 1883. The graceful Golden Gate suspension was designed by Leon Moisseiff. He also designed the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge. The current London Bridge was opened in 1973 and is a box girder design.

Answer: The Legend of Zelda

"The Legend of Zelda", released by Nintendo ES, was the first game to have a battery backup within the game cartridge allowing the saving of game progress. This revolution in gaming allowed the creators to make a much more complex world since the game did not have to be finished in one sitting. This also allowed the player to upgrade weapons and gain in strength to conquer the nine progressively harder dungeons. Once the final boss was defeated and the princess was rescued, the player could start over and play a tougher version of the game with even new dungeon layouts and locations.

"Mega Man" also came out in 1987 but the original did not have a "save" feature. "Mega Man" was the first to allow a player to play the game in a non-sequential order allowing players to pick which level they wanted to play next.

"Pac-Man" didn't have a save feature or even a pause button but for most players death was quick. However, in 1999 master player Billy Mitchell scored a perfect 3,333,360 points on "Pac-Man". He completed all 255 levels and did not miss one possible point including all ghosts and special items. Once level 256 is reached the program ran out of RAM and there is a split-screen that apparently even the creators of the game did not know would happen!

Answer: Isaac Asimov

Hari Seldon is Isaac Asimov's mastermind in the "Foundation" series. In the world of Hari Seldon, the great galactic empire was heading towards a civilization collapse and an unavoidable dark age. One of Asimov's inventions for the "Foundation" novels is the field of psychohistory which uses advanced mathematics and knowledge of human nature to predict the future accurately. Hari Seldon was the wisest of the psychohistorians and was able to develop a secret plan to shorten the inevitable dark ages by creating two foundations at the edges of the galaxy to preserve knowledge. Isaac Asimov was a brilliant writer who penned over 500 books in many subjects, but he is primarily known for his science fiction work.

Frank Herbert is the author of the "Dune" series with his main protagonist Paul Atreides. Stephen King has been very prolific as well and has written over 90 books.

Answer: Plasma

I thought it was coffee for sure! We might need to lobby for a fifth state!

Plasma is an ionized state where some of the electrons are stripped away from the nucleus resulting in both positively and negatively charged particles within the substance. A great example is the element neon which in the gas state is inert and invisible. However, when an electrical charge is added to a closed system of neon, you go from neon gas to neon plasma which is used in advertising signs. Other examples of atoms in the plasma state is lightning and the interior of the sun and other stars.

A boson is a fundamental particle of which the most commonly known is light. Quantum mechanics is the study of subatomic particles.

There is a fifth manmade state of matter given the name Bose-Einstein condensate. Using magnets and lasers, researchers were able to cool the element rubidium down to almost absolute zero and since there was almost zero kinetic energy the atoms started clumping together to form one big atomic clump!

Answer: On a Crazy Train

Ozzy Osbourne released his iconic song "Crazy Train" in 1980 on his debut solo album "Blizzard of Ozz". The most dominating features of the song is Randy Rhoads' guitar riffs and solos. However, if we are talking modes of transportation you might want to skip the crazy train as it is "going off the rails!"

Ozzy's unfortunate relationship with one particular bat makes it hard to imagine Bruce Wayne would give him the keys to the Batmobile. The Harley would probably be the right answer if Meatloaf was driving. Watch out for Frank N Furter!

Answer: The Simpsons

"The Simpsons" started airing on prime time in 1989 in the US and have had a remarkable run of over 30 years. Matt Groening started his cartooning career with his comic strip "Life in Hell". He is also the creator of the shows "Futurama" and "Disenchantment".

"King of the Hill" was created by Mike Judge who started with his show "Beavis and Butthead". Seth MacFarlane is the creator of "Family Guy" while "South Park" was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

All four of these animated shows have had a long life with over 100 episodes. All four also revolve around humor that is designed to insult or shock the viewers and are cartoons designed for an adult audience.

Answer: A Chinese puzzle

Tangram is a Chinese puzzle that is traditionally made up of seven pieces all in geometric shapes. Usually, when all seven pieces are put together they form a square while the individual pieces are triangles, squares, and parallelograms. The real challenge with Tangrams is using the shapes to form other objects with all seven pieces based on a silhouette picture. Typically the most common solver of tangram puzzles are young children as they are learning their shapes.

Answer: Iocane powder

Yes, as brilliant as Vizzini was he never considered the Dread Pirate Roberts would be able to build up his immunity to iocane powder which is odorless, tasteless and dissolves instantly. The challenge given to Vizzini was figuring out which goblet of wine contained the poison. Before his defeat in the challenge of wits and his ultimate death, Vizzini went through a list of reasons why the poison would be in one wine goblet or the other but the sneaky Roberts had put the poison in both! Vizzini's last words were "never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!" Fortunately for us, iocane powder only exists in the "Princess Bride" world. ROUS stands for "rodents of unusual size" which are rumored to live in the fire swamp.

Answer: Rubicon

Julius Caesar had a successful campaign in the Gallic wars which allowed him to gain military prestige and great wealth. In Caesar's time, the Rubicon river was the northern border of Rome and it was illegal for Caesar to cross into Rome at the head of an army. So Caesar's action of crossing the Rubicon led to civil war and ultimately to the rise of the Roman emperors.

Interestingly, the exact location of the Rubicon crossing is not known as it became less important as a border once the empire expanded and the Rubicon was no longer the border. Plus the river changed course and name over time. It is estimated that the famous crossing happened near the towns of Rimini and Cesena which are about 190 miles from the city of Rome.

The river Po is north of the Rubicon and cuts across the northern part of modern Italy. The Tiber river is the river Rome is on itself.