Fifty Fifty Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of eight major islands and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometres) from the island of Hawai'i in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll.
By comparison, Alaska is 2,261 miles (3,639 km) wide due in part to The Aleutian Islands. More than 300 volcanic islands make up these islands, which stretch over 1,200 miles (1,900 km) westward into the Pacific Ocean. This makes Hawai'i the second widest American state.

The Hawaiian islands were first known as the "Sandwich Islands". They were named by James Cook after the then First Lord of the Admiralty John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.

The present name of the state and archipelago is derived from the name of the largest island.

Answer: False

The state of Hawaii consists of the eight main islands of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and Hawaii, the latter giving its name to the State and the archpeligo,

(The island of Lana'i is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is also known as Pineapple Island it was an island-wide pineapple plantation. The island at one stage was 97% owned by an American businessman).

Answer: True

The Hawaiian islands are arguably the biggest mountain range in the world with their bases on the seabed and the islands themselves being the mountain peaks "peeking" above sea level. The undersea mountain range is known as the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain.

The island chain developed as the Pacific Tectonic Plate moved towards the north-west over a hotspot in the Earth's mantle. This occurred at a rate of 32 miles (51 km) per million years. Therefore the southeast islands are volcanically active whereas the islands in the northwest are older and because of exposure and erosion, smaller, and not active. Kure Atoll in the far northwest, is the oldest at approximately 28 million years. South-eastern most island, Hawai'i, is the "newest" major island.

Answer: True

The Big Island is Hawaii's largest at 4,028 (10,430 km2) square miles. Hawai'i is the largest and the south-most of the Hawaiian Islands. It has 63% of the Hawaiian combined area. The island is the largest island in the United States. It has only 12-13% od the total population at 185000 people, with around 45000 living in the only city Hilo (2016 Estimate).

The island is often referred to as the Island of Hawai'i, the Big Island, or Hawai'i Island to distinguish it from the state of Hawaii.

Answer: True

The Hawaiian islands were formed by volcanic activity due to an undersea source of magma called the Hawaii hotspot.
The island of Hawaiʻi is built from five separate shield volcanoes including Mount Kea and Mount Loa. Three are still active: Hualalai; Mauna Loa; and Kîlauea. Because of this, the island of Hawaii is still growing. Between 1983 and 2002, lava flows increased the island's area by 543 acres (220 ha). These are all young volcanoes, appearing emerging from the ocean around 400-900 thousand years ago.

The only active volcanic activity in the years since European settlement has been on the south eastern island, Hawai'i, and on the submerged volcano to the extreme southeast, Lo'ihi. This latter volcano is still growing.

Answer: False

The big island of Hawaii is located at 19:54:49 N, 155:41:00 W. It is around 140 miles north of the equator.

While there is always an east-west wind blowing in Hawaii, at this place, it blows a constant 27 knots per hour 24 hours per day and 365 days per year.

Hawaii was the first Hawaiian island settled by seafaring Polynesians. An exact time of settlement cannot be determined but it is thought to be after 100 AD, probably closer to 300 AD. There was a known second influx around the 11th century.

Answer: True

The island of Maui contains the old whaling town of Lahaina. In the early 19th century whale oil was used for heating, lighting and in machinery. Whale bone from the upper jaw was used in clothing and accessories such as corsets, skirting hoops, umbrellas and whips. American whaling ships sailing the hunting grounds in the Japan Sea and the South Pacific stopped in Hawaii twice a year to restock provisions, replace crews and offload whale oil cargoes. For Lahaina, the whaling fleet was the mainstay of the Hawaiian economy for over 20 years. Over 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824, rising to 736 whaling ships arriving in Hawaii in 1848.

In 1859, the discovery of petroleum oil on the American mainland was the start the end of the whaling industry in Hawaii.

Answer: True

Navy and Air Force, the services are cleaning up unexploded shells, but ended live-fire training exercises on Kahoʻolawe in 1990.
The island consists of an uninhabited (due mainly to lack of freshwater) area of 45 square miles (11 mi (18 km) long by 6 mi (10 km) wide). Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the eight main islands. It is located about seven miles (12 km) southwest of Maui.

Answer: True

Molaka'i is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) in size with a land area of 260 square miles (673 km2). This makes the island the fifth-largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and lies east of Oahu 25 miles/40km across the Kaiwi Channel.

The eastern portion of the island is a high plateau of around of 4,900 ft (1,500 m) and is covered with wet forests that receive more than 300 in (7,600 mm) of rain per year.

The island is sparsely populated with less than 10 000 people spread over three settlements including two small ports.

Answer: False

In 2012, Honolulu was declared to have the worst traffic congestion in the US. Drivers waste on average over 58 hours per year on congested roadways, most on the H-1 Freeway in and out of Honolulu. However to put that in perspective, of the 162 problem corridors in the US in 2016, Hawaii only had two. (Los Angeles had 35 of the worst corridors on that same list). Traffic congestion has been hampered by lack of a rail type of public rail system.

After many decades of delays, ground was finally broken in 2011 for this project.

Answer: True

In Hawaii, everyone is within a minority. According to the 2010 census, Caucasians make up 34% of the population; Japanese-American 32%; Filipino-American about 16% and Chinese-American about 5%. Racial identification is very hard to determine in this state as most of the population has some mixture of ethnicities.
Native Hawaiians (kanaka maoli) are descendants from the original Polynesian seafarers who settled in Hawaii around the third century.

Answer: True

Hawaiian alphabet:
Vowels: A, E, I, O, U
Consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W

Compare this with the Maori language spoken at the other end of the Pacific Ocean:

The Maori alphabet (Te Pû Taka Mâori) consists of 10 consonants and 5 vowels:
Vowels: a, e, i, o, u
Consonants: h, k, m, n, ng, p, r, t, w, wh.
Two of the consonants have two letters that combine to form one sound (Digraphs): wh, ng.

It can be seen how similar the two languages are and attests to the Polynesian culture being great seafarers.

Answer: True

The highest recorded temperature is 96 degrees F (36C) (Honolulu Airport), but temperatures over 92 degrees F generally occur only once or twice a year. The lowest temperature (under 3000 feet altitude) is 56 degrees F. Temperatures under 60 degrees F may occur but very rarely . Average daytime temp. in July is 82F/28C. Average daytime temperature in January is 72F/22C. An interesting weather phenomenon in Hawaii is the wind always blows east to west.

Answer: True

It is not quite true that Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time) in the US. While there is no daylight savings time in Hawaii, the western Aleutian Islands off the north-western tip of Alaska are in the same time zone for four months of the year (The rest of the year these islands observe DST).

The time zone (Greenwich Mean Time - 10 hours) runs two hours behind Pacific Standard Time and five hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Answer: True

Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee in commercially viable quantities though a small amount of coffee is grown in California around Santa Barbara.

More than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples is grown in Hawaii. Other places that grow large amounts of this fruit are in the tropical parts of Asia, Latin America and Australia. The most popular tourist attraction in the state of Hawaii is Pearl Harbor bombing site but the second most visited attraction is the Dole pineapple plantation located a few miles north of Pearl Harbor.

Sugarcane is grown in small quantities in Florida, Georgia, Texas and Hawaii with Hawaii being the smallest producer of the four.

Hawaii, alongside South Africa and Australia, are worldwide leaders in harvesting macadamia nuts.