And That's Why the Chicken Crossed the Road Quiz

Answer: Douglas Adams

The supercomputer in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', Deep Thought, was specially built for the purpose of determining the 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything'. Deep Thought took 7.5 million years to determine the answer as '42'. It is worth noting that the 'Ultimate Question' has never been found.

Douglas Adams wrote 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' which started as a radio comedy in 1978 and eventually made it to shelves as a 'trilogy' of five books. 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' has since been made into several stage plays, comics, a computer game, television series and a feature film.

David Eddings, Piers Anthony and Ray Bradbury are all Science Fiction/Fantasy authors.

Answer: Plato

Plato's best-known work 'The Republic' discusses the meaning of justice and who is happier, the just or unjust man. 'The Republic' proposes a society ruled by philosopher-kings and guardians where every part of the city works together for the "greater good", hence Plato's probable answer to the question of the chicken crossing the road.

Plato was a philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle. The Academy in Athens was the first higher learning institution in the Western World. Plato wrote about many subjects including mathematics, rhetoric, philosophy and logic.

Aristotle and Damascius were ancient Greek philosophers, Sophocles was an ancient Greek playwright.

Answer: Tomas de Torquemada

Friar Tomas de Torquemada was an Inquisitor General of Spain, appointed by Queen Isabella in 1483. He led the Spanish Inquisition (formally known as the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition) for fifteen years. The tribunal was established in 1478 by King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, monarchs of Spain at the time. The reason for the tribunal was to ensure that only Catholicism was practiced in the kingdom, and that recent converts were not secretly subverting the Catholic faith.

The Inquisition used torturous processes to draw 'confessions' from those that were suspected of not truly following the Catholic way. A doctor was present to assess the general reactions and condition of the suspect. Any torture was deemed null if the suspect was physically unable to hear or understand the process. Confessions had to be pure and not half-conscious therefore "the confession is truth, not made by way of torture". A clerk was also present at torture sessions to ensure that any confession was written as it occurred.

Ten minutes would probably be more than enough time for this man to find out why the chicken crossed the road!

Alonso de Hojeda, Pedro González de Mendoza, Miguel de Morillo were all a part of the Spanish Inquisition.

Answer: Theodore Seuss Geisel

Theodore Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, wrote children's favourites such as 'The Cat in the Hat' and 'Green Eggs and Ham'. His work has been adapted for feature films, Broadway and television. Geisel worked as an illustrator, political cartoonist and in the animation department of the US Army.

Seuss's writing is easily recognisable by people everywhere, with its rhyming and use of simple words. 'The Cat in the Hat' is 1,702 words long, but it uses only two hundred and twenty different words. 'Green Eggs and Ham' uses only 50 words, 49 of them having only one syllable. 'Green Eggs and Ham' was the most successful book ever written by 'Dr Seuss' and the fourth best-selling children's hard cover of all time. (www.newyorker.com, December 2002).

While all being well-known children's authors, neither Enid Blyton, Mark Twain nor Hans Christian Andersen wrote in the distinct style of Dr Seuss.

Answer: Charles Darwin

In his book 'On the Origin of Species', Charles Darwin theorised that evolution resulted from natural selection. Darwin's theory explains the diversity of life and has become accepted as fact by the scientific community and the public in general. Contrary to other known greats, Darwin's theory became popular within his own lifetime.

Darwin used his theory to explain how similar animals on different islands were separate species, not just different varieties of the same animal, and how each had adapted to the unique conditions of their habitat, hence why chickens are genetically predisposed to crossing roads.

Bobby Henderson, is known for his own theory of evolution - The Flying Spaghetti Monster and Pastafarianism. Herbert Spencer popularised the concept of evolution, while Thomas Henry Huxley was an English biologist and advocate of Darwin's theory.

Answer: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson used his 'Nature' essay in 1836 to express the philosophy of Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is a belief that emphasises the spiritual and intuitive above the material, to rise above oneself to higher states of consciousness.

Several dictionaries give the definition of 'transcend' as "to pass beyond the limits of", or "to be greater than". Hence why the chicken could have possibly transcended the road instead of crossing it.

Sarah Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, Walt Whitman were all transcendentalists in the nineteenth century although none were known for actually 'leading' the movement.

Answer: Mr T

Adding into the question that Mr T played BA Baracas in 'The A-Team' would have been too much of a giveaway! Another possible answer from Mr T for why the chicken crossed the road could be "I pity the fool", his catchphrase from 'The A-Team'.

Mr T worked as a nightclub bouncer and bodyguard to the stars before landing a small part in 'Rocky III'. He has also starred in 'The A-Team' TV series and cartoon as well as several commercials, infomercials and bit parts in numerous TV series. He has also released music albums and a motivational video for kids.

Mr T was Hulk Hogan's tag-team partner in the first WrestleMania and has made appearances at several wrestling events since.

I agree with the chicken on this one, I think I'd definitely cross the road if I saw Mr T coming!

Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jean-Claude Van Damme were all Hollywood 'tough-guys' at around the same time as Mr T.

Answer: Aristotle

In his book 'Metaphysics, Book VII', Aristotle concludes that things are made of both matter and form, with 'matter' being the 'potential' and 'form' being the 'actual'.

The potentiality of something is what it is capable of doing, and the actuality is the result of acting on that potentiality - or the 'end product'. So the answer "To actualise its potential" refers to the chicken having the potential to cross the road and in doing so, making it actual - or real.

While Aristotle, Socrates and Epicuris were Greek, Lucretius was Roman. All were philosophers from the ancient era.

Answer: Machiavelli

Machiavellianism, named for Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, is "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct".

In his political treatise 'Il Principe' ('The Prince') Machiavelli states "...it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."

Relating to the question at hand "Why did the chicken cross the road?", the chicken is seen as the leader who adopts something new, and maybe unsavoury, in order to become 'stronger' and more revered by his subjects for his bravery, yet feared for the same actions. By keeping his subjects in a state where they are feeling the uncertainty of both awe and fear at the same time, a leader can manage to keep a strong hold on his position.

Along with Machiavelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus were well-known Renaissance men. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an admirer of Machiavelli's 'The Prince'. Da Vinci was Italian, Erasmus was Dutch, and Rousseau was Swiss.

Answer: BF Skinner

'Radical Behaviourism', created by Burrhus Frederic Skinner, is a school of thought whereby all human behaviour is explained in terms of its relationship with environmental events. Skinner says that organisms behave in a certain way because they are pre-programmed to do so - not because they choose to, although the organism would be under the impression that they had made the decision to perform said act. Hence, the chicken thinking it had made the decision to cross the road when really nature had programmed it to do so.

Henry David Thoreau was a nineteenth century transcendentalist, and Noam Chomsky was a well-known critic of Skinner. It is thought that the novel from Anthony Burgess, 'A Clockwork Orange', is a criticism of Skinner's work.