When My Cup Runneth Over Trivia Quiz

Answer: Yes

A United States "legal cup" is defined as 240ml, while a customary cup is slightly smaller, since it's half a US pint, or just under 237ml. A quarter of a litre is 250ml, so at least 10ml of milk will spill over. Please don't cry about it. I could try a metric cup, which would be exactly the right size, or, better still, if I'm trying to drink from it, an imperial cup which holds ten imperial fluid ounces, or 284ml.

Answer: Yes

Two cupfuls is 12ozs, or about 340g, so I'll have plenty. Hmmm! I could either make some very chocolatey cookies, which sounds good, or I could just eat the extra 90g, which sounds even better. Sshh! Please don't tell anyone, will you?

Answer: No

2kg of mercury has a volume of 148ml, so nearly a third of it is in danger of being spilled. I'll need to be very careful about that - mercury is poisonous, particularly if the vapour is inhaled when it gets warm. I probably won't drop dead if I touch it, or even swallow a small amount, but I don't think I'll try the latter. I can only assume that the dangers must be deemed greater nowadays, than they were fifty years ago, since I remember having fun at school in a science lesson rolling mercury around the bench. I don't think it's done me any lasting harm, but it was only for a short while on one occasion.

It's probably not something you should try at home.

Answer: No

An American cup is equivalent to two sticks, or 8ozs, of butter, which is approximately 226g, so it will only provide about 90% of what is wanted. Either I'll need to get some more butter, or I could reduce all the other quantities, and hope it all works out.

Answer: Yes

An eight fl.oz. cupful of brown sugar weighs 200g, so my one kg bag of sugar is just right to fill my two pint container. You have to remember that in Britain "A pint of water is a pound and a quarter", or twenty ounces. I know that Americans learn that "A pint's a pound the world around", but, as far as I've been able to determine, that world only encompasses the United States.

Answer: No

I think I'd need to be very careful here. With a density of 0.74g/ml, I would only be able to get 340g of talcum powder into my elephant container, which leaves 160g over. I could partially empty the initial container, and put the rest in when I'd used up most of the first lot.

However, given the amount of dust created by the transfer, and the risk of spilling some of the extra talcum powder in the first place I think it would be more sensible to leave the talcum powder where it is, and put something else into the elephant container.

Answer: No

One cup of oats weighs around 90g, so I can only make five bowls of porridge from my packet of oats. That's Monday to Friday sorted, so I'll just have to think of something more exciting for the weekend.

Answer: Yes

The density of iron filings is 7.86g/ml, so I could get 786g into my one litre jar, meaning that 500g will fill about two thirds of it. Why do I want a jar of iron filings? I don't know - it seemed like a good idea at the time. Do you know anyone who'd like a jar that's partly filled with iron filings? I've got one going spare.

Answer: Yes

Three cups of flour will contain about twelve ounces which is 339g, so I should have 89g spare. Unlike with the chocolate chips earlier, I think I'll just put it back in its packet. Adding it to the mixture will probably cause the cake to be 'heavy', and I certainly don't want to eat it. By the way, I hope you haven't told anybody what happened to those extra chocolate chips.

Answer: Yes

The glasses are designed to take 200ml and the wine bottle holds 75cl which is 750ml, so none should get spilled. Either one person will get a glass that is only three-quarters filled, or I could fill them all nearly full and, with three friends, drink a toast to the end of my quiz. Zum wohl!