ROUND 1:
1. If you increase each side of a square by 10%, by how much does the
square's area increase?
2. Name the three African countries through which the Atlas Mountain
Range passes.
3. The Seven Hills of Rome form the geographic center of Rome. Name
one of these seven hills.
4. Three chemical elements have only a single vowel as their symbols.
What are these elements?
5. What is the only number that, when written out as a word, has all
its letters in alphabetical order?
6. Which dinosaur name literally means "Thunder Lizard?"
7. Caliban, Prospero and Miranda are characters in Shakespeare's Play,
"The Tempest." They are also the names of moons orbiting which planet?
8. One hundred degrees Celsius is equal to 212 degrees Fahrenheit.
One hundred degrees Fahrenheit is equal to which temperature Celsius?
(Closest upper and lower integers acceptable.)
9. In physics, "velocity" refers to a particle's change of position
with time; "acceleration" measures the change of a particle's velocity
with time. What term refers to the change of a particle's acceleration
with time? This term is also used as a common insult.
10. If someone says to you, "Carpe noctem," what are they literally
telling you to do?
ROUND 1 ANSWERS:
1. 21%
2. Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco
3. Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palantine, Quirinal,
Viminal
4. Iodine (I); Oxygen (O) and Uranium (U)
5. Forty
6. Brontosaurus
7. Uranus
8. 37.7 C (37 and 38 both acceptable.)
9. Jerk.
10. "Seize the Night."
ROUND 2:
1. Name three of the countries that border the Caspian Sea
2. Which famous Russian novel begins with the sentence, "All happy
families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way?"
3. In Classical Mythology, which mortal woman thwarted Apollo's
advances and was therefore cursed by him with the affliction of unheeded
prophecy?
4. In September 2015, Queen Elizabeth II will become the longest
serving monarch in British history. Which British monarch will have
this distinction until then?
5. Which Greek astronomer is credited with having discovered the
precession of the equinoxes and with the development of the magnitude
brightness scale?
6. In the northern part of which country will one find the Great Bear
Lake, the eighth largest lake in the world?
7. Which Chinese philosopher composed the Tao te Ching?
8. Which Dickens' novel featured the character Little Nell?
9. The approximate shape of a molecule can be predicted by the VSEPR
model. What does VSEPR stand for?
10. Which fifteenth century Italian artist painted "The Birth of
Venus?"
ROUND 2 ANSWERS:
1. Russia, Azerbaijan , Iran, Turkemenistan, Kazakhstan
2. "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy
3. Cassandra
4. Queen Victoria
5. Hipparchus of Nicaea
6. Canada
7. Lao Tzu
8. The Old Curiosity Shop
9. Valence-shell electron-pair repulsion
10. Sandro Botticelli
ROUND 3:
1. Which 17th century Danish astronomer made the first quantitative
measurement of light speed through observations of Jupiter's moon Io?
2. In Greek Mythology, what was the name of the Island of the
Blessed?
3. Which military conflict is depicted at the end of the Bayeux
Tapestry?
4. If you toss two six-sided die, which number are you most likely to
roll?
5. According to current scientific research, what is moving away from
Canada toward Russia at almost 40 miles per year?
6. Who was the only person to win the Nobel Prize in Physics twice?
7. Which French author created the character "The Phantom of the
Opera" in the book of the same title published in 1910?
8. Which constellation includes the star "Cor Caroli," which means
"The Heart of Charles?"
9. The islands Java and Borneo are both parts of which country?
10. Most protein synthesis occurs in which part of the cell?
ROUND 3 ANSWERS:
1. Ole Christensen Rømer
2. Elysium
3. The Battle of Hastings
4. Seven
5. The Northern Hemisphere's magnetic pole
6. Jon Bardeen (1956, with Walt Brattain and William Shockley for the
invention of the transistor; 1972, with Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer
for the first microscopic theory of superconductivity.)
Note: Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in physics and another in
Chemistry
7. Gaston LeRoux
8. Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs
9. Indonesia
10. The Endoplasmic Reticulum
ROUND 4:
1. What is the second lightest of the noble gases?
2. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first and second men to
step on the Moon, respectively. Name either the third or the fourth
man to step on the Moon.
3. Which mountain range defines the boundary separating Europe and
Asia?
4. There are five Platonic solids. Which one has the greatest
number of sides?
5. Which librarian at the Library of Alexandria was the first to
measure Earth's circumference?
6. Ohm's Law relates three quantities: voltage, resistance and what?
7. Which Shakespearean character said, "Now is the winter of our
discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York?"
8. What is the northernmost national capital?
9. Which is the only US state to have a Royal Palace?
10. In Celtic Mythology, who was the "Good God," the ruler of life
over death and the leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann?
ROUND 4 ANSWERS:
1. Neon
2. Charles "Pete" Conrad; Alan Bean
3. The Ural Mountain Range
4. The icosahedron. (20 sides)
5. Eratosthenes of Cyrene
6. Current
7. Richard III (also, acceptable Duke of Gloucester, who wasn't yet
king when delivering that speech.)
8. Reykjavík, Iceland
9. Hawaii
10. Dagda
ROUND 5:
1. Who was the British Prime Minister when World War II started?
2. What arises in the academic study of logic when all of a set of
premises are asserted to be true, but the conclusion deduced from these
premises negates one or more of them?
3. The French dish "Confit de canard" consists of the legs of which
animal?
4. Which Disney film was the first animated movie to be nominated for
Best Picture?
5. Whose principle states that as the velocity of a fluid increases,
the internal pressure decreases?
6. If it is 6:00 a.m. at the Greenwich Royal Observatory, what time is
it at the North Pole?
7. Hastshehogan and Hastsheyalti are the two great Yei (benevolent
deities) in the mythological tradition of which Native American
peoples?
8. Beta radiation consists of which elementary particles?
9. Which fictional work by Edwin Abbott features a community of
geometrical shapes, with a main character named "A. Square?"
10. Starting at about 500 kilometers above Earth's surface, which
layer of the atmosphere is the highest?
ROUND 5 ANSWERS
1. Neville Chamberlain
2. A paradox
3. A duck's
4. "Beauty and the Beast." (1992 Academy Awards. "Silence of the
Lambs" won the Best Picture Award that year.)
5. Bernoulli's
6. 6:00 a.m.
7. Navajo
8. Electrons
9. Flat Land
10. The Exosphere
ROUND 6:
1. Which Amazonian queen did Theseus kidnap?
2. What is the only inanimate object amongst the thirteen Zodiac
constellations?
3. Name one of the two independent nations which are smaller than New
York City's Central Park.
4. What is the only day of the week whose letters can form another
word?
5. What is the only country whose name begins with "Q?"
6. In Star Trek, what did the T stand for in the name James T. Kirk?
7. The 1939 Novel "Gadsby" is noteworthy as it was devoid of what?
8. What is the largest isthmus in the world?
9. During what type of solar eclipse is the outer edge of the Sun
still visible?
10. Which artist painted the gruesome "Saturn Devouring His Son?"
ROUND 6 ANSWERS
1. Hippolyta
2. Libra the Scales
3. Vatican City; Monaco
4. Monday (Dynamo)
5. Qatar
6. Tiberius
7. The letter "e"
8. Panama
9. An "annular" eclipse.
10. Francisco Goya
ROUND 7:
1. What is the name of a theoretical region of space where matter is
created and ejected into the Universe?
2. What is the name of the philosophical doctrine asserting that the
universe is becoming progressively and inevitably better?
3. With a height of 2,717 feet, Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest
skyscraper.). In which city would one find this megatall building?
4. Which Hindu festival commemorates the victory of Rama over Ravana?
5. Lyra, the Harp, was associated mythologically with a musician who
used it to persuade Hades to release the shade of his beloved wife
Eurydice. What was his name?
6. In computer science, what does DBMS stand for?
7. Which two planets are the only ones which can be seen to transit
the Sun from Earth?
8. The hardest chemical in the human body is found in what part of the
body?
9. Which U.S. State has the most national forests?
10.The Ruins of Loropéni are which African country's only designated
World Heritage Site?
ROUND 7 ANSWERS:
1. A white hole
2. Meliorism
3. Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
4. Dusserah
5. Orpheus
6. DataBase Management System
7. Mercury and Venus
8. Tooth enamel
9. California
10. Burkina Faso
ROUND 8:
1. Which planet in our solar system is the densest?
2. Which Shakespearean play was believed to actually contain a black
magic spell and therefore was often not referred to by its title?
3. During the last of his twelve labours, Hercules was required to
abduct which creature?
4. Which 1958 novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe featured
the protagonist Okonkwo?
5. At what temperature on the Kelvin Scale does water freeze at sea
level pressure?
6. Who was the first Astronomer Royal?
7. Carrauntoohil marks the highest point of which country?
8. Cary Grant and David Prowse, the man who portrayed Darth Vader,
share the same birth city. Which city?
9. Montevideo is the capital of which South American country?
10. Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun. Its companions,
Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B are the second and third closest,
respectively. What is the fourth closest star to the Sun?
11. Which 20th century world leader once scoffingly asked, "How many
divisions does the Pope have?"
12. You have to arrange four relatives in a row for a photograph. How
many different arrangements are possible?
(Ok, we should probably have at least one question about Portland,
Maine, in one of our Brain of Portland quizzes.)
13. The Abenaki Native Americans who once inhabited the region now
known as Portland, Maine, referred to the area as what?
14. What is the term referring to a contrived and previously unknown
device an author employs to resolve problems within a fictional work's
plot? Resorting to such a device is often dismissed as "cheating."
15. What latitude line marks the southern most region where the Sun
can be seen directly overhead?
ROUND 8 ANSWERS:
1. Earth
2. MacBeth
3. Cerberus, the three headed hound
4. "Things Fall Apart."
5. 273.15 K
6. John Flamsteed (1675-1720)
7. Ireland
8. Bristol, UK
9. Uruguay
10. Barnard's Star
11. Josef Stalin
12. 24
13. Machigonne
14. Deus ex Machina
15. The Tropic of Capricorn