THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2457725.16
"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly
colored than the day"
- Vincent Van Gogh
*THE DAILY ASTRONOMER*
*Friday, December 2, 2016*
*Quiz XIII: T or F Potpourri*
_______________________________________________
AN EVENING WITH CAROLYN CURRIE
Saturday. December 3, 2016 7:00 p.m.
One of the year's true highlights. Our annual Carolyn
Currie concert. Live music under the stars:
http://usm.maine.edu/planet/evening-carolyn-currie-3
Tickets available at the door.
For more information, please call
207-780-4249
_______________________________________________
These quizzes are often disparaged as "coin flip quizzes." One has to
determine if the following statements are true or false. That gives a
player a 50/50 chance of answering each question correctly. Of course,
that doesn't mean that the player has a 50/50 chance of answering every
question correctly. Math is a bear when awakened in winter.
This T/F quiz is not solely astronomical. We'll add other topics just to
put some spice in this dish.
1. Speaking of coin flipping, if you flip a fair coin 10 ten times and
each flip produced a head, the chances of flipping a tail on the 11th toss
is almost 100%
2. If the Vice President dies, the Speaker of the House becomes President.
3. There are more possible chess games than there are atoms in the known
Universe.
4. A jellyfish is 95% water
5. Hyperion, the tallest known tree in the world, is 311 feet tall
6. The Sun burns through 645 million tons of hydrogen every second
7. The United States is the only country that has not adopted the metric
system as the standard unit of measurement.
8. If you started with $0.01 and doubled your money every day, it would
take you only three months to become a millionaire.
9. Pluto has only completed half of its orbit since its discovery.
10. China has only one time zone
ANSWERS
1. False!
This is known as the "Monte Carlo fallacy." If the coin is "fair," (i.e.
well balanced), the probability of producing a tail on any single flip is
always 50% even if the previous ten flips produced all heads. Having ten
consecutive heads, while unlikely, isn't impossible.
2. False!
If the Vice President dies, the President remains President.
3. True!
The estimated number of possible chess games equals the number 1 followed
by 123 zeroes. The number of known atoms in the Universe is a
comparatively paltry 4 followed by 81 zeroes.
4. True!
By weight, humans are about 70%^ water/
5. False!
Hyperion, a California redwood, measures 373 feet tall!
*Hyperion: the world's largest known tree. Its precise location is a
well*
*kept secret. Image by Michael Nichols, National Geographic.*
6. True!
Even at this prodigious burn rate, the Sun contains enough material to
persist for billions of more years..
7. False!
Myanmar, Liberia and the United States are the only three countries that
haven't adopted the metric system.
8. False!
It would take you slightly less than a month to become a millionaire.
9. False!
Pluto has only completed about 35% of its orbit since its discovery (1930)
In the year 2054, it will have completed half of its orbit since its
discovery.
In 2178, it will have completed one orbit since its discovery.
10. True
Even though China spans five geographic time zone regions, it has only one
time zone, called "Beijing time," It is 8 hours ahead of Greenwich mean
time.