THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 24586324.5
"The mind to me a kingdom is."
-Dyer
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, May 31, 2019
Quiz XXIX: Brain of Portland
The brain is beautiful, but the mind is supernatural. According to some estimates, your mind generates about 50,000 distinctive thoughts every single day. One minute, one could be envisioning a sylvan path, the next, solving a math problem, the next contemplating a flower petal, and the next, discussing Nietzsche or listening to King Lear or scrutinizing the Dantean core of a super giant star. Today's quiz celebrates the miraculous brain and, yes, that is precisely what it is, even though 99.999% of us have been conditioned to think otherwise and so the abundance of thoughts that could glisten like iridescent crystalline spheres are often tarnished almost to opacity by self recrimination.
We celebrate the brain with a trivia quiz involving questions from a variety of topics: any topic under, over and beyond the Sun. Also, just another quick note: enjoy this! Not doing well on this silly thing is no more indicative of one's intelligence than a an afternoon thunder storm is an accurate reflection of a climate.
1. "The Sisters," "Two Gallants," and "Clay" are all titles of short stories in a collection written by_____________
a. Herman Melville
b. James Joyce
c. Edgar Allan Poe
d. Ernest Hemingway
2. According to Ohm's law, Voltage equals current multiplied by _____________
a. resistance
b. inductance
c. power
d. momentum
3. UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation effective later this month. Who is currently considered to be her most likely successor?
a. Michael Gove
b. Joe Biden
c. Boris Johnson
d. Nigel Farage
4. A perfect number is one which is equal to the sum of its divisors, including 1, but excluding itself. The first perfect number is 6. What is the second perfect number?
a. 28
b. 36
c. 49
d. 81
5. Which one of the following is not one of Oedipus' children?
a. Antigone
b. Polyneices
c. Eteocles
d. Persephone
6. In what year was the Falklands War between Argentina and the UK?
a. 1981
b. 1982
c. 1983
d. 1984
7. What is the mostly widely spoken language in the African continent?
a. Swahili
b. Arabic
c. French
d. English
8. Red blood cells typically last about four months; skin cells last about 2 - 3 weeks. Approximately how long do brain cells (neurons) last?
a. 14 hours
b. 14 months
c. 14 years
d. an entire lifetime
9. Granada is the Spanish word for
a. pomegranate
b. sea shell
c. porcupine
d. eye lash
10. Gluons hold what together?
a. quarks in subatomic particles
b. the DNA molecule
c. the molecular structure of cake
d. the hulls of most battleships
ANSWERS
1. b. James Joyce
"The Dubliners."
2. a. resistance
3. c. Boris Johnson
4. a. 28
5. d. Persephone
Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, goddess of the harvest.
6. b. 1982
(April 2 - June 14, 1982)
7. a. Swahili
About 150 million people in Africa speak Swahili.
8. d. an entire lifetime
9. a. pomegranate
10. a. quarks in subatomic particles