THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
207-780-4249 www.usm.maine.edu/planet
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70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458752.5
2019-2020: XIX
"Always remember that you are braver than you believe,
stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and loved more than you
know." -Christopher Robin
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, September 27, 2019
Quiz IV: Brain of Portland - Alpha
Brain of Portland has returned!
Once a month -I think- we'll post a Brain of Portland quiz that will
encompass a variety of topics: astronomy, mythology, geography, history,
physics, chemistry, philosophy, mathematics, literature, geology, biology,
logic, meteorology, art history, music, space exploration, oceanography,
psychology, economics, and religion. We have recruited Horwindil, the
20-sided die we use on April Fool's Day, to select the topics.* Each
topic is assigned a number between 1 - 20, inclusive. As each Brain of
Portland quiz will contain only 20 questions, some topics will appear more
than others UNLESS we just happen to roll each number once (a highly
improbable scenario).
These Brain of Portland quizzes lead up to a behemoth Brain of Brains quiz
that we'll post toward the end of our school year in early August. This
quiz is based on the popular "Brain of Britain" quiz that is broadcast on
BBC Radio 4, generally in the winter/spring.
*1. HISTORY If current UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson actually heeds the
calls for his resignation within the next couple of months, he will earn
the dubious distinction of being the UK Prime Minister with the shortest
tenure. Which UK Prime Minister holds the record for serving the
longest?*
a. H.H. Asquith
b. William Pitt the Younger
c. Sir Robert Walpole
d. Sir Winston Churchill
*2. MYTHOLOGY Who kept Odysseus trapped on her island for seven years and
promised him eternal youth if he agreed to remain there forever?*
a. Atalanta
b. Calypso
c. Circe
d. Galatea
*3. ASTRONOMY Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. Which
moon is the second largest?*
a. Io (moon of Jupiter)
b. Europa (moon of Jupiter)
c. Moon (moon of, well, Earth)
d. Titan (moon of Saturn)
[image: 4Pack_White4_1200x.png]
*4. MATHEMATICS: The image above shows a 20-sided die. (Not Horwindil, who
refuses to pose for a photograph). A 20-sided die is an example of one
of the five Platonic solids. What is the shape name for a 20-sided die?*
a. Dodecahedron
b. Tetrahedron
c. Icosahedron
d. Octahedron
*5. SPACE EXPLORATION: Which spacecraft -that humans have launched- is
currently at the greatest distance from the Sun?*
a. Voyager 1
b. Voyager 2
c. Pioneer 1
d. New Horizons
*6. RELIGION: Saraswati is the Hindu goddess of what?*
a. water
b. knowledge
c. air
d. marriage
*7. ECONOMICS: When the federal government's expenditures for a fiscal
year are greater than its revenue (please stretch your imagination for this
one), the result is what?*
a. a budget deficit
b. a national debt
c. a budget surplus
d. none of the above
*8. GEOGRAPHY: The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea to which
body of water?*
a. the Dead Sea
b. the Red Sea
c. the Aegean Sea
d. the Indian Ocean
*9. CHEMISTRY: Which ONE of the following isn't a Noble Gas?*
a. helium
b. neon
c. boron
d. xenon
[image: Normans_Bayeux.jpg]
*10. ART HISTORY: The scene taken from the Bayeux Tapestry (above image)
depicts which historical event?*
a. The Battle of Hastings
b. The Battle of Agincourt
c. The Battle of Bannockburn
d. It doesn't depict a historical event: it is an artistic rendering of
the arrival of Beowulf
*11. MUSIC: Fidelio, Op. 72, is the only opera composed
by______________*
a. Mozart
b. J.S. Bach
c. Rachmaninoff
d. Beethoven
*12. GEOLOGY: What is the name of the current geological epoch?*
a. Holocene
b. Pleistocene
c. Pliocene
d. Miocene
*13. LITERATURE: The "qulls of the fretful porpentine" line is spoken in
which Shakespearean Play?*
a. Othello
b. Hamlet
c. King Lear
d. Much Ado About Nothing
*14. HISTORY _____________ won the Peloponnesian War in the year
___________ BC*
a. Sparta; 404
b. Athens; 413
c. Sparta; 413
d. Athens; 404
*15. LOGIC You visit a town with only two barbers who serve everyone in
town. One barber (A) has a neat haircut and a clean shave. The other
barber's (B) hair is a mess and his beard poorly cut. Which barber do you
visit?*
a. A
b. B
c. neither
d. it doesn't matter
*16. PHYSICS The period of a simple pendulum (one with a string of
negligible mass) is approximated by a formula in which 2 and pi are
multiplied by the square root of the quotient of the pendulum length
divided by what?*
a. the surface gravity
b. the height of the pendulum's bob's minimum distance from the floor
c. the cube of the surface gravity
d. the temperature
*17. GEOLOGY Which country has the greatest number of mountains with
peaks over 7,200 meters?*
a. Pakistan
b. Nepal
c. China
d. Bhutan
*18. ECONOMICS Which economist wrote the book "The Affluent Society?"*
a. John Kenneth Galbraith
b. John Maynard Keynes
c. John Bates Clark
d. John Richard Hicks
*19. CHEMISTRY How many elements are named after heavenly bodies?*
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4
*20. ASTRONOMY The Sun appears to occupy which constellation on July
4th?*
a. Gemini the twins
b. Sagittarius the Archer
c. Virgo the Maiden
d. Taurus the Bull
ANSWERS
1. c. Sir Robert Walpole
He served 20 years. 314 days starting in the year 1721
2. b. Calypso
Calypso was a sea nymph who so loved Odysseus that she kept him on her
island of Ogygia for seven years. Athena, who was ardently fond of
Odysseus herself, appealed to Zeus to intervene on Odysseus' behalf, for he
dearly missed his wife Penelope. Zeus deployed his messenger Hermes to
Ogygia to command Calypso to release Odysseus. Though furious at the
order, she complied with it and furnished Odysseus with a raft and
sufficient provisions for his return journey to Ithaca.
3. d. Titan (moon of Saturn)
Ganymede's radius is 2,634 kilometers. Titan's is 2,574 kilometers. Apart
from being slightly larger than Mercury, Titan is also known for being the
only known moon to be enshrouded in an atmosphere, albeit a rather toxic
one.
Note: Our moon is the solar system's fifth largest moon. It is only larger
than one Galilean moon: Europa
4. c. Icosahedron
THE PLATONIC SOLIDS:
[image: Platonic-solids.jpg]
TETRAHEDRON: four sided figure; each face a triangle
CUBE: six sided figure; each side a square
OCTAHEDRON: eight sided figure; each side a triangle
DODECAHEDRON: twelve sided figure; each side a hexagon
*ICOSAHEDRON: * twenty sided figure; each side a triangle
5. a. Voyager 1
Launched on August 20, 1977, Voyager 1 is now about 13.7 billion miles from
the Sun. This still-functioning spacecraft is moving away from the Sun
at about 34,200 miles per hour.
6. b. knowledge
Saraswati सरस्वती, part of the trinity consisting also of Lakshmi and
Parvati, is the goddess of knowledge, music, art, learning and wisdom.
7. a. a budget deficit
Hey, do you sleep well at night and are often afflicted with a sense of
profound contentment?
The US budget deficit is now more than $866 billion!
8. b. the Red Sea
Constructed over a ten year period starting in 1859, the Suez Canal is a
120.1 mile long canalin Egypt that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the
Red Sea.
9. c. boron
The noble gases are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, radon. They are
all known to be of very low chemical reactivity. There are some
compounds that do contain a noble gas, such as Xenon tetraflouride and
Krypton hexabromine
10. a. The Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings (1066) pitted William, Duke of Normandy, against the
Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson. The Normans prevailed and William
became the famous William the Conqueror.
11. d. Beethoven
An opera with three premieres:
the original premiere in 1805; a reworked premier in 1806 and a finalized
version premiere in 1814.
12. a. Holocene
The Holocene epoch started around the time of the last glaciation, around
11,500 years ago.
It is divided into different ages: Greenlandian, Northgrippian and
Meghalyan.
13. b. Hamlet
This line was spoken by the spirit of Hamlet's father, who informed his
son, Hamlet, that he (Dad) was killed by Claudius, the father's brother.
The "quills of the fretful porpentine" referred to how Hamlet's hair would
appear were the father permitted to describe purgatory.
14. a. Sparta; 404
Historians tend to divide the Peloponnesian War into three phases. The
militarily superior Spartans eventually prevailed.
15. b. B
Since each barber will cut the other barber's hair, it is advisable to
visit the barber with the messy hair since he was the one who provided the
other barber with the superior haircut.
16. a. the surface gravity
[image: pend2.gif]
The period of a simple pendulum is equal to 2x pi x the square root of L/g
g = Earth's surface gravity
17. c. China
China has 50 peaks with peaks about 7,200 meters
North American has none
18. a. John Kenneth Galbraith
Originally published in 1958, the "Affluent Society" is considered one of
the most influential economic books written in the 20th century
19. d. 4
Helium
Uranium (Uranus discovered 1781; Uranium discovered in 1789)
Neptunium
Plutonium
20. a. Gemini the twins
The Sun appears to move through Gemini the twins during the first part of
summer.
*On April 1st, we offer the "April Fool's Show." It is the only time we
actually don't know what show we'll present until just before the show
starts. We assign 20 different shows a number and then we roll the
20-sided die Horwindil to decide on the program we'll see. Now that
Brain of Portland has returned, this die will have a bit more to do during
the year.
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