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: 2458781.16
2019-2020: XXXIX
"Heavens below!"
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, October 25, 2019
Quiz VIII: Brain of Portland - Beta
Your mind is not your kingdom. It is your Universe. The human brain's
neurons are more numerous than the stars in the Milky Way. Every day, the
mind constantly generates thoughts: copious quantities of thoughts: 50,000
- 75,000 on average. Every moment, our minds seek further engagement:
minds that can veer from the mundane to the metaphysical literally in a
blink. We're constantly seeing sights, pondering ideas, reflecting on
memories, understanding -and misunderstanding- each other, crafting
imaginary figments, and contemplating philosophies that it is little wonder
we need to lapse into the timeless oblivion of sleep each night.
The more neuroscientists discover about the human brain, the more
magnificent it becomes. In fact, that 3 pound structure in your head is
so intricate in structure and formidable of power as to be utterly
unfathomable. It is no exaggeration to describe the human mind as a
supernatural construct that was somehow fashioned from the metals and
gaseous whispers of interstellar space. As the author Nabakov once wrote,
"We're spines tipped by a divine flame."
These brain of Portland quizzes are celebrations of the human mind: its
immense capacities and untapped potentials. These monthly quizzes can
include questions from a wide range of topics: astronomy, mathematics,
philosophy, mythology, world history, logic, physics, art history,
meteorology, biology, literature, music, geology, chemistry, world
religions, oceanography, archaeology, geography, geology, psychology, and
economics. You will notice that these questions are not evenly
distributed along all the topics. Instead, we allow a 20-sided die named
"Horwindil," to select the topics for each of the 20 questions.
Consequently, some topics won't appear in some quizzes while some topics
will appear more than once.
We hope you enjoy the second "Brain of Portland" quiz of this school year.
They all lead up to the Brain of Brains quiz that we'll post at the end of
the school year in late July 2020.
*1. MUSIC * The Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, one of the most
famous compositions in the entire organ repertoire, is also closely
associated with Halloween music. (Even people who aren't partial to organ
music will recognize at least the opening of this work.) This
masterpiece was composed in the early 18th century by which composer?
a. J.S. Bach
b. Henry Purcell
c. Francesco Scarlatti
d. Christian Ludwig Boxberg
2. *METEOROLOGY * Which ONE of the following cloud types is never higher
than 10,000 feet above the Earth's surface?
a. Cirrus
b. Cumulonimbus
c. Stratus
d. Cirrostratus
3. *ART HISTORY * Which artist drew the portrait "Girl with a Pearl
Earring?"
a. Johannes Vermeer
b. Claude Monet
c. Salvador Dali
d. Rembrandt
4. *PSYCHOLOGY *What is the function of the part of the brain known as the
"corpus callosum?"
a. it is the part of the brain that maintains respiration in a subject who
is otherwise "brain dead.:
b. it connects the two halves of the brain and transmits information
between them
c. it is responsible for processing all visual images
d. it is a dormant region of the brain that was once thought to have been
responsible for communication prior to the advent of verbal language. It
is known as the "brain's appendix."
5. *ECONOMICS * What do the initials "CPI" stand for?
a. Consumer Purchasing Index
b. Corporate Price Index
c. Consumer Price Index
d. Capitalistic Predictive Index
6. *MATHEMATICS* If you flip a fair coin seven times and get heads each
time, what is the probability that you'll get heads the eighth time?
a. 0.0015
b.0.25
c. 0.375
d 0.50
7. *LITERATURE *Miranda, which is the name of one of Uranus' most famous
moons, is also the name of a character in which Shakespearen play?
a. The Tempest
b. Much Ado About Nothing
c Romeo and Juliet
d. Othello
8. *WORLD RELIGION * What is the predominant religion in Papua New
Guinea, according to a 2011 Census?
a. Islam
b. Christianity
c. Hindi
d. Buddhism
9. *HISTORY * The Battle of Stalingrad, fought between August 1942 and
February 1943, was arguably the bloodiest battle in world history.
Approximately how many people perished in this battle?
a. 560,000
b. 789,000
c. 1.24 million
d. 1.97 million
10. * PHYSICS *Pretend you're on the moon firing a cannon. (We're putting
you on the moon to avoid air resistance.) You need to fire the cannon so
that the ball travels the greatest distance. At which angle would you fire
the ball?
a. 10 degrees
b. 30 degrees
c. 45 degrees
d. 53.6 degrees
11. *PHYSICS *Pellets containing the radioactive Plutonium isotope
Plutonium-238 are used as fuel for the radioisotopic thermoelectric
generators used aboard robotic spacecraft such as Cassini and Galileo.
Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years, meaning that half of a given
sample of Plutonium-238 will decay in 87.7 years. If one had a 10-kg
sample of Plutonium-238 now, in how many years would the sample be reduced
to 3-kilograms?
a. 80 years
b. 135 years
c. 171 years
d. 310 years
12. * PSYCHOLOGY *The hippocampus is a major part of the brain. How
many hippocampi does a human brain contain?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. none. the hippocampus is a part of the brains of amphibians, not
mammals.
13.* GEOGRAPHY *Approximately how many people live north of the Arctic
Circle?
a. 1.3 million
b. 2.2 million
c. 3.1 million
d. 4.2 million
14. *METEOROLOGY * An isohyet on a weather map is a line connecting
equals area of what?
a. pressure
b. temperature
c. rainfall
d. windspeed
15. *LOGIC. * A train leaves Toronto at 110 kilometers per hour. An
hour and a half later, a train leaves Montreal at 90 kilometers per hour.
Without knowing the distances between the cities, how can one determine
which train will be closer to Montreal when they meet?
16. *GEOGRAPHY * How many doubly landlocked countries are there in the
world? ("Double landlocked" means the country is separated from the ocean
by two or more other countries,)
a. 0
b. 1
c. 2
d. 8
17. *GEOLOGY* Igneous rocks can be either intrusive or extrusive.
Intrusive rocks form from magma that cools and solidifies within the
planet's crust. Extrusive rocks form from the cooling of molten magma at
Earth's surface. Which is the more common type?
a. intrusive
b. extrusive
c. they are equally common
d. geologists have no way of making this determination.
18. *MATHEMATICS.* Benford's law states that _____% of numbers on a
random list of numbers will begin with the number 1.
a. 10%
b. 15%
c. 30%
d. Impossible to determine.
19. *ASTRONOMY *Which one of the following stars is not part of Orion
the Hunter?
a. Betelgeuse
b. Rigel
c. Mintaka
d. Aldebaran
20. *BIOLOGY* What would an expert in Ichthyology, a branch of
biology, study?
a. fish
b. buffalo
c. tropical land animals
d. marsupials
ANSWERS
*1. a. J.S. Bach*
Johannes Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), considered the greatest of all
Baroque-era composers, is believed to have composed this highly complex
organ piece either quite early (in his teens) or toward the end of his
life. As J.S. Bach wasn't particularly famous in his life, information
pertaining to his life isn't as comprehensive as it might otherwise have
been. We do know that the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is one of the
most famous, if not the most famous, organ compositions in the world.
*2. c. Stratus*
Capable of producing only light drizzle or smatterings of snow, stratus
clouds are low level clouds that never rise higher than 7,000 feet.
These clouds are often considered to be "above ground fog" as they tend to
remain relatively close to the ground.
*3. a. Johannes Vermeer*
Painted in 1655, the portrait now known as "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is
perhaps the best known work of Johannes Vermeer. Like other artworks of
comparable quality and renown, it has inspired authors and other artists to
craft their own pieces based on it. In 2005, the Dutch public voted
this oil on canvas piece as the most beautiful painting in the Netherlands.
4.* b.it <http://b.it/> connects the two halves of the brain and transmits
information between them*
Containing more than 200 million axons, the corpus callosum is the brain's
largest fiber bundle. It is responsible for maintaining communication
between the brain's two hemispheres.
5. *c. Consumer Price Index*
This index measures the change in the price level of the principal goods
and services consumed by households. The CPI serves as a measure of
inflation.
*6. d 0.50*
If the coin is fair, the probability of flipping heads on the 8th turn is
still 50%. The probabilities are independent in that the previous flips
do not influence any subsequent flips. If, however, we asked, "If you
flip a coin, what is the probability of getting heads eight consecutive
times," the answer would have been 0.00329: highly improbable.
7.* a. The Tempest*
Miranda was Prospero's daughter. She was stranded with her father, Ariel,
an airy spirit, and Calaban, a revilved creature. She was the character
who spoke the famous line "Oh, brave new world that has such people in it."
8.* b. Christianity *
According to the census, 95.6% of respondents identified themselves as
Christian. Approximately 70% of these Christians were protestants.
9. *d. 1.97 million *
Horrifyingly, nearly 2 million people died in the fighting between Germany
and the Soviet Union during the Battle of Stalingrad. Even though the
Soviet Union lost more people (1.13 million compared to Germany's loss of
841,000), they ultimately repelled the Germans: a ghastly example of a
Pryrrhic victory.
10. *c. 45 degrees*
If you want to fire a cannon so the ball travels the greatest distance, you
would want to fire it at 45 degrees: halfway between 0 degrees (firing it
at ground level) and 90 degrees (firing it vertically). In theory, 45
degrees would yield a greatest distance for projectiles on Earth, as well.
*11. c. 171 years*
First, our sincerest apologies for two consecutive physics questions.
Sometimes the same topic appears in quick succession when one allows a
20-sided die to choose the question topics. You can sweat through the math
if you want. However, we know that after 87.7 years, 5 kilograms will
remain of the Plutonium sample. After 175 years, 2.5 kg will remain.
Three kilograms is quite close to 2.5 kilograms, so a number close to 175
should be the correct answer: 171 years is close and is the correct
selection.
12. *b. 2*
When we talk about the hippocampus, we should truly be talking about the
hippocampi. Your brain contains two of them: one in each hemisphere.
13. *d. 4.2 million *
A value much higher than one would have believed. The largest community
north of the Arctic Circle is Murmansk, Russia (population 295,374).
Rovaniemi, Finland is the largest community close to the Arctic Circle.
14*. c. rainfall*
We are accustomed to seeing isobars on weather maps. Those are lines
connecting areas of equal pressure. The closer these isobars line are, the
stronger the winds will tend to be. Less known is the "isohyet" line that
connects areas of equal rainfall.
15. It's easy. When the trains meet, they will be at the same distance
from Montreal.
*16 c. 2*
The world has only two doubly land-locked countries
Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein
Uzbekistan has Turkmenistan to the southwest, Afghanistan to the south,
Tajikistan to the southeast, Kyrgyzstan to the northeast and Kazakhstan to
the northern side.
Liechtenstein, which became the first doubly land locked country after
World War II, is surrounded by Austria and Switzerland
17. *a. intrusive*
Extrusive igneous rocks form out of volcanic eruptions, whereas intrusive
rocks form inside Earth's crust. Far more intrusive rocks exist deep
inside the planet's crust than outside of it. While the actual ratio is
uncertain, geologists are confident that intrusive rocks are far and away
more numerous than extrusive rocks.
18*. c. 30%*
Called the law of anomalous numbers, Benford's Law states that on a
numerical list, the first numbers are likely to be small. The higher
the number, the lower the frequency. Less than 5% of numbers will begin
with the number 9
19* d. Aldebaran*
Aldebaran represents the eye of Taurus the Bull who is trying to protect
the Pleiades from Orion. Although Aldebaran is close to Orion, it is not
part of it.
20. *a. fish*
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