THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM 70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103 (207) 780-4249 usm.maine.edu/planet 43.6667° N 70.2667° W Altitude: 10 feet below sea level Founded January 1970 2021-2022: LII "The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public." -George Jessel THE DAILY ASTRONOMER Friday, December 3, 2021 Quiz # 12: Brain of Portland III Welcome to another Brain of Portland quiz! For those who've just joined, Brain of Portland quizzes include questions about a wide variety of topics ranging from anatomy to zoology and everything in between. I know you've been eagerly awaiting the next BoP quiz. Our last one was posted back in early October. So, to make up for the lapse, we're offering a mega-Brain of Portland quiz: a 40-question quiz about, well, anything! To make the quiz slightly less confusing, we've divided the quiz into four "rounds." The answers for each round immediately follow the associated questions. Enjoy the quiz! 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 currently moving intoRussia 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 To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Daily Astronomer: https://lists.maine.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=DAILY-ASTRONOMER&A= <https://lists.maine.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=DAILY-ASTRONOMER&A=1>