THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street      Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249      usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N    70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
2022-2023: XXVIII
Sunrise: 7:03 a.m.
Sunset: 5:48 p.m.
Civil twilight ends: 6:17 p.m.
Sun's host constellation: Virgo the Maiden
Moon phase: Waning Crescent (16% illuminated)
Moonrise: 3:41 a.m. (10/22/22)
Moonset: 4:49 p.m (10/22/22)
Julian date: 2459874.21
                   "Never laugh at live dragons."
                                             -J.R.R. Tolkien

THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Friday, October 21, 2022
Quiz # 7:  Old Quiz Book


Up north, while on a "working" vacation, I happened to stumble upon a
"Giant Quiz Book" circa 1938.*   Its pages discolored and tattered from
advancing age, this book nevertheless still contains a few hundred
quizzes.    Seeing it inspired an idea:  why not take old questions from an
old book and use them in a modern quiz?     It would be one of those fun
larks. Also, it doesn't quite permit us to be lazy and irresponsible yet
again because we did take the time to write the answer choices.
There is no predominant theme today.   Just a selection of old quiz book
questions.

1. Who smothered Desdemona?
a. Victor Frankenstein
b. Othello
c. Lady MacBeth
d. Gaius Caligula

2. If you practice hagiolatry, what are you worshiping?
a. old women
b. the Sun
c. saints
d. numbers

3.  Who is credited with having named the Pacific Ocean?
a. Magellan
b. Captain Cook
c. Ponce de Leon
d. It is a Native American name of unknown origin

4. MacBeth was ______________________.
a. actually a king of Scotland who died in 1057
b. actually a king of Ireland who died in 714
c. a fictional character based on nobody
d. actually a queen of France who died in 1291

5. Who is considered the father of human anatomy?
a. Leonardo da Vinci
b. Vesalius
c.  Gottfried Mendel
d.  Valentia Tereskhova

6. In mythology, Aeolus' six sons and six daughters represented what?
a. the twelve signs of the zodiac
b. the twelve months
c. the twelve shades of darkness
d. the twelve humours

7. Shelley's "Adonais" was an elegy on the death of what poet?
a. Alexander Pope
b. Keats
c. Shakespeare
d. Milton

8. In what kind of triangle are none of the sides EVER equal in length?
a. equilateral
b. isosceles
c. scalene
d. right

9. Who was the first wife of King Henry VIII?
a. Anne of Cleeves
b. Anne Boleyn
c. Catherine Howard
d. Catharine of Aragon

10. If each edge of a cube measures 1 cm, what is the volume of the cube
expressed in cubic centimeters?
a. 1
b. 4
c. 8
d. 16

11.  Which of his books did Charles Dickens consider to be his best?
a. "Oliver Twist."
b. "The Pickwick Papers"
c. "David Copperfield"
d. "Great Expectations."

12. What was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution?
a. Delaware
b. Virginia
c. Pennsylvania
d. Massachusetts

13. King Midas' touch even turned his daughter into gold.  What was her
name?
a. Marigold
b. Dahlia
c. Cenderella  (the spelling of the name at the time)
d. Messalina

14. A black flag depicting a Skull and crossbones is traditionally known as
a what?
a. Captain Death Head
b. Jolly Roger
c. Blackamoor
d. Insect repellent

15.  (Still redeeming myself).   What year is written MCMXXXVIII in Roman
Numerals?
a. 1918
b. 1938
c. 1958
d. 1818

16.  Which philosopher asserted facetiously that motion was impossible?
a. Socrates
b. Zeno of Elea
c. Thales of Miletus
d. Sappho

17. Mary Wollstonecraft, author of "Vindication of the Rights of Women,"
was the mother of another famous author who created which immortal
character?
a. Count Dracula
b. Miss Marple
c. Victor Frankenstein
d. Don Juan Tenorio

18.  Monte Cristo, made famous by the book "The Count of Monte Cristo," is
an island off the coast of which country?
a. Italy
b. Spain
c. Portugal
d. It isn't real actually.  Monte Cristo is imaginary

19.  What does the lowercase "i" stand for in mathematics?
a. an imaginary number, or the square root of a negative number
b. an imaginary number, or the sum of two negative numbers
c. an imaginary number, which is only a number in five or more dimensions
d. an imaginary number, which refers to the numbers that follow infinity

20.  Who is the President of the United States?  (Hint: remember when this
book was published.)
a. Woodrow Wilson
b. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
c. Herbert Hoover
d. Calvin Coolidge


1.  b. Othello

2. c. saints

3. a. Magellan

4. a. actually a king of Scotland who died in 1057

5. b. Vesalius

6. b. the twelve months

7. b. Keats

8. c. scalene

9. d. Catharine of Aragon

10. a. 1

11. c. "David Copperfield"

12. a. Delaware

13. a. Marigold

14. b. Jolly Roger

15. b. 1938

16. b. Zeno of Elea

17. c. Victor Frankenstein  (Author was Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

18. a. Italy

19. a. an imaginary number, or the square root of a negative number

20. b. Franklin Delano Roosevelt


*Authors:  Rosejeanne Slifer and Louise Crittenden


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