Wednesday Trivia #17 - Mar 14, 2012

No googling - as you know, SELF is always watching.

1.This is one of the earliest problem in geometric probability to be solved. It asks the following - if we have a floor made of parallel strips of wood, each with the same width, and we drop a needle onto the floor, what is the probability that the needle will lie on a line between two strips? When the length of the needle is the same as the width of the strips, then the answer to this problem is 2/pi. The problem is eponymously named after the person who proposed this question. What is this problem commonly known as?


2.These regularly-spaced thirteen towers in Chankillo, Peru were constructed atop the ridge of a low hill running near north to south, forming a toothed horizon with narrow gaps at regular intervals. They are over 2300 years old and only recently were they discovered. What was this structure used for by the ancient Inca civilization?



3. During the Hundred Years' war, Calais was under seige by England and England's Edward III offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked, wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. While he ordered them to be executed, his wife Phillipa asked him to spare them and they were let go. This sculpture awas created as a monument to the above heroic deed by the six brave men. What is it called and who is the sculptor?



4.He is of Indian descent and was a solicitor from the West Midlands who became world famous in 1907 when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle campaigned to have him declared innocent. He has also written a story about this. Who is this and what was his alleged crime?

5. This 16 day festival is held annually in Munich. Only beer conforming to the Reinheitsgebot aka German Beer Purity Law, at a minimum of 12.5% Stammwürze (approximately 6% alcohol) may be served during this event. It started as a commemoration of Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, marrying Princess Therese of Bavaria on October 12,1810.

6. During his last two years, this American writer of fiction drank coca-cola by the case instead of the alcohol that had wrecked his life. Drained of energy, he wrote his final novel in bed but died before its completion. At his funeral, his dear old friend Dorothy Parker cried out "poor son of a b*tch" as an epitaph, a quotation from his most famous book.

7.This celestial object is in a normal elliptic orbit around the Sun. Its period of revolution around the Sun, approximately 364 days at present, is almost equal to that of the Earth. Because of this, the object and Earth appear to "follow" each other in their paths around the Sun. This is why it is sometimes incorrectly called "Earth's second moon". However, it does not orbit the Earth and is not a moon.

8.These steps were made famous in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film The Battleship Potemkin and are the formal entrance to this European city from the Black sea. The stairs were designed to create an optical illusion. A person looking down the stairs sees only the landings, and the steps are invisible, but a person looking up sees only steps, and the landings are invisible. Name this famous stairway and the city that they are in.

9. This line lies at an altitude of 100 kms above the earth's sea level and is said to define the boundary between the earth's atmosphere and outer space. It is named after an Hungarian-American physicist. What is this line called and who crossed it first?

10. This film tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as, and next door to, Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. The film contains themes of religious satire that were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. It was banned as well in some countries for a long period. The film makers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters stating "So funny it was banned in Norway!".

6. scott f

2. For computing equinoxes and solstices by observing shadows cat by the structures.

3. The Burghers off Calais by Rodin

5. Oktoberfest

8. Odessa steps. Didn't know they have another name.

9. Von Karman line, Yuri Gagarin

10. Monty Pythons Life off Brian

7. 3753 Cruithne

PseudoIntellectual wrote:7. 3753 Cruithne

Question 1 is in honour of Pi day!

1. Buffon's needle?

1.This is one of the earliest problem in geometric probability to be solved. It asks the following - if we have a floor made of parallel strips of wood, each with the same width, and we drop a needle onto the floor, what is the probability that the needle will lie on a line between two strips? When the length of the needle is the same as the width of the strips, then the answer to this problem is 2/pi. The problem is eponymously named after the person who proposed this question. What is this problem commonly known as?

ANSWER: Buffon's Needle.


2.These regularly-spaced thirteen towers in Chankillo, Peru were constructed atop the ridge of a low hill running near north to south, forming a toothed horizon with narrow gaps at regular intervals. They are over 2300 years old and only recently were they discovered. What was this structure used for by the ancient Inca civilization?



ANSWER: A solar observatory and the 13 towers were used to track the rising and setting sun's movement across the sky over the year.

3. During the Hundred Years' war, Calais was under seige by England and England's Edward III offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked, wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. While he ordered them to be executed, his wife Phillipa asked him to spare them and they were let go. This sculpture awas created as a monument to the above heroic deed by the six brave men. What is it called and who is the sculptor?




ANSWER: Burghers of Calais by Auguste Rodin

4.He is of Indian descent and was a solicitor from the West Midlands who became world famous in 1907 when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle campaigned to have him declared innocent. He has also written a story about this. Who is this and what was his alleged crime?

ANSWER: George Edalji and his crime was maliciously wounding a pony.

5. This 16 day festival is held annually in Munich. Only beer conforming to the Reinheitsgebot aka German Beer Purity Law, at a minimum of 12.5% Stammwürze (approximately 6% alcohol) may be served during this event. It started as a commemoration of Crown Prince Ludwig, later to become King Ludwig I, marrying Princess Therese of Bavaria on October 12,1810.

ANSWER : Oktoberfest

6. During his last two years, this American writer of fiction drank coca-cola by the case instead of the alcohol that had wrecked his life. Drained of energy, he wrote his final novel in bed but died before its completion. At his funeral, his dear old friend Dorothy Parker cried out "poor son of a b*tch" as an epitaph, a quotation from his most famous book.

ANSWER: F Scott Fitzgerald

7.This celestial object is in a normal elliptic orbit around the Sun. Its period of revolution around the Sun, approximately 364 days at present, is almost equal to that of the Earth. Because of this, the object and Earth appear to "follow" each other in their paths around the Sun. This is why it is sometimes incorrectly called "Earth's second moon". However, it does not orbit the Earth and is not a moon.

ANSWER: 3753 Cruithne

8.These steps were made famous in Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 silent film The Battleship Potemkin and are the formal entrance to this European city from the Black sea. The stairs were designed to create an optical illusion. A person looking down the stairs sees only the landings, and the steps are invisible, but a person looking up sees only steps, and the landings are invisible. Name this famous stairway and the city that they are in.

ANSWER: Potemkin Stairs officially known as Primorsky Stairs today in the city of Odessa

9. This line lies at an altitude of 100 kms above the earth's sea level and is said to define the boundary between the earth's atmosphere and outer space. It is named after an Hungarian-American physicist. What is this line called and who crossed it first?

ANSWER: Von Karman line crossed by Yuri Gagarin first

10. This film tells the story of Brian Cohen, a young Jewish man who is born on the same day as, and next door to, Jesus Christ, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. The film contains themes of religious satire that were controversial at the time of its release, drawing accusations of blasphemy and protests from some religious groups. It was banned as well in some countries for a long period. The film makers used such notoriety to benefit their marketing campaign, with posters stating "So funny it was banned in Norway!"

ANSWER: Life of Brian