[SOC] Quiz nights

[Paul Bartlett]

Hi John,

We were a little bit disingenuous in the phraseology of that question. The
people competing all pretty much knew the names of all the known planets and
some knew their order in distance from the Sun.

Hardly any would know what an ellipse is and the fact that Pluto's orbit
dips inside Neptune's periodically.

Pluto's orbit is also out of the ecliptic.

The question was phrased for comic effect. ;-)

Astronomers have also recently discovered a tenth body way out from Pluto
but judging from the reports it is unlikely to be awarded planetary status.
Pluto is only just classed as a planet as it is.

Of course it's the Sun but you wouldn't believe how many got that wrong.

As for Beethoven, of course it is one. You get that from the question. It's
"Fidelio".

I and my fellow quiz setter collapsed in tears of laughter when this one
team scored zero on that question!

We also used to compete in a different quiz at a different pub. The quiz was
split into rounds of ten questions each. One category was "Science and
Nature". I tend to be fairly strong in that area and we scored nine out of
ten in that round. (Highest in the pub)

The one question that floored me was "What is a mouflon?" I had no idea and
made a wild guess and answered "a sub-atomic particle".

A mouflon is a breed of sheep.

Paul ;-)


----- Original Message -----
From: "John R. Strohm" <strohm at airmail.net>
To: "E-Q&A" <Electronics-qa at vk2tips.com>
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: [E-Q&A] Turkey puzzler


> Well, lessee now.
>
> Pluto was NOMINALLY the furthest planet at the time.  The fact that it had
> not yet been discovered did not change the distance.  HOWEVER, Robert
> Heinlein in one book claims that Pluto has a highly eccentric orbit, that
> actually slides just inside Neptune's orbit at times, and I THINK he set
> that story in the near future, while Pluto would have been near
perihelion,
> making Neptune currently the furthest planet from the sun.
>
> The Sun is a star, and it is heck of a lot closer than Proxima Centauri.
>
> I don't remember Beethoven writing any operas.  The form of the question
> implies he wrote "one".
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Bartlett" <paul at fulking.freeserve.co.uk>
> To: <mike at mcpherson.net>; "E-Q&A" <Electronics-qa at vk2tips.com>
> Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 3:15 AM
> Subject: Re: [E-Q&A] Turkey puzzler
>
>
> > What was the furthest planet from the Sun before Pluto was discovered?
> > What is the closest star to the Earth?
> > How many operas did Beethoven write and for an extra point name it.
> >
> > One team excelled themselves by scoring zero points on that last one
about
> > ten years ago.
> >
> > Paul ;-)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >