Welcome to another Friday quiz! More of the usual trivia this week, including an Oscars/science crossover round and a return to the perennial favourite of the periodic table.
Round 1 – The Oscars
If you know nothing at all about movies you can still have a go at this round – but a little cinematic knowledge would certainly help.
- Which double winner of the Oscar for Best Actress has a surname that can be defined in physics as “a physical quantity that has a value for each point in space and time”?
- Who is the British physicist, subject of the recent biography ‘Maverick Genius’, past Templeton Prize winner, and best known for his work in quantum electrodynamics, whose surname-like first name is the actual surname of the 2005 Best Supporting Actor winner (and multiple nominee on other occasions)?
- What bird family name, also the name of the 1976 Best Actor Oscar winner, can be preceded by rose, green, gold and bull (among many others) to give the names of various species of bird?
Round 2 – Periodic Table trivia
The Periodic Table, as well as being the foundation stone of chemistry, is a treasure trove of trivia. Let us return to it once more…
- What are the only two elements whose English names have the same number of letters as their atomic numbers?
- What is the heaviest naturally occurring element?
- What is the only element to be named after a place in the UK?
Round 3 – The Picture Round
Solve the charades and work out the common theme:
1.
2.
3.
Round 4 – Clouds
Clouds both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial in this round.
- The Oort cloud, a cluster of icy rocks lying almost a light-year from the sun, is thought to be the source for the majority of visible-from-Earth examples of what kind of astronomical body?
- The large majority of clouds are formed in which layer of the Earth’s atmosphere?
- The two dwarf galaxies thought to be orbiting our galaxy, and which are abbreviated to SMC and LMC are known in full as the small and large clouds named after which Portuguese explorer?
Round 5 – Anagrams
This week’s anagrams are all things connected in some way with the theory of evolution:
- WHIRLS A DANCER
- PIGEON’S ORIFICES
- A NON-SECULAR TITLE
- THE TUFT VISOR FESTIVAL
- DETHRONES MY SINS
Good luck! Answers will be published on Monday.
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This week’s answers as follows:
Round 1 – The Oscars
1. “A physical quantity that has a value for each point in space and time” is one way of describing a field, so the actor in question is Sally Field, who just missed out on a third award this year.
2. This is Freeman Dyson, whose first name is borrowed for surname purposes by Morgan Freeman.
3. This is of course finch, and the 1976 Best Actor winner was Peter of that ilk.
Round 2 – Periodic Table trivia
1. Boron (5) and Carbon (6) are the elements with this distinction.
2. Uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element.
3. Strontium, named after the Scottish village of Strontian, is the only element named after a place in the UK.
Round 3 – The Picture Round
1. Giant + Red [Cross] + [Elijah] Wood = GIANT REDWOOD
2. Monk + Key + [Crossword] Puzzle = MONKEY PUZZLE
3. Coco [Chanel] + Nut + Palm = COCONUT PALM
…so the theme, of course, was trees.
Round 4 – Clouds
1. Comets, it is thought, generally spring from the Oort Cloud.
2. Most clouds in the sky are formed in the troposphere.
3. SMC is “Small Magellanic Cloud” and LMC is “Large Magellanic Cloud”, so the explorer is Ferdinand Magellan.
Round 5 – Anagrams
1. CHARLES DARWIN
2. ORIGIN OF SPECIES
3. NATURAL SELECTION
4. SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
5. MODERN SYNTHESIS
Look out for the next quiz this Friday!