Chris's Quiz!
1) The
Earth has magnetic poles just as if there was a giant bar magnet buried
inside the Earth. Down at the South Pole in Antarctica, is which
pole of the Earth's magnet?
North
South
Suspend a magnet from a string and allow it to pivot like a compass needle. The North Pole of the magnet will point North, the South Pole will point South. Since opposites attract and like poles repel, the South Pole of the magnet points South because the North Pole of the earth's magnetic field lies there.
2) The official measurement system of the USA is the Metric System.
True
False
We may be taking
our time about it, but it's true. The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 (amended
in 1988) and a 1991 Presidential Executive Order provide both the rationale
and the mandate for a transition to the use of metric units.
3) In general, which colors of light do plants want and use, and which do they have little use for:
Red: Uses
Blue: Uses
Green: Little Use For
Note the question was "want and use" not "use for photosynthesis." Plants use light for many other things, like warmth.
When you look at most plants they are green. Why do they appear to be green in color? Because when sun light made of many colors hits them, they reflect the green light back to your eye, having little use for it. The other colors are absorbed and used by the plant.
4) During nighttime, the earth is located between us and the sun.
True
False
Of course. A simple question amongst the trick ones. :)
5) The Japanese never attacked the Continental United States during World War Two.
True
False
The Japanese launched two types of attacks on the US Mainland:
The strangest was balloons carrying bombs that began landing in the Northwest in 1944. No one had a clue where they were coming from. It turned out Japan had discovered the Jet Stream (then unknown in the USA), and the balloons were being launched from the Japanese mainland. A mechanism released hydrogen gas during the day when the balloon got hot and rose too high, another dumped little bags of sand at night when the balloon got cold and started to drop out of the stream. About 9,000 were launched, about 300 where know to have landed. One killed Mrs. Murphy and her 5 children, the only US Mainland casualties of W.W.II. (Discovery Magazine, The Discovery Channel 12/2/98)
The second was a Japanese submarine that sailed close enough to the West Coast to surface and take a few pot shots with no reported damage. Yes, 1941 was a true story in parts.
6) A sheep was recently the first animal to be successfully cloned from the single cell of another.
What was the sheep's
name: Dolly
Who was she named
after: Dolly Parton
Why: She
was cloned from a Mammary Gland (breast) cell
7) List two words that rhyme with Orange: none, trick question
List two words that rhyme with Blue: two, you, screw, etc.
List two words that rhyme with Silver: none, trick question
8) About how many people have been killed in automobile accidents:
200,000
2,000,000
20, 000,000
200,000,000
Yes, about 2,000,000
world-wide so far. Source: A TV special about the history of
automobile safety called Crash shown 8/98 on The Discovery Channel.
9) Let's suppose it is Winter, you have electric heat in your house, and your cost of electricity is 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. You want to run a 100W light 10 hours a day. What will be your energy cost to run the light -- your true actual cost, the amount higher your electric bill will be each month. You may assume a month is exactly 30 days long for this question. (Hint: A 100W light is 1/10 of a Kilowatt, so it consumes 1 cent per hour of electricity.) :
zero
How much does your
actual electric bill go up when you run a light bulb, assuming you have
electric heat? Zero, no change in total energy costs to operate.
90% of the energy going into the bulb turns directly into heat, the light
that does come out bounces around the room until it is absorbed by the
furnishings and people, and becomes heat. This cuts down the energy
consumption of the electric heat by just that much, resulting in the same
electric bill. Even running a refrigerator is free in the winter
time!
10) If you've ever watched a helicopter covering a news story, or watched a police chopper assisting officers on the ground you may have have noticed they don't stand still in the air, but instead "orbit" around in a small circle. They are physically capable of standing still -- aren't they? Why do they orbit?
They orbit so that they always have some forward velocity. If their engine should fail they will need to try to land using a procedure called Autorotation. Basically the helicopter without a powered rotor becomes a type of craft called an auto gyro. Perhaps you saw W.C. Fields fly one in the Great Radio Broadcast of 1938?
In an auto gyro the rotor acts just like a wing does on a plane -- it converts forward velocity into lift. If you have no forward velocity when your engine fails, you can still control your rate of descent using what is called Hovering Autorotation. That is a misnomer, there is no autorotation taking place, just torque on the rotor to slow your descent. You will land safely -- perhaps, it depends what is directly below you, you have little choice.
Since it would be
unwise to land on the house below, the policemen, the fire, the freeway
-- some forward velocity is maintained to allow true autorotation,
to allow flight to a safe landing zone.
11) Speaking of orbits -- when people are orbiting the earth in a space craft, are they in "zero G", unaffected by the Earth's gravity?
Yes No Very minutely affected
They are under the full effect of Earth's gravity, pulling at them with almost a full G of force. You'd have to get a heck of a lot farther away to escape Earth's gravity. Not only is gravity pulling at you while in orbit, you are constantly falling towards the earth just as if you had stepped off a roof. The trick is you have a forward velocity called an orbital velocity that, when combined with the falling motion from gravity, makes you fly around in a circle around the Earth.
Don't believe it? Get in orbit, fire your retro-rockets to zero your orbital velocity. I think you'll notice that gravity still has it's full pull on you as you plummet towards the Earth!
12) It's rare to see a Railroad Steam Locomotive these days, almost everything is now a Diesel. Two questions. First, are modern Diesel Locomotives:
Far more powerful
than the old Steam
About the same
Far less powerful
than the old Steam
Many of the old larger Steam Engines were 5,000 and more horsepower. A typical value for a Diesel Engine these days is 1,200 HP, with the newest and biggest approaching 2,000 HP.
For many years Diesels were used just for passenger traffic as they didn't have the power needed to pull freight trains. With the invention of Diesels that can be "ganged" together in groups of 2, 3, 4 or more engines, they could finally be used to pull freight.
13) Second, does the output shaft of a Diesel Locomotive's engine connect to the drive wheels of the Locomotive, like a Steam Engine does?
Yes No If No, why not?:
If the output of the Diesel was directly connected to the wheels it would stall when trying to start a train going. Steam Engines have maximum torque at zero RPM -- you can't "stall" them like a gas or Diesel engine. You might try a gearbox and a clutch with a Diesel, but an easier way was found.
Just like steam engines, electric motors also have maximum torque at zero RPM. A Diesel is happiest when run at a single speed, and puts out the most power at a high RPM. So the Diesel is run at a constant, high RPM to power an electric generator. The electricity generated is then run to huge electric motors down in the wheel trucks.
This system also allows the train "put on the brakes" on a hill, no mean feat with 100 freight cars pushing at you. The electric motors act as brakes by becoming electric generators. The electricity generated is run up to huge "waffle iron" grids on top of the engine, cooled by huge fans.
So, how'd ya do? Get them all right -- really? :) What did you think of the quiz?
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