Trivia Answers, given for Churchill MCR Freshers' week on Oct 6 2009.

by Joseph Bonneau

[numbers in brackets indicate number of correct responses received, out of 6 teams]

ROUND 1: WHAT's the biggest item from these 4 choices? Hint: the biggest is at least twice the size of any other value.
1) Sardinia 23,949 km^2 (Hawai'i 10,434 km^2, Jamaica 11,190 km^2, Puerto Rico 9,100 km^2) [4]
2) Barley 53 M hectares (Cocoa Bean 7 M Hectares, Coffee 10.6 M hectares, Tobacco 4.2 M Hectares) [0]
3) Chinese Yuan 40 B notes (EU Euro 10 B, Indonesian Rupathi < 10 B, US Dollar 20 B) [4]
4) North American Beaver 20 kg (Bobcat 10 kg, Common Octopus < 10 kg, Red Fox 8 kg) [4]
5) Jakarta, Indonesia 23.4 M (Istanbul, Turkey 11.3 M, Karachi, Pakistan 9.7 M, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11.4 M) [2]
6) McDonald's $22 B (Dunkin' Donuts $5.5 B, Starbucks $9 B, Subway $9 B) [4]


ROUND 2: WHEN did these sets of events occur? (all happened in the same calendar year, name the year)
1) 1682 (1676-1780 acceptable) [3]
2) 1759 (1753-1765 acceptable) [4]
3) 1835 (1831-1839 acceptable) [1]
4) 1910 (1909-1911 acceptable) [2]
5) 1986 [4]
6) Halley's Comet reaches perihelion and is visible from the Earth [4]


ROUND 3: WHO did the following things?
1) Andrew Carnegie [3]
2) Ludwig Boltzmann [5]
3) Burrill Bernard Crohn [6]
4) Larry Page, Sergey Brin (coauthors, either is acceptable) [3]
5) Sir Francis Drake [1]
6) Albert Einstein [6]

ROUND 4: WHERE would a person described by the following adjectives come from? (ie, a San Franciscan comes from San Francisco)
1) Moscow [6]
2) Burkina Faso [6]
3) Warsaw [5]
4) Newcastle [3]
5) Barbados [1]
6) Madagascar [2]

ROUND 5: WHY .... do the following scientific effects have their names? Each question describes an effect and a hint about the origin of the effect's name.
1) Brazil nut effect [5]
2) Pygmalion effect [2]
3) Slashdot effect (also acceptable: Digg effect, Fark effect, Drudge effect) [4]
4) Sylvia Plath effect [4]
5) Tamagotchi effect [5]
6) Tetris effect [6]

ROUND 6: WHICH country is in second place after the USA?

1) Venezuela [5]
2) France [3]
3) United Kingdom [5]
4) Spain [1]
5) Argentina [2]
6) Mozambique [4]

TIEBREAKER: Rome, London, Munich, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo/Yokohama, Stockholm, Mexico City, Los Angeles [Best response: 9/9]

Difficulty breakdown:
      1 0
      4 1
      5 2
      5 3
     10 4
      6 5
      5 6