Clear the brain fog –it’s quiz time!

Clear the brain fog –it’s quiz time!

Curiosity Corner

By

Dr. Jerry D. Wilson

Emeritus Professor of Physics

Lander University

It’s been awhile, so time for a quiz. Some of the questions come from one sent to me the other day. (Don’t ask how I did.)

Questions:

1. What is the sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the winner until the contest ends?
2. Which fruit has its seeds on the outside? (An easy one.)
3. What is the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked or in any other form but fresh?
4. Only three words in Standard English begin with the letters “dw.” Name two of them.
5. How many filaments are there in a 3-way lightbulb?
6. Is it possible in baseball for a pitcher to have four strikeouts in one inning?
7. And one more for you baseball fans: There are seven ways a baseball player can legally be on first base without getting a hit. A base on balls, or a walk, is one; and you have another in Question 6. (I knew you would look.) What are the other five ways?
8. On a clock, at noon and midnight the hour and minute hands are exactly together with each other or pointing in the same direction. How many times between noon and midnight are the hour and minute hands again together or cross each other?
9. What do the abbreviations “i.e.” and “e.g.” stand for?
10. Name six or more things you might wear on your feet that begin with the letter “s.” (I’ll give you a start – shoe.)

Answers:

1. (Professional wrestling not accepted.)
2. Strawberry
3. Lettuce
4. Get out of that dictionary! Dwarf, dwell, and dwindle.
5. Two – used separately and in combination for three different light brightnesses.
6. On a third strike swing or call, the catcher drops or misses (passed ball) and doesn’t tag or throw the batter out at first base – a strikeout, but not an out.
7. OK, we have (1) walk and (2) passed ball (including wild pitch). Then we have (3) hit by a pitched ball, (4) catcher interference, (5) defense error, (6) fielder’s choice, e.g., throws out a runner at second base instead of first base, and (7) – Did you get it? – designated pinch runner.
8. Ten times. (Check it out – doesn’t happen at eleven o’clock.)
9. e. stands for the Latin “id est,” meaning “that is” or “which is to say.”

e.g. stands for “exempli gratia,” meaning “for example” or “for instance.”

10. Socks, stockings, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, snowshoes, etc.

C.P.S. (Curious Postscript): Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. –Mark Twain

Curious about something? Send your questions to Dr. Jerry D. Wilson, College of Science and Mathematics, Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649, or e-mail jerry@curiosity-corner.net. Selected questions will appear in the Curiosity Corner. For Curiosity Corner background, go to www.curiosity-corner.net.