Obscure Trivia #11

Select the correct answer from the choices provided … if you dare.

Some questions may be in this format:

A : B :: C : ?

This is known as an analogy. It is read as “A is to B as C is to what? So, the answer to the analogy “dog : canine :: cat : ?” is “feline.” Canine has the same relationship to dog as feline has to cat.

This is a challenging quiz, but I can almost guarantee you will learn something from it.

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Last updated: April 19, 2024

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First submitted	November 5, 2023
Times taken	38
Average score	40.0%
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1. How many countries use at least one time zone with an offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) that contains a fraction of an hour (e.g., UTC +3:30)?

4 ✓

6 ✓

0 ✓

10 ✓

Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, France (French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands), India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Sri Lanka. (Source: timeanddate.com)

2. The ghost town of Nothing is located in which U.S. state?

Nevada ✓

Kansas ✓

Oklahoma ✓

Arizona ✓

(Source: Wikipedia)

3. What is the smallest mammal in the world?

Mouse lemur ✓

Etruscan shrew ✓

Pygmy jerboa ✓

Bumblebee bat ✓

The bumblebee bat weighs 2 grams and measures 1 to 1.3 inches. It lives in western Thailand and southeast Myanmar, in limestone caves along rivers. (Sources: Live Science, Wikipedia)

4. A group of swine is called …

A sounder ✓

An excitement ✓

A banquet ✓

A siren ✓

(Source: almanac.com)

5. What is the earth’s largest desert called?

Antarctica ✓

Gobi ✓

Sahara ✓

Arabian ✓

The Antarctic Polar Desert has a surface area of 5.5 million square miles. (Source: science.howstuffworks.com)

6. At one time, Scottish girls believed they would see the face of their future husband if they hung this in front of the fire on Halloween.

A bouquet of dried gorse and broom ✓

Wet sheets ✓

Nightclothes ✓

Undergarments ✓

(Source: University of Wisconsin Marathon County Library Restroom Reader, vol. 6, No. 3)

7. Which U.S. President prevented football from being banned?

Grover Cleveland ✓

William McKinley ✓

Theodore Roosevelt ✓

William Howard Taft ✓

Football was in danger of being banned after 18 fatalities in the 1904 season alone. In 1905, there were 19 fatalities and 135 injuries. Amid the public outcry for a ban, Roosevelt worked with the coaches of premier colleges to reform the game. An intercollegiate conference approved the proposed changes, resulting in a significant decrease in fatalities and injuries for the 1906 season. After a spike in deaths in 1909, a second round of reforms was put in place, laying the foundation for the modern game. (Source: Library of Congress Blogs)

8. When was a fingerprint first used to solve a crime?

1902 ✓

702 ✓

300 BCE ✓

1892 ✓

Police in Buenos Aires used a bloody thumbprint in 1892 to prove that Francisca Rojas murdered her two children. Systematic use of fingerprints in law enforcement began in the U.S. ten years later, but there is evidence they had been used for personal identification in China (300 BCE) and Japan (702 CE). (Source: Office of Justice Programs)

9. An 80-year-old’s heart has beaten about how many times?

500 million ✓

3 billion ✓

1 billion ✓

5 billion ✓

(Sources: Open Oregon Educational Resources, University of Houston)

10. How many bones does a typical shark have in its body?

0 ✓

200-400 ✓

185 ✓

206 ✓

A shark’s skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. (Source: The Natural History Museum, London)

11. Traditional mozzarella is made from the milk of …

Water buffalo ✓

Goats ✓

Cows ✓

Sheep ✓

American mozzarella is made almost exclusively from cow’s milk, and would be sold in Italy as fior di latte, not as mozzarella. Water buffalo may have been introduced to Italy by Arabs or Goths. (Sources: 6ABC, naplesldm.com, Wikipedia)

12. What is arachibutyrophobia a fear of?

Getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of the mouth ✓

Ingesting a spider or other critter while sleeping ✓

Not being able to digest food ✓

Paralyzation ✓

(Source: Medscape)

13. Kinshasa : Leopoldville :: Ho Chi Minh City : ?

Hanoi ✓

Peking ✓

Saigon ✓

Bangkok ✓

Following a disastrous conflict (1955-1975) the nations of North Vietnam (capital at Hanoi) and South Vietnam (capital at Saigon) merged. In 1976, Saigon was renamed to honor a former communist leader of North Vietnam. (Sources: worldatlas.com, Wikipedia)

14. The United States is called “Usono” in what language?

Indonesian ✓

Malay ✓

Esperanto ✓

Korean ✓

Proposed in 1905. (Sources: Google Translate, Wiktionary)

15. In which country is the world’s largest active volcano located?

Japan ✓

United States ✓

Iceland ✓

Indonesia ✓

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is the largest. (Source: USGS)

16. Food prepared en croûte has been …

Encrusted with nuts ✓

Cooked over charcoal ✓

Baked in a pastry crust ✓

Mixed with croutons ✓

(Source: Oxford Languages)

17. How many bottles of Heinz Tomato Ketchup are sold in a year?

1 billion ✓

650 million ✓

300 million ✓

900 thousand ✓

Sales in more than 140 countries total more than $1.5 billion. (Source: hpsauce.co.uk)

18. In which state can you receive a fine and imprisonment if you substitute margarine for butter in a restaurant without the customer’s knowledge?

Idaho ✓

Minnesota ✓

Wisconsin ✓

Michigan ✓

(Source: Wis. Stat. § 97.18)

19. Which U.S. state’s cities have hosted the Olympic Games the most times?

Utah ✓

New York ✓

Georgia ✓

California ✓

Los Angeles (1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics) and Squaw Valley (1960 Winter Olympics). Missouri (summer 1904), New York (winter 1932 and 1980), Georgia (summer 1986), and Utah (winter 2002) have also hosted. (Source: architectureofthegames.net)

20. According to Apollo astronauts, what does lunar dust smell like?

Cotton candy ✓

Burnt steak ✓

Hardboiled eggs ✓

Spent gunpowder ✓

Apollo astronauts reported that lunar dust found inside their landers smelled like burnt gunpowder. (Source: BBC Science Focus)

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