Quiz #31: Shipwrecks, surnames and Ewoks
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Q 1 How are actors Crispin Bonham Carter and Helena Bonham Carter related?
Q 2 Which is the largest US State?
A Alaska
In order of total size (including an water), it is Alaska, Texas, California, Montana. Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas. The US purchased it from the Russian empire in 1867 for the price of $4.72 per square kilometre, or about $US 7.2 million.
The smallest state is Rhode Island.
Q 3 The Ewoks appeared in only one Star Wars Movie. Which one?
A Return of the Jedi
There were also two made-for-TV movies.
Q 4 Which country has the most timezones when dependent territories are counted?
A France
France itself uses only Central European Time (CET), but has dependents in 11 other time zones.
The United States and Russia have 11, while the UK has only 9.
New Zealand has 4 dependents - Niue, Cook Islands, Chatham Islands, and Tokelau giving us 5 timezones.
Q 5 What is the most common surname in New Zealand (based on birth registrations)?
You probably easily guessed it was Smith (2014 stats). This is followed by Wilson, Williams and Brown. Looking at the stats by city we find the following -
Auckland: Wang, Li, Chen, Liu
Wellington, Smith, Williams, Patel, Brown
Christchurch, Smith, Taylor, Brown, Jones
Q 6 Which civilian shipwreck in NZ waters had the greatest loss of lives?
A Tararua (1881)
131 were lost when the Tararua struck a reef at Waipapa Point, Southland. The Penguin lost 72 lives, Ranui 23, and the Wahine lost 51 on the day of the wreck.
The worst shipping disaster in New Zealand waters is the loss of HMS Orpheus on 7 February 1863, when 189 naval and army personnel died when their vessel grounded on the bar at the entrance to Manukau Harbour.
Q 7 Who discovered Kiritimati - also known as Christmas Island - in 1777?
A James Cook
Cook wrote in his journal, "On the 24th about half an hour after day break, land was discovered ... which upon a nearer approach was found to be one of those low islands so common in this sea; that is a narrow bank of land incloseing the sea within; a few cocoa nut trees were seen in two or three places, but in the general the land had a very barren appearence. As we kept our Christmas here I called it Christmas Island." (sic)
Q 8 Who first measured the circumference of the Earth?
A Eratosthenes
As Wikipedia tells it:
"Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth without leaving Egypt. He knew that at local noon on the summer solstice in Syene (modern Aswan, Egypt), the Sun was directly overhead. He knew this because the shadow of someone looking down a deep well at that time in Syene blocked the reflection of the Sun on the water. He measured the Sun's angle of elevation at noon on the same day in Alexandria. The method of measurement was to make a scale drawing of that triangle which included a right angle between a vertical rod and its shadow. This turned out to be 1/50th of a circle. Taking the Earth as spherical, and knowing both the distance and direction of Syene, he concluded that the Earth's circumference was fifty times that distance."
Q 9 Which of the following is NOT volcanic in origin (i.e NOT formed from erupted magma)?
A Granite
Q 10 Who first used the phrase, "survival of the fittest"?
A Herbert Spencer
Spencer used the phrase in his Principles of Biology published in 1864. This was inspired by his reading Darwin's On the Origin of Species which had been published in 1859.
That period was a hot-bed of thinking around biology and geology, and some of the field's greatest thinkers were contemporaries of Darwin.
