Find it boring so far?
One of the the few things I initially liked about quizzing was knowing random stuff you could use as conversation starters.
What's the lowest city in the world (by latitude)? Well, that is kind of tough to answer, considering it would depend on the definition of a city and that would require some work.
How about, the lowest (by latitude) capital in the world? (Err.. that would be the southernmost)
The northernmost? What about East & West?
Just write down your top five guesses for each.
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science. Show all posts
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Q2
Q: Identify what is being talked about here:
"One theory claims that its usage came about during the printing of the appendix of Rene Descartes' classic treatise "La Geometrie". While the text was being typeset the printer ran short of certain letters in the alphabet and therefore used a single alternative for all of them."
Clues:
"La Geometrie" tells us it has something to do with (that most hated of things) Mathematics.(wince!).
Rene Descartes confirms that, but you don't need to know he was a mathematician.
"The printer ran short of certain letters in the alphabet" mean that this has something to do with the alphabet. Considering there was a printer involved, reasonable to assume that this is the Latin alphabet (English language).
"used a single alternative" Okay, we're clearly talking about a single letter of the alphabet here. One that was used often in this book that we know nothing about. But, importantly, that led to other people using it a lot. Now, we can make a reasonable guess. What's a 'often used letter in maths'?
If you guessed 'x', then you'd be right!
A: x
Must know:
1. The English alphabet.
Seriously, this is a pathetic minimum requirement if you want to quiz in English. If you don't know the English alphabet, please work out your priorities first.
2. Basic algebra.
Are you smarter than a fifth... I'll show myself out.
Would help:
Probably knowing Rene Descartes was a mathematician helps slightly, but you really don't need that.
And that's it. That was a very easy question to answer, made difficult just by the way it was asked. As long as you pick the right clues out, you should get to the answer for most questions.
"One theory claims that its usage came about during the printing of the appendix of Rene Descartes' classic treatise "La Geometrie". While the text was being typeset the printer ran short of certain letters in the alphabet and therefore used a single alternative for all of them."
Clues:
"La Geometrie" tells us it has something to do with (that most hated of things) Mathematics.(wince!).
Rene Descartes confirms that, but you don't need to know he was a mathematician.
"The printer ran short of certain letters in the alphabet" mean that this has something to do with the alphabet. Considering there was a printer involved, reasonable to assume that this is the Latin alphabet (English language).
"used a single alternative" Okay, we're clearly talking about a single letter of the alphabet here. One that was used often in this book that we know nothing about. But, importantly, that led to other people using it a lot. Now, we can make a reasonable guess. What's a 'often used letter in maths'?
If you guessed 'x', then you'd be right!
A: x
Must know:
1. The English alphabet.
Seriously, this is a pathetic minimum requirement if you want to quiz in English. If you don't know the English alphabet, please work out your priorities first.
2. Basic algebra.
Are you smarter than a fifth... I'll show myself out.
Would help:
Probably knowing Rene Descartes was a mathematician helps slightly, but you really don't need that.
And that's it. That was a very easy question to answer, made difficult just by the way it was asked. As long as you pick the right clues out, you should get to the answer for most questions.
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