Test your General Knowledge without Googling!

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:24:53 am

The person who answers correctly must post another general knowledge-related question (1 or more).Alternatively anyone can post questions where they see fit.

Q1. Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in Waterloo by Wellington and BlÃ¼cher. In what country is Waterloo?

Q2. What's the smallest country in the world?

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:28:35 am

Waterloo is in present day Belgium.

The worlds smallest 'country' is Nauru.

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:33:47 am

Question 1 is correct!
The world's smallest country is actually Vatican City.

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:34:39 am

You may have guessed I didn't consider The Vatican STATE and Monaco Countries.

Next Questions.

1. Which kingdom administers the Faroe Islands?

2. Which former Australian first lady was once an Alitalia flight attendant?

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:37:33 am

Q1 = Belgium.

Question 2 - In what year did Christopher Columbus first set foot any part of what is now North America?

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:38:46 am

Perhaps Marcel meant STAMP ISSUING countries? :idea:

(And my hunch is Pitcairn Island would win anyway!)

Denmark - and Annita Keating.

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:44:05 am

I knew this would lead to 'discussions'.

Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 square miles).

The four islands - named Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno - are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total area of about 18 square miles (47 km2).

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:46:29 am

Vatican City is the smallest generally recognised sovereign country. It's also much smaller in area than Pitcairn

However, 100 or so countries recognise the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and it only has one building in Rome as territory!

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:49:39 am

Global Administrator wrote:

Question 2 - In what year did Christopher Columbus first set foot any part of what is now North America?

1492

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:52:12 am

traralgon3844 wrote:

I knew this would lead to 'discussions'.

Nauru is the world's smallest island nation, covering just 21 square kilometres (8.1 square miles).

The four islands - named Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno - are spread over several hundred miles of ocean and have a total area of about 18 square miles (47 km2).

I always think Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It covers ~0.2 square miles of area. Second is Monaco (0.7 sq miles) and Nauru comes third (8.1 sq miles). Vatican is a country because it has it's own currency (Euro), it produces its own stamps, and the president being the Pope.

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 00:57:41 am

traralgon3844 wrote:

Global Administrator wrote:

Question 2 - In what year did Christopher Columbus first set foot any part of what is now North America?

1492

Sorry .. wrong . . try again by all means!

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:01:32 am

Not 1492? Hmmm..

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:03:51 am

If you count the West Indies as North America, 1493.

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:04:26 am

Trick question: he never set foot on North America.

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:04:53 am

Marcel wrote:

Not 1492? Hmmm..

Nope.

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:05:18 am

...although he did land in the Bahamas in 1492.

traralgon3844 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:19:27 am

He hit Cuba (literally) in 1503) but Cuba is still classed as Central America.

I'll go with nigelc. Trick question.

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:19:48 am

nigelc wrote:

Trick question: he never set foot on North America.

Not a trick question -- just basic history!

Try telling this to Americans who have an annual Columbus Day Holiday ... and 99% of whom are CONVINCED he discovered America .. he never set foot on the place!

Question 4 - and also unknown to the VAST majority of Americans -- WHO was America named after?

Anyone know the answer WITHOUT googling it? :lol:

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:22:20 am

It's supposed to be Amerigo Vespucci but didn't someone recently come up with another source?

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 01:26:28 am

nigelc wrote:

It's supposed to be Amerigo Vespucci but didn't someone recently come up with another source?

First bit correct and after 500 years of being accepted as true, not sure if the 2nd bit has any historical weight! :mrgreen:

Glen

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 05:41:01 am

OK next questions:

Q5. "Veni, Vidi, Vici" means "I came, I saw, I conquered". Which Roman emperor used this sentence?

Q6. Which one of the following multinational brands that doesn't belong to the group, and why?
Toyota, Nokia, Honda, Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic

Try not to google it first :mrgreen:

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 05:56:22 am

Marcel wrote:

OK next questions:

Q5. "Veni, Vidi, Vici" means "I came, I saw, I conquered". Which Roman emperor used this sentence?

Q6. Which one of the following multinational brands that doesn't belong to the group, and why?
Toyota, Nokia, Honda, Sony, Mitsubishi, Panasonic

Try not to google it first :mrgreen:

1. Julius Caesar said it though it's usually said that Augustus was the first emperor.

2. Nokia is Finnish, the others Japanese.

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 06:04:16 am

Very good Nigel. All correct!

iomoon · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 09:15:50 am

Americus Vespucius is the Latinized version of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, and America is the feminine form of Americus.

An alternate proposal, first advanced by Jules Marcou in 1875 and later recounted by novelist Jan Carew, is that the name America derives from the district of Amerrique in Nicaragua. The gold-rich district of Amerrique was purportedly visited by both Vespucci and Columbus, for whom the name became synonymous with gold.

Another theory, first proposed by a Bristol antiquary and naturalist, Alfred Hudd, in 1908 was that America is derived from Richard Amerike (Richard ap Meurig), a Bristol merchant of Welsh descent, who is believed to have financed John Cabot's voyage of discovery from England to Newfoundland in 1497.

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:14:01 am

1. Stoke-on-Trent is home to what famous Briton?

2. How many different colours can the human eye detect?

Diver Pete · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:22:42 am

traralgon3844 wrote:

2. Which former Australian first lady was once an Alitalia flight attendant?

Wasn't that Annita Keating - Paul Keatings' wife?

iomoon · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:24:11 am

jugoslavija_post wrote:

1. Stoke-on-Trent is home to what famous Briton?

2. How many different colours can the human eye detect?

1. Used to be me.

2. Depends on how you define a color.

A computer screen can visualize 256 shades of color between pure black and pure white.
Of these, the human eye can probably differentiate the difference between 5 shades at a time.
If you add in the 3 additive colors, that's at least 5 x 256 = 1280 but probably closer to 154.

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:39:44 am

Diver Pete wrote:

traralgon3844 wrote:

2. Which former Australian first lady was once an Alitalia flight attendant?

Wasn't that Annita Keating - Paul Keatings' wife?

iomoon wrote:

jugoslavija_post wrote:

1. Stoke-on-Trent is home to what famous Briton?

2. How many different colours can the human eye detect?

1. Used to be me.

2. Depends on how you define a color.

A computer screen can visualize 256 shades of color between pure black and pure white.
Of these, the human eye can probably differentiate the difference between 5 shades at a time.
If you add in the 3 additive colors, that's at least 5 x 256 = 1280 but probably closer to 154.

Nope, to everyone.

iomoon · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:47:48 am

Erik

Both your questions are unanswerable.

There is no definition of the word famous, nor what is a color (beyond a wavelength of the visible spectrum).

Even then, some human eyes can better see colors than other human eyes.
Whence we have "color blind".

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:03:53 am

I meant a man related to British stamp collecting who designed a very popular set of stamps still issued to this day.

And I meant the "average" human eye. :wink:

Marcel · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:06:07 am

jugoslavija_post wrote:

2. How many different colours can the human eye detect?

3 colours? Red, green and blue?

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:17:11 am

No, well yes, but think of all the tints and shades and secondary colours, too.

So yes, you're technically right, but no. :twisted:

iomoon · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:21:13 am

Arnold Machin is dead.
Stoke-on-trent is not his home.

If you're going with red, blue, green, you have to include the subtractive colors, yellow, magenta and cyan.

MargoZ · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:24:38 am

Erik- I work in a University- a word of advice...never get into a dispute with a professor :lol:

...about anything :lol:

We haven't done a stamp trivia competition for a while but this thread reminds me why

It is SO hard to devise clear, unambiguous, non-contestable questions.

Just about anything you can think of is open to interpretation or possible alternative answers.

For example, in Australia (unsurprisingly) there is endless argument about which is the oldest pub...about 10 different establishments lay claim ...of course it all depends on how you define the 'oldest' eg oldest licenced, oldest continuously licensed, first to be established and still carry the name, oldest building still in use as a pub , oldest mainland pub etc- interesting theme for an extended pub crawl!

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 11:44:43 am

I know Arnold Machin died, and I read in our textbooks that the human eye can detect more then 10,000,000 different colours. I don't mean to start anything, though. What I wrote might be true or false. It's just what I read and remembered.

And here I quote:

Quote:

......Machin was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1911....

iomoon · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:07:19 pm

Erik,

the visible spectrum varies from about 400nm to 700nm - basically a rainbow, depending on your vision.

It really depends on how many additive and subtractive colors plus black and white you can shove into a single nm to define a "color".

There are not enough words in the English language to "define" 10 million "colors".

Nor could the human eye (or rather brain) come anywhere close to differentiate them.

Allanswood · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:12:03 pm

Hi Eric,
You didn't give me a chance! :shock:

As I recall latest estimates suggest the eye can detect around 16 million shades/tones of colour.

And many stamp collectors (as they are mostly men) have a hard time telling Crimson from Vermilion from Red from Red-Brown etc as about 1 in 10 has a colour deficiency! :shock:

And I assume your question was more how many can you see, perhaps even if you don't know your seeing one unless your trying to compare 2 tones of the same colour, not how many can you name!
Your eyes are amazing cameras to the world. Nothing made comes close.

Thus many arguements over the common question "what shade is that stamp"?

As an example to: look at your Avatar... How many shades/tones can you see, even though you know its just one colour of ink used?

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:38:08 pm

One tip Margo and I found when running the Stamp Trivia quizzes here was that to save later argy bargy the questions needed to be SUPER SPECIFIC.

"When could you first use a stamp impression to pay postage"

For instance, the answer is not 1840. (It is in fact New South Wales!)

"When was the first adhesive postage stamp issued"

IS 1840 .... and so on.

So Erik

"1. Stoke-on-Trent is home to what famous Briton?"

Does not mention stamps at all. If you meant the question to have a stamp slant, you must say so!

If someone answered with Tony Blair or Elton John or David Beckham -- they'd be correct if they were born, or now lived, there. :lol:

jugoslavija_post · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 12:46:31 pm

Whoops, I forgot to add the "stamp" part. :oops:

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 13:36:24 pm

Which country in Europe is not only landlocked, but every country that borders it is also landlocked?

Likewise, which country in Asia? Answer may be controversial.

MargoZ · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 13:44:31 pm

Slovakia?

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 13:57:12 pm

Slovakia borders Poland which is not landlocked.

nigelc · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 13:59:43 pm

1. Liechtenstein

2. Uzbekistan? (if you ignore the Caspian Sea)

Global Administrator · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 14:02:05 pm

Without looking at a map and cheating, I've driven into Liechtenstein from Germany IIRC, which is not land locked.

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sat Jan 23, 2010 14:04:34 pm

Correct on both counts. The controversy is whether the Caspian Sea is still considered landlocked.

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 07:58:18 am

What is the 4-letter capitol of a 4-letter African country?

iomoon · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 08:04:21 am

Lome, Togo.

Diver Pete · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 08:06:04 am

jugoslavija_post wrote:

Diver Pete wrote:

traralgon3844 wrote:

2. Which former Australian first lady was once an Alitalia flight attendant?

Wasn't that Annita Keating - Paul Keatings' wife?

Nope, to everyone.

Eric, if it wasn't Annita Keating, who was it then?

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 08:08:48 am

Quote:

Lome, Togo.

Obviously correct!

maptrekker · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 08:15:49 am

Which African capital is the same name as the country?


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