The Art of Being Wrong

15 Points Per Correct Answer - No time limit  

1. Lord Kelvin, as President of the Royal Society, was well placed to have his finger on the pulse of the world of scientific advancement. Which of the following predictions did he make? “Heavier than air flying machines are impossible” “X-rays will prove to be a hoax” “Radio has no future” All of these

2. The scientific arena consistently proves to be a rich seam of magnificent predictions. However, it's a fine thing when the inventors themselves completely fail to understand the future of their own products. Which master of the computing world purportedly uttered the prescient words "No one will need more than 637kb of memory for a personal computer. 640K ought to be enough for anybody"? Steve Jobs Bill Gates Alan Turing Charles Babbage

3. I'm sure that many of us had their fair share of dire predictions from our schoolteachers about where our lives were heading, but none surely could have got it so wrong as the teacher who decided to address Hermann Einstein with his opinion about his son, Albert. What was his considered opinion of the boy's future? "If he doesn't buck up his ideas he'll find himself in a situation of the utmost gravity." "It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything." "He's the inventive kind so I think he might end up working in the patent office" "He's an intelligent boy but any success he may have will be relative"

4. Literature has always been an arena rife with jealousy. However, even this may not excuse the folly of the statement "Shakespeare's name, you may depend on it, stands absurdly too high and will go down" uttered by which renowned English poet in 1814? John Keats Alfred Lord Tennyson Lord Byron William Wordsworth

5. The job of a news reporter is, unsurprisingly, to report news. Sometimes, however, deadlines force a reporter's hand and he or she tries to predict instead, with amusing levels of accuracy. Perhaps the most famous instance was the headline of "The Chicago Daily Tribune" in the early edition of November 3, 1948 regarding the result of the US election. What was the headline? Stevenson defeats Eisenhower Aliens take Illinois tonight Dewey defeats Truman Nixon defeats Kennedy

6. "Guitar groups are on the way out" was given as the reason for the rejection of which band by Decca Records in 1962? The Dave Clark Five The Rolling Stones The Beatles The Kinks

7. After declining the leading role in which movie did Gary Cooper comment that it "is going to be the biggest flop in the history of Hollywood. I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper"? Gone With the Wind Test Pilot Mogambo Manhattan Melodrama

8. "It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister." Which future world leader managed to contradict her own statement in 1979, a mere ten years after it was made? Indira Gandhi Edith Cresson Jenny Shipley Margaret Thatcher

9. "The Olympic Games can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby". So asserted the mayor of which city in 1976? Munich Mumbai Moscow Montreal

10. General John Sedgwick looked out over the parapet at enemy lines during the Battle of Spotsylvania in 1864 and uttered a pronouncement that would bring him his own particular place in history and in this quiz. "I'm ashamed of you, dodging that way," he began. How did he finish? "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" "You should be dodging THIS way" "I've seen hippos with better rhythm" "This is a battle we cannot lose"