Eight the Hard Way Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sextilis

The early Julian calendar commenced in March, which we now see as the third month of the year, and had ten months. A reform was proposed by Julius Caesar in 46BC, which added two months to the calendar and pushed Quintilis (meaning five/fifth) and Sextilis (six/sixth) into becoming the seventh and eighth months respectively. To remove the confusion that this would cause, Quintilis was named July, after Julius Caesar, and Sextilis became Augustus (August) in honor of the first Roman emperor, Augustus.

Answer: Victory at the Battle of New Orleans

This was a short-lived holiday that was instituted by President Andrew Jackson the moment he was elected in 1828 and ceased in 1861 at the time of the Civil War. It is a largely forgotten holiday that was celebrated on the 8th of January each year as a tribute toward the War of 1812.

An article published in The Bryan (Ohio) Times in 2005, indicated that the Battle of New Orleans was seen as a major turning point in the history of the United States. Many viewed this victory, which a great number of New Orleanians didn't realize had occurred, as the country's second independence and that the celebrations for this event had only been surpassed by those of the Fourth of July.

(Footnote) Johnny Horton had a brief career but squeezed a string of hits in during that time. His first number one hit in the US was "The Battle of New Orleans" in 1959, which he followed up with "Sink the Bismarck" and "North to Alaska" in 1960.

Answer: True

There's a chance that you thought that the term should be a byte. And it is true that a byte "can" have eight bits and, with a significant number of today's products, it is overwhelming linked with that size. However, the term byte is platform dependent and, as a result, can have a variety of storage sizes. The two terms can be used synonymously, however, those that are working with certain "legacy" systems will opt for using octet to avoid any ambiguity.

Answer: Automobile released by the Ford Motor Company

Ford assembled three generations of the Mercury Eight between 1939 and 1951. The Eight would be replaced by the Monterey, which had previously been launched in 1950. The vehicle, which came with a full range of body styles - coupes, sedans, convertibles, and station wagons, was created to fill a mid priced gap that Ford felt they had in the market. Accordingly, the first generation models were priced at $946 (US), much higher than the Ford V-8 but significantly less than the Lincoln-Zephyr.

The first generation Mercury, produced between 1939 and 1941, came with its own body design. The second generation (1941-48) would utilize an adaptation of a Ford body, while the third (and final), which was produced between 1948 and 1951, shared a body design with the Lincoln. The latter generation of vehicles would prove to be extremely popular with car customizers and modelers.

Answer: Hungary

This was a group of avant-garde artists, linked to the Post-Impressionist movement, that operated around Budapest during the above-named period. They produced just three exhibitions but their influence went beyond mere paintings. Whilst their art led to the rise in Modernism in Hungarian art, they were also responsible for creating gatherings and conferences that would feature, and promote a rise in standards in, both Hungarian literature and music.

The eight artists that made up this group were Robert Bereny, Dezso Czigany, Bela Czobel, Karoly Kernstok, Odon Marffy, Dezso Orban, Bertalan Por and Lajos Tihanyi.

(Footnote 1) This group is not to be confused with the Ashcan School Eight, a group of American realist painters that formed in New York City in 1908.
(Footnote 2) The clue in the question was esurient, which means hungry.

Answer: Physics

The Eightfold Way was a system devised American physicist Murray Gell-Martin and Israeli physicist Yuval Ne'eman in 1961 as a means of classifying subatomic particles in accordance with their symmetrical qualities. The members in each of these groups could total 1, 8 (the most frequent), 10 or 27. Buddhism does play a role here as the name is a play on the Buddhist Eightfold Path (correctly called the Noble Eightfold Path) and the above-named frequency of eight.

One of the immediate benefits of the system is that it led to the discovery the Omega-Minus baryon at Brookhaven in 1964, which was considered an incredible achievement for the quark model of baryons. The identification that it existed, its mass, and its decay model, all stemmed from the use of the Eightfold Way.

Answer: Rowing

8+ is an abbreviation for an "eight", which is a racing shell used in competitive rowing, and is one of the classes recognized by the International Rowing Federation. It has been incorporated as an event in the Summer Olympic Games since 1900.

The shell accommodates eight rowers, who each are provided with a single oar, and a coxswain, or cox, (the + in the abbreviation), who is responsible for steering the boat and coordinating the rowers. The cox sits in the stern of the boat and faces the rowers. The rowers are aligned down the centre of the shell with their oars placed, alternatively, on the port and starboard sides. Those on the port side (on the rower's right hand side) are traditionally called "the stroke" side and those on starboard are called the "bow side".

There are shells that provide two oars for rowers. These, however, are not called an eight, but an octuple shell.

Answer: A bet in the dice game Craps

The "hard way" in craps is betting on rolling a double. In the case of an "eight the hard way" you are banking on getting that figure by rolling two fours. This is compared to the alternative of rolling a 6 and a 2, or a 5 and a 3. The odds of nailing a double four are one in 36.

The hard way bet is a multi-roll wager. This means that you can keep rolling until either your number shows up or the seven shows up. If you roll the seven, I'm sorry to say, you lose the bet. That said, it is theoretically possible for you to keep rolling all night, but this is highly unlikely. The odds, as usual, are in favour of the house.

(Footnote) If you selected the converted rugby try... that's a seven, you lose. A try in rugby union is worth five points and the conversion adds an extra two points to the title.

Answer: Gattaca

Hawke is Vincent Freeman who wants nothing more than to travel into space; however, his dreams are shattered when he is informed that his genetic make-up is not suitable, that he belongs to an underclass, only suited to carrying out menial jobs. Freeman identifies Jerome Morrow, a perfect genetic specimen, who has been paralyzed as the result of a car accident, and assumes his identity. He studies methods to deceive urine sample and DNA testing and is on the verge of achieving his dream when a murder investigation is set to send his plans awry.

The film marked the feature directorial debut for Andrew Niccol and was also graced with the acting talents of Jude Law, Ernest Borgnine, Gore Vidal and Alan Arkin. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction.

Answer: Ovid

A younger contemporary of both Virgil and Horace, Ovid is considered one of the three classical poets of Latin literature. Born 43 BC, he lived until either 17 or 18 AD, and his early works bore themes of eroticism, women's beauty and the art of love.

By 8 AD he was at the height of his popularity and had just completed his most ambitious work "Metamorphoses", a 15 book epic that chronicled the history of the world, right up to the point of the deification of Julius Caesar. This was also the year that Ovid was exiled to Tomis, a region in Romania, by the Black Sea. The edict was delivered by the Emperor Augustus, himself, without discussion with the Senate or any of Rome's judges. As to why he was exiled, it is not known. Augustus never revealed it, nor did Ovid. The only reveal came from a piece of poetry from Ovid where he indicated that it arose from "a poem and a mistake" and that "his crime was worse than murder".