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Cause and Effect Trivia Quiz

The cause: Someone submitted this title as an Author Challenge. The effect? This quiz! All questions relate to the theme, but some in unexpected ways. Keep an open mind! Note: Hopefully "interesting information" will provide additional insight.

A multiple-choice quiz by Tchochkekop. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
Tchochkekop

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
318,614

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
502

Awards
Top 35% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. Any quiz on cause and effect must include Newton's Third Law of Motion: "For every action there is an equal and opposite..." what? Hint

Activity

Action

Reaction

Inaction

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Question 2 of 10

2. Normally, we think of a cause producing an effect. Is it possible for one cause to have many effects, or one effect to come from many causes? Hint

No - in referring to "cause and effect", there is, by definition, a one-to-one relationship either way

No - one cause may have many effects, but a given effect can have one and only one cause

Yes - in either case

No - one effect can follow from many causes, but a given cause can have one and only one effect

3. A famous example of cause and effect is "the butterfly effect." This states that a butterfly moving its wings in Brazil can, through a long sequence of related events, cause thunderstorms in Moscow. Which theory is the butterfly effect an example of? Hint

Theory of evolution

Effectence theory

Chaos theory

Theory of relativity

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Question 4 of 10

4. Episode 18 of season 5 of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" is one of the highest rated, but it's kind of repetitive. The USS Enterprise keeps colliding with the USS Bozeman over and over again because they're stuck in a time warp. Every time it's destroyed, it goes back in time, only to be destroyed again, until Data figures out a way to break the cycle (based on the number 3). What's the name of this episode? Hint

Let's do the Time Warp, Again

Cause and Effect

Number Three for Data

Third Time's a Charm

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Question 5 of 10

5. It has been shown, with formal, statistical significance, that the number of people treated for sunburn on Coney Island (a beach in New York) is directly related to the number of ice cream cones sold there. Therefore, we can state that ice cream cones cause sunburn. What's wrong with this proof? Hint

Correlation does not imply causality.

There's nothing wrong - it has been proven statistically.

Actually, it's the other way around. Sunburned people buy more ice cream to put on their skin.

The two variables have nothing at all to do with each other.

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Question 6 of 10

6. Yes, this quiz is on cause and effect, but let's focus just on "cause" here. You may think this quiz on cause and effect is for the birds. If you wanted to discuss a quiz on cause and effect *with* the birds, however, which birds would you discuss it with? Hint: keep an open, homophonic mind! Hint

Crows

Penguins

Eagles

Roadrunners

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Question 7 of 10

7. Now let's focus just on "effect". Many people confuse the words "effect" and "affect", but they mean different things. Which sentence(s) below (beginning with "Parents") is(are) correct? Think carefully! Hint

Parents affect children.

Neither is correct as written.

Parents effect children.

They are both correct.

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Question 8 of 10

8. Suppose A causes B, and B causes A. If either one occurs, would the chain ever stop? Example: A generator and a motor are basically the same. Connect electricity to a motor's terminals (cause), and you get mechanical motion or rotation (effect). Turn the motor shaft manually, and you produce electricity at the terminals. (This is true, not a trick!) Now, what if you take two "motors/generators", connect the terminals together, and give the shaft a manual turn? One produces electricity, which powers the other, which produces electricity to power the first, etc. Presto - a perpetual motion machine! Will this work? Hint

Yes - it actually does work, but is not practical because so little energy is produced

No - conversion of energy is not lossless

Yes - but if you "siphon" off any energy to use it, the process stops

No - It would work for a short time until the voltage increased to the point that the motors would burn out

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Question 9 of 10

9. Another question on "A causes B, and B causes A." Some nightlights have electric eyes to turn them on when the room gets dark. Normally, they don't provide enough light to turn themselves off. Suppose you set up a mirror to reflect the light directly into the sensor, so there's enough to turn the light off. Now it's dark, so it turns back on, etc. What is most likely to happen? Hint

The light operates, but at a low setting

There is delay in the circuit so the light will operate once, and not again for several hours

The light blinks on and off very slowly

Nothing - the light cannot possibly cause the sensor to turn itself off

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Question 10 of 10

10. One famous problem involving cause and effect is the grandfather paradox (no, I'm not going to tell you what it is - that would be too easy!). What has the grandfather paradox frequently been used to try to disprove the possibility of? Hint

Immortality

Time travel

Travel faster than light speed

Generational immutability

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Any quiz on cause and effect must include Newton's Third Law of Motion: "For every action there is an equal and opposite..." what?

Answer: Reaction

While many people know this rule, not everyone realizes that it refers to two different objects. When you hit a ball with a bat, momentum is transferred from the bat to the ball (action). Equal momentum is also transferred from the ball to the bat (reaction), but the difference in mass doesn't make that obvious. That relates to Newton's second law, which we're not talking about here.

2. Normally, we think of a cause producing an effect. Is it possible for one cause to have many effects, or one effect to come from many causes?

Answer: Yes - in either case

Of course there's a one-to-many relationship both ways! Just come up with some examples. If my house burns down (because you're upset with this quiz, perhaps?), the effects are that I'm homeless, I lose possessions, my neighbors are upset, etc. Good earnings reports, lowered unemployment, or the end of a war are all causes that might have the effect of the stock market going up. "Cause and effect" certainly does not have to be one-to-one.

Answer: Chaos theory

Simply put (very simply!), chaos theory says that the output of a system can be very dependent on the starting point of the system. A small difference in the beginning can have a dramatic effect on the outcome. For example, hold the shell of a nut against a fixed point (the corner of a cabinet will do nicely). Drop it, and note where it comes to rest. Do it again. And again. Doesn't land in the same place every time, does it? No, it's not due to air currents in the room.

It's because even a very slight change in the initial position of the shell causes much greater differences in the result. That's chaos theory in a nutshell!

Answer: Cause and Effect

Well, they'd all be good names, except for that "Time Warp" one, because that's from the "Rocky Horror Picture Show." So how are you supposed to know that "Cause and Effect" was the right answer? What's the name and theme of this quiz, again?

Answer: Correlation does not imply causality.

Just because two events can be statistically correlated, that does not mean that one is the cause of the other. It may be that the two events are only coincidentally related, but it's more often the case that they are both related to a third event. In our example, sunburn cases and ice cream sales are definitely linked, but by a third condition - weather. On hot, sunny days, more people come to Coney Island. That increases both the number of sunburn cases and ice cream sales.

Answer: Crows

This is obvious - crows, of course! Why? Crows always talk about caws. (They're not as keen on effect.) "Cause" and "caws" are homophones.

Answer: They are both correct.

While "affect" is usually used as a verb (to act upon), it can also be a noun (outward appearance, feeling, emotion). While "effect" is usually a noun (result of an action, or cause), it can also be a verb (to bring into existence, as in, "This law will effect change in the country."). Thus, both sentences are correct. Parents affect the way their children grow up, but the parents also effect children, by "creating" them in the first place.

Not a common usage, but perfectly valid.

Answer: No - conversion of energy is not lossless

Sorry, this doesn't work, because of energy loss. If you put 100 Watts of mechanical energy in, you might get 80W of electricity. That results in 64W of mechanical energy in the other motor, producing 51W of electricity, etc. Very quickly, you have no energy, so everything stops. Where does it go? Energy is lost primarily through heat and friction.

Answer: The light operates, but at a low setting

Depending on the delay in the circuitry, it's possible that the light could blink at an extremely high rate. More commonly, however, the light will try to turn itself off as soon as it's bright enough, but as it darkens, it turns back on. The result is that the light operates at reduced brightness - just at the sensor's threshold. Move the mirror back and forth to change the amount of light reaching the sensor, and you can change how bright the light is. Try it!

Answer: Time travel

The grandfather paradox involves traveling back through time to a point before one of your parents was born, and killing your grandfather. It's a paradox, because if you killed your grandfather, your parent would never have been born and, therefore, most likely, neither would you. If you had not been born, you could not have traveled back in time and killed your grandfather. (Therefore, you might have been born, in which case...) The "most likely" in the earlier sentence is not for humor (well, not just), because a disproof of this paradox says that you might have been born to someone else, etc.

At any rate, time travel messes with the whole "effect follows cause" foundation.

Source: Author Tchochkekop

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LeoDaVinci before going online.
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