Fabulous Forty Trivia Quiz

Answer: Winks

"So just how long is a wink?" I hear you asking. Good question. How long does it take you to wink? It is a pretty ambiguous unit of measurement, but on the order of a second. Forty of them is a short sleep, indeed.

The origins of this phrase are (as is so often the case, because multiple plausible suggestions arise in different areas where a common phrase is used) somewhat vague, but it is often attributed to Dr William Kitchiner, who recommended the practice in his 1821 book 'The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life.' Dr Kitchiner may have been making a playful use of the then-common phrase nine winks, a really short sleeping spell, because he was recommending a longer rest, and reclining properly. Forty minutes, rather than the time it takes to wink 40 times, would make a reasonable nap.

Answer: False

It sort of looks right, but fortnight is an abbreviated reference to fourteen nights, so a fortnight is two weeks. Not all English-speaking countries use the term as a matter of course, and alternative terms (such as biweekly pay instead of fortnightly pay) are used.

In Welsh, the term used translates to 15 nights - with a night before and one after, analagous to their use of a word meaning eight nights to describe a week. A number of other languages have similar terms, while some describe the period of time as half a month. Now, how long do you reckon a sennight is?

Answer: Protons

While a neutral atom has 40 electrons, they are not in the nucleus. Zirconium has several naturally-occurring isotopes, with masses between 90 and 96 atomic mass units, meaning there are between 50 and 56 neutrons in the nucleus. Positrons are particles with the same mass as electrons, but carrying a positive charge.

Their existence was first predicted by Paul Dirac, as a possible explanation for a seemingly-anomalous solution to the equation he developed to explain the Zeeman effect. (Sorry, you'll have to go look that up for yourself. We have a quiz to play here.) It was first discovered in 1932 by Carl David Anderson, an accomplishment for which he received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics. Also sometimes called an anti-electron, it was the first, but far from the last, particle of anti-matter to be identified.

Answer: Three

It is thought that the original scoring was 15, 30, 45, game - four equally-spaced points if you consider them to be placed, for example, around the face of a clock. Linguistic laziness (a phrase I love!) led to the contraction from 45 to 40. If both players have won three points, it is equivalent to 40-40, but in English that score is reported as deuce. (In French, as I learned from watching the French Open on television, it is announced to be 40-all, just as 30-30 is 30-all, when each player has scored three points.) Since the standard rules require that a player win with a margin of two points, from 40-40 the next point is not game for the player who scores, it is called advantage. If they win while having advantage, they win the game, If their opponent scores next, the score reverts to deuce (and in French, "égalité" or equality), and play continues until someone manages to win two points in a row.

Answer: Water Displacement

The Rocket Chemical Company (now officially the WD-40 Company) devoted a lot of research time and money to the development of a hydrocarbon spray that would protect the outside of rockets from rusting. Apparently the fortieth effort was successful! Packaging it in an aerosol can allowed them to flog it to the general public, not just the aviation industry, and it became a household staple for freeing rusted screws, drying out wet distributor caps, and more. To avoid having to divulge the exact composition, it has never been patented, just kept as a trade secret.

Answer: False

According to Douglas Adams, it is 42 that is The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, as determined by the computer Deep Thought after seven million years. Now, what was that question? Apparently, the Earth was built to be used in computing that, but no result had been reached before it was destroyed by the Vogons to build an interstellar bypass.

Despite the fact that Adams said he just picked a relatively small and innocuous number to use, people have spent a lot of time searching for significant occurrences of the number 42.

Answer: Fahrenheit

The Fahrenheit scale was modestly named after himself by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, who developed the scale in the 18th century. A reproducible temperature scale has to have fixed temperatures which are easily replicated anywhere, so that thermometers can be calibrated to be making the same measurements. Fahrenheit modified an earlier scale proposed by Ole Roemer, and called the freezing temperature of water 32, while its boiling point 212 degrees. (There is a lot more precise specification of the circumstances for calibration, but this is the gist of it.) Anders Celsius chose to divide the difference between those two temperatures into 100 equal units (water freezes at 0 and boils at 100), which is why his scale is often called the centigrade scale. In some scientific applications, it is more relevant to use for zero the theoretical temperature at which all atomic motion ceases, called absolute zero. The Kelvin scale uses degrees the size of the Celsius scale, but with 0 at -273.15 degrees Celsius. The Rankine scale used Fahrenheit degrees, with 0 at -459. 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

To convert temperatures in Fahrenheit into temperatures in Celsius, you subtract 32 (to get the zero points lined up) then multiply by 5/9 (to account for the different size of a degree). When you do this for -40 degrees, the result is -40 - the two scales give the same number at that point.

Answer: Quarantine

In an attempt to prevent the wholesale arrival of sick seamen to spread bubonic and/or pneumonic plague throughout the city, the Venetians decreed that ships had to stay at anchor in the lagoon and keep their crews on board for forty days before they could debark.

This was termed 'quarantena', derived from 'quarenta giorni', literally meaning forty days. This presumably provided time to make sure nobody who seemed healthy was actually about to become ill and liable to spread the disease. If they were still healthy after 40 days, they could be presumed safe, and allowed to enter the city.

Other cities instituted similar periods of isolation before new arrivals could enter.

Answer: February 9

January has 31 days, so another 9 days of February are needed to reach the fortieth day. It is necessary to specify the Gregorian calendar, because other cultures have years which start on different dates, some of them moving around in relation to the Gregorian calendar.

The Solar Hijri calendar used in Afghanistan, for example, has New Year's Day on the day of the vernal equinox (March 21 or so). The first month, Hamal, has 31 days, so the 40th day is 9 Sawr, which corresponds roughly to April 30.

Answer: 30

The title of this show refers to the address of the television studio which is its setting, 30 Rockefeller Plaza in NYC, where 'Saturday Night Live' (a partial inspiration for the show) originates. '30 Rock', which originally aired from 2006 to 2013, starred Tina Fey as Liz Lemon, head writer for a sketch comedy series featuring the erratic Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). Alec Baldwin played Jack Donaghy, the network executive who started as the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming for General Electric, and worked his way up the corporate ladder to the position of the company's president and chairman.