The Color Makes a Difference Trivia Quiz

Answer: Red

Most naturally occurring diamonds are some shade of yellow or brown. Even so-called colorless gem-quality diamonds usually have a slight tinge of yellow. Truly colorless diamonds are extremely rare. Colored stones are known as "fancy diamonds." The deeper the color saturation, the more prized and valuable the stone.

The rarest diamond color of all is red. The world's largest cut red diamond, the Moussaieff Red Diamond, weighs a mere 5.11 carats. When buying colored diamonds, it is very important that the color be natural. Scientists have developed a variety of techniques to change the color of low-grade diamonds by exposing them to heat and radiation. Stones which have been color enhanced artificially are much less valuable than natural fancy diamonds.

Answer: False

Although this idea has been around for decades, according to Snopes.com, there is no truth to it. It's also not true that red cars get stolen more often; in fact, red cars are among the least popular colors with car thieves, probably because the color makes them conspicuous and easy to spot.

Answer: Acquanetta

For some reason, I find this woman's story to be fascinating. She was born Mildred Davenport on July 17, 1921, in Newberry, South Carolina. Mildred was very light-skinned - and very beautiful. After high school, she moved to New York City where she pretended to be an immigrant from Venezuela, even affecting a slight accent to make her story more believable. She was soon signed by the John Robert Powers Model Agency. She eventually met a press agent for Universal Studios, who took her to Hollywood for a screen test.

Universal executives were wowed by her sultry good looks, and immediately signed her to a contract. Problems developed, however, when she could not produce the needed documentation to join the Screen Actors Guild. Undaunted, Mildred made up a story that she was born on an Arapaho Indian reservation in Wyoming, and that her parents had died when she was two years old. Her real name, she said, was Burnu Acquanetta. Somehow she managed to convince the powers that be that she was telling the truth, and in 1942 she appeared in her first film, "Arabian Nights." Studio executives dropped the Burnu from her name, and she was billed simply as Acquanetta. She was also billed as "the Venezuelan Volcano."

Acquanetta never became a major star, but she did appear in ten films for Universal between 1942 and 1951. Somehow she managed to keep up the pretense that she was native American, even though her friends back East knew who she was, and she was featured on the cover of the February 14, 1942 issue of "Jet" magazine!

Mildred eventually retired from show business and married a car dealer in 1953 (she made TV commercials for his business). She passed away on August 16, 2004, and the true story of her background did not become known until after her death.

Answer: White

After each vote, the cardinals' ballots are burned; white smoke means a new Pope has been elected; black smoke means the Cardinals have failed to agree on a candidate. In olden days, straw was mixed with the paper ballots to create black smoke. It was often difficult to tell if the smoke was supposed to be black or white, so nowadays special chemicals are added to the burning ballots to make sure the smoke is the right color.

Answer: Purple

In Europe, the color purple has always been associated with royalty and the ruling class, and its use was regulated by law in many countries for centuries. One reason for this was that purple dye was notoriously expensive compared to dyes of other colors. England passed its first laws regulating what could and could not be worn in the 14th century, and kept passing them at regular intervals in a vain attempt to keep the lower classes in their place. These laws were called "sumptuary laws."

The Sumptuary Law of June 15, 1574 was incredibly detailed. Under it, only members of the royal family, dukes, marquises, and earls were allowed to wear clothing of the color purple (Knights of the Garter were allowed purple mantles). Other colors, such as crimson and indigo, were also regulated, as were various fabrics and furs. No silk gowns for a wealthy merchant's wife! Colors allowed for the common people included brown, beige, yellow, orange, russet, green, grey and blue (not the deep rich indigo, but dyed with woad). Their clothes were supposed to be made of wool, but they were allowed to use small amounts of silk or velvet on buttons and facings.

Sumptuary laws had two purposes: one was to distinguish between the various social classes, but the second, and perhaps more important reason, was economic. The silks, velvets, and brocades used to make fancy clothing were imported, and their cost was a significant drain on England's balance of payments. Requiring commoners to wear clothing made of wool was one method to keep demand for English wool high, and to keep precious gold and silver from leaving the country.

Violation of the various sumptuary laws carried high penalties. In the case of the 1574 law, a violator could be fined 3 shillings fourpence a day (a large sum at the time), and be imprisoned for three months. In actuality, these laws were almost impossible to enforce, as no one seems to have paid much attention to them. In 1604, King James I gave up and repealed all of the sumptuary laws on the books.

Answer: No

NASCAR and Formula 1 use different flags. Some of the flags are the same; for example, both circuits use a checkered black and white flag to indicate the end of the race, a yellow flag for caution, etc. But a white flag in NASCAR is used to indicate the final lap of the race, whereas it is a caution flag (slow vehicle) in Formula 1. Formula 1 racing uses more kinds of flags than NASCAR.

Answer: Green

A roulette wheel has red and black numbers ranging from 1 through 36. A European roulette wheel also has a green "0," and when the ball lands in this space, players lose their bets on the outside of the playing field, such as red/black, odd/even, etc. An American roulette wheel has two green spaces: "0" and "00." The European wheel obviously offers better odds to the players, so if you are going to play roulette, look for one with a single green number.

Answer: Snowball would not be allowed to compete

Each breed of dog has a list of colors, and color combinations, that are acceptable in the show ring. The Cocker Spaniel has 20 different colors that are acceptable, but white isn't one of them (combinations of white with another color, such as red and white, black and white, and buff and white are okay). Poor Snowball may be the world's most beautiful Cocker Spaniel, and perfect in every other way, but she would be a pariah in the show ring.

Answer: Purple

Many countries use different colors for the various denominations of their currency. This is one way to tell the difference between the values at a glance. Purple is the color of the 500 euro note, the highest denomination produced. Red is for the 10 euro, blue for 20 euro, and orange for 50 euro.

Answer: Estonia

An astonishing 98% of Estonians have blue eyes. Blue eyes are believed to have resulted from a random genetic mutation that occurred between 10,000 to 6,000 years ago, which means that all blue-eyed people are related! Blue eyes are most common in northern and western Europe, especially in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries.

Despite numerous studies, there is no proof that blue eyes offer any real advantages over brown eyes - blue-eyed people may have some slight edge in color perception, and see better in low-light conditions - so many scientists believe that the reason that this particular mutation spread so rapidly is that primitive humans found that blue-eyed people made more attractive mates. Fortunately, if you don't like your eye color, you can change it by wearing specially-made contact lenses.