Are You a Genius? VI Trivia Quiz

Answer: Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse, found within the constellation Orion, is the largest star that human beings can see unaided. A red supergiant, Betelgeuse fluctuates in size, sometimes expanding, sometimes deflating. At its most expansive point, Betelgeuse would swallow the planet Jupiter if centered at the sun's position. Let's be thankful that we don't call Betelgeuse our sun! (Note: In brightness, the sun would be the #1, obviously...and then Sirius!)

Answer: philosophy

As is obvious to many of you, the term 'philosophy' is from the ancient Greek and means 'lover of wisdom'. Only a true philosopher could have spelled the answer correctly...

Answer: Henrik Ibsen

Ibsen was a famed playwright from Norway, perhaps best known for his play called 'A Doll's House'. August Strindberg, a playwright from Sweden, wrote 'Miss Julie', among other works. Said Ibsen about Strindberg, "He is my mortal enemy and shall hang there and watch while I write." Now that's either pure hate or secret admiration...or maybe a bit of both!

Answer: Agamemnon

Schliemann, a German explorer and archaeologist, led expeditions which located Troy and rediscovered the ancient Mycenaean culture in Greece, so he could afford to be eccentric. Of course his claim that the death-mask of Agamemnon, an ancient Greek king, had been located, proved to be false...but lets allow for some frivolity here.

Answer: Niobium

Niobium was discovered in 1801 by Charles Hatchett, who named it Columbium, after the European 'discoverer' of the New World. The element was alternatively named Niobium, after the daughter of Tantalus of Greek myth, when it was thought to be a different element from the one Hatchett had identified.

After some 100 years of controversy, the name Niobium was officially adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, though grudgingly by many chemists. There are still some holdouts for the name Columbium, I am told.

Answer: Red-nostriled wise deer

Of course we know that no such creature exists...or do we? To review: ruber = red, naris = nostril, sophos = wise, elaphus = deer. I got the idea for this via the San Diego Zoo website, you can try creating your own crazy beasts by going here: http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wildideas/kids/readaboutit_scinames_proj.html...try it with your kids (or try it, if you're a kid...even at heart).

Answer: Barcelona

Amsterdam, Venice and St. Petersburg are all well known for the numerous canals that cut their way through those gorgeous cities. Don't plan for a canal cruise if you travel to Barcelona, unless it's a cruise from Barcelona to Panama.

Answer: Ellesmere

Ellesmere Island is known as Quttinirpaaq in the Inuit language, and contains the northernmost point of land in Canada. Aside from being Canada's third largest island, Ellesmere is also the world's tenth largest island (75,800 sq mi/196,000 sq km).

Answer: New U.S. states

In 1784 Thomas Jefferson became part of a committee responsible for subdividing and naming the newly acquired western territories of the nascent United States. Combining Greek words with Native American place names, his committee came up with these crazy gems. 'Washington' was also proposed as one of the states, but all of the names were rejected by Congress...they were too weird (guess 'Washington' wasn't so weird though, it's now the name for the 42nd U.S. state.)

Answer: False

I thought I'd try to trick some of you...hope not too many! Of course, fellow NATO countries the United States and Canada are both located in North America, which has certainly never been accused of being part of Europe. Turkey is located in Asia, for the most part, though a small portion of the country lies in southeastern Europe. I hope you enjoyed this latest installment, thank you for playing...give my other mixed quizzes a try if you enjoyed this one!