FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Quiz about Strange Facts You Dont Need to Know
Quiz about Strange Facts You Dont Need to Know

Strange Facts You Don't Need to Know Quiz


Isn't it strange how offbeat facts stay in your brain, probably taking up space that could be put to better use? Here are ten questions about things you don't need to know, but are fun to know, especially if you are a trivia buff.

A multiple-choice quiz by daver852. Estimated time: 6 mins.
  1. Home
  2. »
  3. Quizzes
  4. »
  5. General Knowledge Trivia
  6. »
  7. Mixed 10 Questions
  8. »
  9. 10 Qn Mix For Experts C

Author
daver852
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
371,004
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Very Difficult
Avg Score
4 / 10
Plays
792
Last 3 plays: Guest 73 (3/10), Guest 184 (7/10), sw11 (10/10).
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Which American president is associated with the "Corrupt Bargain"? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Who was the tallest King of England? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. What is a "gandy dancer"? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. Many people believe that star athletes are overpaid. How much did Ryan Howard, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, earn each time he batted during 2014? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The Black Prince's Ruby is one of the oldest and most famous of the British Crown Jewels. What is true about it? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. Why do astronomers find the star 18 Scorpii fascinating? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. Who was the highest ranking United States military officer in WWII? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In 2010, the Obama administration loaned the Fisker Corporation $529 million to produce the Karma. What was the Karma? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. O. Henry's famous short story, "The Gift of the Magi," begins as follows: "One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies." Is there anything wrong with this statement?


Question 10 of 10
10. There is an old sea shanty, recorded by the Clancy Brothers, among others, called "The Holy Ground." In the lyrics, sailors voiced their hope that they would survive their voyage to see it one more time. What, exactly, was the "Holy Ground"? Hint



(Optional) Create a Free FunTrivia ID to save the points you are about to earn:

arrow Select a User ID:
arrow Choose a Password:
arrow Your Email:




Most Recent Scores
Mar 22 2024 : Guest 73: 3/10
Mar 15 2024 : Guest 184: 7/10
Mar 07 2024 : sw11: 10/10
Mar 06 2024 : Guest 73: 2/10
Feb 27 2024 : GoodwinPD: 10/10
Feb 22 2024 : Guest 175: 3/10
Feb 20 2024 : Guest 96: 2/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Which American president is associated with the "Corrupt Bargain"?

Answer: John Quincy Adams

The presidential election of 1824 was very unusual. The old Federalist Party had pretty much disappeared, leaving only the Democratic-Republican Party to contest the election. But this didn't mean there was only one candidate for president; in fact, there four major candidates, all of whom won electoral votes: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford.

Andrew Jackson won a plurality of both the popular vote and the electoral vote, but not a majority. This meant that the election would be decided by the House of Representatives, where each state delegation received one vote. Only the top three vote-getters in the general election were eligible to be considered, and Henry Clay, who finished fourth, threw his support to Adams. John Quincy Adams was elected on the first ballot, carrying 13 states, as opposed to seven for Jackson, and four for Crawford.

When Adams subsequently named Clay to be Secretary of State in his new administration, Jackson and his supporters were outraged, and claimed that Adams and Clay had struck a "corrupt bargain" whereby Clay became Adams' heir apparent. The scandal resulted in a splintering of the Democratic-Republican Party into the Democrats and Whigs. Jackson defeated Adams in their rematch in 1828.
2. Who was the tallest King of England?

Answer: Edward IV

Perhaps due to their habit of intermarrying with the French, British royalty have usually been a rather puny and unprepossessing lot. We know quite a bit about their physical characteristics, because almost all of them have been dug up and prodded about by scientists from time to time. Edward I (of "Braveheart" infamy) was a very tall man for his time; he stood 6'2" (188cm) tall. Henry VIII was a six-footer. Charles I first was a diminutive 5'4" (rather shorter after his head was lopped off).

The person who probably came closest to our image of what a king should look like was Edward IV. He was nearly 6'4" (193cm) tall, with long, golden hair, and was considered very handsome when he was young (by the time he died at age 50, he was so fat he could barely move).

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles are both of about average height, 5'4" and 5'9" respectively, but Prince William is a lofty 6'3" and Kate Middleton is 5'10", so future members of the royal family may be quite tall.
3. What is a "gandy dancer"?

Answer: A railroad worker

"Gandy dancer" is another name for a railroad section hand. Gandy dancers are responsible for maintaining a specific section of track. The origin of the term is unknown, although various theories have been put forth. My grandfather, Alonzo Smith, was a gandy dancer on the Illinois Central Railroad for 52 years.

He could bend a quarter between his thumb and forefinger the way some men bend a bottle cap. Gandy dancers tend to be a bit rowdy, and a section boss had to be tough and strong to keep his gandy dancers in line.
4. Many people believe that star athletes are overpaid. How much did Ryan Howard, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, earn each time he batted during 2014?

Answer: $43,936.73

Howard earned $25 million in 2014, and had 569 at bats. You do the math. Since he batted only .233 and struck out 190 times, some people might find his salary a bit excessive. Zack Greinke, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, earned $28 million in 2014, and started 32 games. That means he was paid $875,000 per start.
5. The Black Prince's Ruby is one of the oldest and most famous of the British Crown Jewels. What is true about it?

Answer: It isn't a ruby

The Black Prince's Ruby is set in the cross of the Imperial State Crown. It weighs 170 carats and is about the size of a chicken egg. It isn't a ruby, however, but a red spinel. In medieval times, it was difficult to distinguish between red spinels and rubies, so the name has stuck.

The jewel seems to have been acquired by Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of Edward III of England, while he was fighting in Spain near the end of the 14th century. Edward was known as "the Black Prince" for reasons that are not exactly clear; he may have worn black armor, or carried a black shield. At any rate, it is known that Henry V had the jewel pierced and attached to the helmet he wore at the Battle of Agincourt. Today a small ruby fills the hole that Henry V had drilled through it.

The Crown Jewels were destroyed by Oliver Cromwell during the period of the Commonwealth, but the Black Prince's Ruby was preserved and repurchased by Charles II after his restoration, and has been part of Crown Jewels ever since.
6. Why do astronomers find the star 18 Scorpii fascinating?

Answer: It is almost identical to the sun

18 Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpio, just bright enough to be seen by the naked eye on a dark night. What makes it special is that it is a star almost identical to our sun. Such stars are known as "solar twins." There are actually quite a few of them, but 18 Scorpii is the closest, a mere 45 light years from earth. 18 Scorpii is a type G2V star, like our sun, and is a solitary star, not part of a binary system, like most stars are. Its diameter is almost identical to that of the sun, its mass is about 2% more, and it generates about 6% more radiation than our star. The only major ways that 18 Scorpii varies from the sun is that it contains more heavy elements, and may be slightly younger.

There are actually stars that are even more like our sun than 18 Scorpii, but they are much farther away. 18 Scorpii is thought to be one of the stars most likely to harbor intelligent life in our neighborhood of the galaxy.
7. Who was the highest ranking United States military officer in WWII?

Answer: William D. Leahy

Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy outranked many of his more famous contemporaries because of his seniority. Leahy was the first U.S. naval officer ever to hold a five-star rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. Leahy had retired in 1939, but was recalled to serve as the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1942.

He was opposed to the use of the atomic bomb; he wrote: "We had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make wars in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children." Leahy retired again in 1949, and died ten years later.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
8. In 2010, the Obama administration loaned the Fisker Corporation $529 million to produce the Karma. What was the Karma?

Answer: A hybrid automobile

The Fisker Karma is my favorite example of why government and private enterprise don't mix. The premise sounded promising: Fisker, a company based in Anaheim, California, would produce an environmentally-friendly automobile that would create 250 jobs. Now most people would consider spending more than $2 million per job creation a bit much, but what the heck. The jobs presumably would come from sales, because the Karma was actually made in Finland.

Production began in 2011, and the accolades began rolling in immediately. "Time" magazine called the Karma one of "The 50 Best Inventions" of 2011. It also won "Automobile Magazine's" "2012 Design of the Year Award." The German car magazine "Auto Bild" named the Karma as the "Classic Car of the Future." And to top it all off, Britain's "Top Gear Magazine" christened the Karma "Luxury Car of The Year." So what could go wrong?

Well, to start with, the average Karma cost $103,000, so unless you were a millionaire, you couldn't afford to buy one. Secondly, while it boasted an impressive 52 miles per gallon (mpg) in electric mode, its cruising range was a mere 30 miles. That's not a typo. The Karma could only travel 30 miles in electric mode before it had to be recharged. And when operating on its gasoline engine, it got only around 20 mpg, making it one of the absolutely worst cars on the road for fuel efficiency. So much for "going green."

But there were other problems. The Karma broke down. A lot. When "Consumer Reports" tried to test the Karma, it broke down before they could get it out on the road. The magazine reported, "We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process." Needless to say, they did not name it as their "Car of the Year." After a few hundred Karmas had been delivered and sold, reports began rolling in of fires caused by a faulty battery design. In February, 2012 the U.S. government cut off further funding after only 1800 cars had been sold.

Fisker declared bankruptcy in November, 2013 and was purchased by a Chinese company in 2014. Each of the $103,000 Karmas had cost almost $660,000 to produce.
9. O. Henry's famous short story, "The Gift of the Magi," begins as follows: "One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies." Is there anything wrong with this statement?

Answer: No

Many people have pointed out that if you subtract 60 pennies from $1.87, you have $1.27 left over, and you can't make that sum using any combination current U.S. coins and currency, unless additional pennies are involved. Unknown to many people, however, is the fact that the United States issued three-cent coins until 1889, and these would still have been in circulation at the time the story was written in 1905. So Della could well have had $1.87 with sixty cents of it in pennies.
10. There is an old sea shanty, recorded by the Clancy Brothers, among others, called "The Holy Ground." In the lyrics, sailors voiced their hope that they would survive their voyage to see it one more time. What, exactly, was the "Holy Ground"?

Answer: A brothel

"Fare thee well, my lovely Dinah, a thousand times adieu.
We are bound away from the Holy Ground and the girls we love so true.
We'll sail the salt seas over and we'll return once more,
And still I live in hope to see the Holy Ground once more."

The use of the term "Holy Ground" to refer to a brothel or red light district dates back to the 18th century. Since this is an Irish song, it is believed to refer to an establishment in Cobh, or Queenstown, in County Cork. There was a also an area of New York City known as "the Holy Ground." The tradition of ladies of questionable virtue separating sailors and their money is an ancient one that continues to this day.
Source: Author daver852

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor trident before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.
Related Quizzes
1. The Estrogen Quiz Very Difficult
2. 10 Very Random and Insignificant Questions Very Difficult
3. Random Trivia Very Difficult
4. Trivial Trivia II Very Difficult
5. My Totally Useless Trivia Very Difficult
6. Top Of My Head 2 Very Difficult
7. General Trivia 2 Very Difficult
8. Tough General Knowledge Very Difficult
9. Weird Stuff That I Know Very Difficult
10. Some of This and That Very Difficult
11. Top Of My Head Trivia Very Difficult
12. A World of Useless Trivia Very Difficult

3/28/2024, Copyright 2024 FunTrivia, Inc. - Report an Error / Contact Us